New Clown Loach

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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