I’ve had my tank set up with 9 kuhli loaches since November and everything has been fine until 3 days ago when I added neocardinia shrimp. On Friday I added a couple more live plants, cholla wood, some leaf litter, and 12 shrimp. I drip acclimated the shrimp for 2 hours but one died during acclimation, I think the water might have gotten too cold but I don’t know for sure what happened. The rest all seemed fine and have been eating and moving around the tank a lot since I added them.
Since then, around 4 of the loaches have been glass surfing like crazy. They normally glass surf occasionally, mostly at night, but these 4 have been doing it almost constantly, even when the light is on. I didn’t think much of it at first because it’s just something they do sometimes, but as time goes on it’s been really worrying me. I can tell all of them apart and it’s consistently the same 4, sometimes it’s only 1-3 but it’s usually all of them. The other loaches are acting normal.
The shrimp have seemed fine and have been active and eating just this afternoon, but when I checked on the tank a few hours after I found two of them dead out of nowhere. I don’t understand what happened because they were fine just earlier today. I tested the water and nothing stood out as abnormal. I immediately did a partial water change but I can’t figure out what’s going on 🙁
I don’t think they are molting, they aren’t moving at all and have just been laying on their sides since I found them.
Tank specs-
20 gallon planted tank with sand substrate, hang on back filter, rocks, and driftwood
Ammonia- 0ppm
Nitrite-0ppm
Nitrate-10-20ppm
pH- 7.6
High level ph- 7.6 I think? I find this one hard to read
Other things that have changed recently:
When I added the plants and shrimp I added a plastic plant that suctions to the glass below the filter output to reduce flow
Heater- my old heater was faulty and had to be set way higher than it was supposed to be in order for it to get to the temperature I wanted (76F) Yesterday it seemed like it wasn’t getting up to temperature but it has been kind of hard to tell because I lost my thermometer and only have one of the sticker ones to go off of. I bought a new heater earlier today and replaced it when I did the water change.
Thanks for any help
Posted by orilch
3 Comments
Lower the lights perhaps, they are generally nocturnal and bright sand can disturb them during the day. Mine love hiding in crevices and cracks and caves and I feed them towards the end of the day when I dim the lights further.
What’s your gh and kh? Also are you supplementing the shrimp with calcium sources?
A month ago, I made a few small changes to my tank. First, due to evaporation, I added a hood to the top. Then, a few days later, I added 2 new guppies and 2 new albino cories to my tank.
Well, my loaches decided that all hell was unleashed on them and they glass surfed for nearly a week. Crazy things. Now, they are just fine.
I think loaches are just crazy odd balls at times.