My zebra loach is breaking my heart and his nose!

Question
QUESTION: I was feeding the fish in my 25 gallon tank when we noticed that one of my zebra loaches was going crazy swimming erratically and bumping into solid objects, we tested the water and all was stable. I removed my loach and placed him in my empty but running 5 gallon only to have him continue this awful behavior on 2 separate occasions. We're guessing that he may have been bullied in the 25 as it is a community aquarium with a few danios and tetras, as well as another zebra loach. Why is he doing this and how do we make it stop? His nose is all red from hitting the sides of the tank.....Suggestions are welcome.

ANSWER: Hi Ali, sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I have had some personal matters.  I know how important this is to you, so again, I apologize.

I've been thinking about your problem.  I would tend to think that he is being bullied, or obviously at the very least something is upsetting him.  Ideally, these loaches should be kept (or are happiest) in groups of 5 or more, but at least he has a partner.  

Here are my thoughts:  Substrate.  What kind of substrate do you have?  These loaches seem to prefer a fine sandy substrate because gravel can actually "hurt" or harm their sensory barbel area. This could be upsetting him, but I cannot say for sure.  Hiding spots.  Do you have plenty of hiding places in the tank (i.e.  bogwood, caves, and plants?  These guys like to be able to "hide" and "get away" and will get upset if someone (some fish) is bothering them and they cannot get away or hide.  Obviously, his injuries are from being in a panic and hitting the sides as you said.  Bullies.  If/when you put him back in the tank, do it at a time that you can sit there and watch everyone for a while, and see if you can find out who is creating the problem (if it's anyone). Just watching them can give you your answers pretty quickly (but not all the time).  So I'd try this too.

Another thing is they need clean, well aerated water in order to thrive.  Therefore, as with any tank, regular weekly maintenance and partial water changes are a must.

Try these things and see what you can come up with.  In the meantime, if he cut his nose in any way, even with bruising, you want to watch for ANY signs of a secondary bacterial infection because of it.  You will pretty much be able to tell if there is anything going on.  There is a natural treatment that you can can use if necessary, called Melafix.  You can get it at most pet stores.

After you have had time to look in to everything above, get back to me and let me know what you come up with, and then I'd be happy to try to help you from there.  I will watch for any follow-up questions from you and get back to you ASAP.

I hope this helps.  Good luck!!!   ;o)

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Sorry it took some time to get back to you, unfortunately both loaches died during the night - we had performed a water change a couple of days earlier as we do every week (10-15%) and when we checked the PH we found a slight increase. The aquarium store where we purchased the two loaches informed us that our municipal water supply changes water chemistry frequently without warning, the owner's theory is that he died due to PH shock as loaches are extremely sensitive to changes in their environment. When we checked dechlorinated tap water the PH was 8.4 so sadly we have our answer no matter how disappointing it is. At this point we have managed to lower the PH in our aquariums thus saving all of our other fish, so at least our loaches didn't die in vain. We are looking at upgrading as a previous pet store had told us the zebra loaches only needed a friend of the same species, we have changed to an aquatic specialty store. When we have the new set up going for at least a month where things are stable using our Danios the start the biological filter off we will then purchase 3-5 other loaches and keep a much more vigilant eye on water chemistry as the PH in the aquarium the morning following the death of our buddies was 7.6. We appreciate your insight into what problems could have been happening. Thanks.

Answer
Wow, that's some PH level. I didn't give PH a thought because nothing was mentioned that any other fish were acting strange.  At that level, I would think that all the fish would be showing signs of PH shock.  A level of 7.5 would have been ok for him, but 8.4 is amazing to me.  There are ways to combat the PH problems, and hopefully the people at the fish store will be able to explain all of that to you when you are prepared.

I'm going to give you a website that has information on "cycling" a tank using Danios.  It will help you know what to look for in order to tell when your tank is finished cycling and ready for more fish.  The most important thing is to never add more then 3-4 fish at a time or you could shock your system, and also, another good idea would be to buy a "Master Water Test Kit" in place of test strips, if you don't already have the kit. I just trust this kit better then the dip tests.  My own tests and experiments have proven to me that the dip tests are not real accurate and can give you false highs on some things.  It's obviously up to you though.

Here is the webiste on cycling the tank:  http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php  There is also something new called "fishless cycling" that does not use fish to cycle a tank.  You can look it up online if interested.  It's quickly becoming the cycling of choice because it uses no fish, so no fish are harmed.  It's a totally personal choice though, and I say "to each their own".  I don't judge one way or another.

I wish you the best of luck.  I'm sorry this happened, but in the long run, you have learned from it, and as you said, your fish did not die in vain.  You sound like very caring people, and that's wonderful.

Take good care.