PacoMed

My Yoyo loach went for being happy and active all of the time to not eating and hiding most of the time for the past 3 days. He seems to have hard to describe markings behind both eyes and next to and above his gills. They are kind of like ulcers, but no blood. It doesn't look like ich. He vomited yesterday and seems to sleep all of the time. His swimming is off balanced as well. What do I do?!?!?!!!!

susitna-flower

HI, WELCOME TO FISHLORE!


It sounds like Hole in the Head....I don't know if loaches are prone to this or not, but I do know they are sensitive to water conditions. Can you post a picture?

Your tank appears to be extremely overcrowded....Bala sharks are too big for a 38 gallon tank, and lastly yoyo's need to be in a group of 3-5 at least!

With a redtail in with the balas I would say there is also a bit of stress in this tank, all of which could cause this yoyo problems. You have approx. 86" of fish (adult) in a 38 gallon tank, the rule of thumb for stocking is 1" of adult size fish per gallon of tank. You count the adult size even if they are babies, so you don't overstock. The balas themselves need a tank at least 72" long as they are very active and grow up to 13"!

I don't know what you are testing your tank with, but with the stocking you have I doubt that 5 is a correct reading for nitrates. First thing you need to do is make sure on this by doing more water changes than normal...What is your schedule for water changes now? Hole in the Head is thought to be brought on by poor water conditions, and a lack of variety in the food, possibly low in vitamin C. What are you feeding?

You either need to be feeding a variety of the highest quality food you can find, or making you own. This is what I have gone to, that way I know just what is in it, and I add vitimans and expecially Ester-C....If you can't do this, vita-chem is available at www.drsfostersmith.com , Good Luck !

sirdarksol

Welcome to Fishlore.
I agree with Susitna. Immediate guess is Hole in the Head disease.
Little is known about it, but a very educated guess is a lack of proper nutrition (often caused by feeding with the Tetra flakes and nothing else) and a lack of good water quality.
I also agree on the overstocked issue. I would suggest stepping up partial water changes and making sure that you are using the liquid-type nitrate tests (the strips can be inaccurate) and making sure that you are really shaking the second bottle (I slam it against my hand for about a minute before using it). Not doing so can turn up a false negative.

PacoMed

Hi. Thanks for the advice. I feed the fish tetra flakes twice a day and supplement with frozen and freeze dried blood worms three times a week. I do 25 - 35% water changes every 7 - 10 days. I use API liquid tests for pH, ammonia, Nitrite, nitrate, follow the instructions exactly, and test every three or four days. There are a ton of plants in the tank, and plenty of hiding places, and nitrates have been measuring 0 - 5 for 3+ months. I was actually considering adding nitrates for the plants in addition to the CO2 I already add. Besides better nutrition, more frequent water changes, is there another treatment for hole-in-the-head? I guess I'll look it up. I'll try to post a pick of kona, the yoyo loach.

Thanks again for your help!

sirdarksol

How big are the sharks, the pleco, and the loach?

I would suggest getting Omega One food or making your own. Change it up a bit, feeding them algae wafers, shrimp pellets, flakes, etc... Anything with spirulina is a good method, in my opinion, for avoiding HiH, since it has a very wide range of nutrients.

As far as treatment goes, I don't think there is anything. This seems to be similar to a fish version of scurvy, and the only thing that can treat it is improved nutrition and better water quality (to help the body rebuild itself).

COBettaCouple

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...40&c=3578+4620 - is a med for HIH/LLD. It doesn't say if it's safe for scaleless fish or not, but they usually do put warnings on if the med isn't.

Welcome to Fishlore and hope you can get your Yoyo healthy again.

sirdarksol

It does have some sodium chloride, but I'm not sure in what concentration. Like you said, though, they didn't say it wasn't safe for scaleless fish.
That's kind of neat. It uses a polymer to bind to and seal the holes up.

PacoMed

Thanks for all of the advice. My Sharks are about 3" each, the pleco is 3.5" and the loach is almost 2". I'm going to add algae wafers to what I've been feeding them. I think they should help add more vitamins. If my loach doesn't look better in a few days, I'll consider the Metro + treatment. I haven't seen him in the tank today, so no pic yet.

Thanks again

sirdarksol

That explains why the nitrates are currently only at 5. All of your fish are currently juveniles. If they were anywhere near adult size, I would think that there was an error in testing, but at these sizes, 5 is a possibility. Hope everything goes well with the loach and the rest of your tank.