"Sarah" wrote in message
om...
My new clown loach is dead. He was laying in a corner of the tank
this morning on his side but I could still see his gills moving. I
went home at lunchtime to check on him and found him dead. It looked
like he'd been dead a few hours.

Sorry you lost him.

I decided to take him and a water sample back to the LFS since it's
been less than 24 hours since I brought him home and put him in my
tank. The girl working at the counter was the same one that sold me
the fish yesterday so she was just going to give me a new fish without
testing the water. I insisted that she test it since I don't want to
kill another fish. pH was 7.2, ammonia 0, nitrite 0.

What temperature do you keep your aquarium at?

When I got to the counter the manager said that I should have taken a
water sample from the bottom of the tank (I took mine from the top 1/3
of the water column) and that she didn't think it was a good idea to
get another loach.

If there is no filtration, I believe ammonia floats, but if your ammonia
test was zero, I don't think it would be relevant. There is also less
oxygen at the bottom of a tank (when there is no or insufficient
circulation). This is more relevant to bottom feeders like the loach,
but shallow tanks with a light fish load are probably low risk for that.
I don't know of any other parameters which would 'layer' in still water,
and none that would not mix with proper circulation.

I clean the gravel and change 20% of the water every week. The tanks
I have are only 5 gallons so I test the water parameters every 3-4
days to make sure everything is fine. All my tanks are cycled. The
tank the loach was in only has one platy and 3 platy fry (I saw
another one this morning). Is there anything else I should be doing?
Should I be testing the water from the bottom of the tank, near the
gravel? Should I follow this woman's advice and not get another
loach? I don't want to kill another fishy.

Do you remove the gravel to clean it ? A cycled tank means that there is
a biological processing capability which matches the bio-load in the
tank. This is most easily done with a filter, but can also be achieved
by the bacterial coating of the various surfaces (ie: gravel), which
should not be cleaned often.

Another variable to consider is how much (if any) temperature variation
are you allowing? Small tanks typically use incandescent lighting which
is quite warm. In combination with daytime summer heat, could your tank
temperature be bouncing on a daily cycle. Sorry for all the questions.

Also, if I do get another loach would it be ok to add two fish at
once? Or should I wait a week or so in between adding fish to make
sure the tank doesn't cycle again?

Why do you want a loach? They are not very suitable for such a small
aquarium. There are other bottom feeders (ie: shrimps, snails) which
might be more suitable.

Regarding your fish stocking question, it would depend on how your
nitrifying bacteria are housed. If 'au natural', I would add gradually.
If a bio-wheel, I would add all at once (tripling your bio-capacity takes
less than 2 days). hth

NetMax

Sarah

"Poe Lim" wrote in message
.au...
"NetMax" wrote in message
.. .

There really isn't any 'normal' representative behaviour of a fish
when
it has just been introduced to a new environment (other than acting
fearful). Loaches do lie on their sides sometimes, but I wouldn't
read
too much into it for now. It's probably anxious to find more of
his
kind, as they are very social creatures which would not do
particularly
well alone. JMO

How long do they usually take to get use to the new environment? I've
just
introduced three into a tetra tank last weekend (to look after some
snails),
and they seem to be hiding a lot. Any suggestions as to getting them
out
into the open?

Cheers,
Poe