help please! my dojo loach is very sick :(

[ashcc]

my dojo loach lives alone in a 10 gallon tank. he recently started staying at the top and floating belly up, but he is still breathing. i havent seen him eat and when he moves around it is as if he is blind. his whiskers are limp too
its not ich, but i dont know what is wrong! i have had him since march and he has always been happy and healthy. he has been living on his own now for about a month.
he has been sick 3 days now, I have done a 50% water change. I have also noticed swarms of little tan bugs, some of which are on his body, but mostly covering the aquarium rocks and silk plants or swimming through the water, about the size of a grain of sand, and dont look like the photos of bugs I have seen. please help me, I love boowinkal, he is the best fish and I cant bare to lose him now!

 

[dwayne.aycock]

Don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but this sounds like a very serious internal parasite. Belly up means the swim bladder has failed. Easiest thing to do now is cool him and let him expire. He is too far gone at this point. Dwayne

 

[TenaciousTriggerFish]

Wait don't feed him anything except soft mashed peas he has a chance for survival my goldfish lived.. A swim batter infection is not necessarily a life sentence :/ but it can be fatal

 

[bloodlucky]

I thought 10 gallons was too small for a dojo loach

 

[ashcc]

thank you for the advice guys, unfortunately my little guy didn't make it though the night

 

[clearancepuppy]

I am so sorry. Was hoping he would make it.

Feel your pain.

 

[TenaciousTriggerFish]

im soooo sorry!

 

[dwayne.aycock]

Sorry to hear...we have all been there. Dwayne