I've lurked old threads on this forum and a number of other sites over this issue before, but it's happening a third time and I need to outline it to more experienced people to feel like I'm even a little bit sure there is nothing I could try.
The overgeneralization is, I have tried to get together something of a recommended kuhli loach group and have had two die in a specific feeling pattern, and a third following the trend as of late.
There is another one death that's an outlier only in that he died in two days, after I was warned he looked small and sickly by the LFS who didn't even want me to buy him the first time I tried. To be fair she kind of also thought that about one of the two pattern deaths as well.
Those two looked essentially like: Fine 1-2 weeks, tail clamped 1-2 weeks, and die after just over a month of them being in the tank. So the third today has just reached his tail clamp being noticeable the past week or two and now I worry every time I see he's out of hiding spots more kind of just, less reactive to the lights coming on (which I've killed for the day because of it) and a little more listless seeming. He however, is quite close to two months in the tank and I had zero concern for him the first full month.
And yet my VERY first kuhli, in the tank with that outlier first death, when I was an idiot and my tank wasn't even cycled (I ended up on the fish-in cycle by accident but feel it ended up okay that route), is alive and well. He has never showed any of these signs and is the only one to make it to a bigger size (being a minimum 8 months old now). There are also two java loach who have never looked affected in any manner, and a female betta who is also healthy throughout the timeline. I even thought she could be a problem but she sometimes bothers their omega pellets more than she pays any mind to the loaches.
10 gallon tank started 8 months ago, so some iterations during the deaths but currently:
-Planted, although I wouldn't call it heavily, I have some more in quarantine to fill it even more
-I had dosed seachem flourish occasionally, but have enough algae to say I don't need it and never noticed a correlation in timings
-Airstone added after two total deaths
-HOB the whole time with a special buffer
-Heater 78f
-PVC pipes, ceramic cave, ohko stone, spiderwood piece
-Went from a white sand with river rocks, to flourite red sand (which is disappointingly just a small gravel) with the same river rocks. I note this because of thinking they would feel more comfortable blending, and I believe it did, but I hated the trade off of less soft for scavenging just because flourites name labeling is messed up - their black sand is amazing
-Omega one catfish (used to be shrimp I guess) pellets is their main, plus if they get some fluval bug bites from the betta, occasionally frozen spirulina brine shrimp goes in, and only very very recently I am trying out repashy community once or twice
Consistently:
-Ammonia 0
-Nitrite 0
-Nitrate 10-20 (there's nearly a 10ppm base in my tap which is annoying)
-I do weekly water changes, shoot for 30% lately because I felt like maybe I was doing too large in the past
-pH like 7.6 to 7.8, I always have a weird time reading this one, but the internet has made me feel like with the amount of time things are stable in between this is an unlikely cause, similar to if there was ever an ammonia spike I didn't catch like more than just ONE loach would be showing issues
Once learning that there's a high chance these are wild caught, I mostly concluded that HAS to be it. With the amount of effort I put into tracking params, appropriate water changes, and the other fish being just fine the whole while, I don't know that I could be doing anything differently. But I don't like that answer if I have this third one pass, so here I am for some healthy dialogue.
Thank you for hearing me out
The overgeneralization is, I have tried to get together something of a recommended kuhli loach group and have had two die in a specific feeling pattern, and a third following the trend as of late.
There is another one death that's an outlier only in that he died in two days, after I was warned he looked small and sickly by the LFS who didn't even want me to buy him the first time I tried. To be fair she kind of also thought that about one of the two pattern deaths as well.
Those two looked essentially like: Fine 1-2 weeks, tail clamped 1-2 weeks, and die after just over a month of them being in the tank. So the third today has just reached his tail clamp being noticeable the past week or two and now I worry every time I see he's out of hiding spots more kind of just, less reactive to the lights coming on (which I've killed for the day because of it) and a little more listless seeming. He however, is quite close to two months in the tank and I had zero concern for him the first full month.
And yet my VERY first kuhli, in the tank with that outlier first death, when I was an idiot and my tank wasn't even cycled (I ended up on the fish-in cycle by accident but feel it ended up okay that route), is alive and well. He has never showed any of these signs and is the only one to make it to a bigger size (being a minimum 8 months old now). There are also two java loach who have never looked affected in any manner, and a female betta who is also healthy throughout the timeline. I even thought she could be a problem but she sometimes bothers their omega pellets more than she pays any mind to the loaches.
10 gallon tank started 8 months ago, so some iterations during the deaths but currently:
-Planted, although I wouldn't call it heavily, I have some more in quarantine to fill it even more
-I had dosed seachem flourish occasionally, but have enough algae to say I don't need it and never noticed a correlation in timings
-Airstone added after two total deaths
-HOB the whole time with a special buffer
-Heater 78f
-PVC pipes, ceramic cave, ohko stone, spiderwood piece
-Went from a white sand with river rocks, to flourite red sand (which is disappointingly just a small gravel) with the same river rocks. I note this because of thinking they would feel more comfortable blending, and I believe it did, but I hated the trade off of less soft for scavenging just because flourites name labeling is messed up - their black sand is amazing
-Omega one catfish (used to be shrimp I guess) pellets is their main, plus if they get some fluval bug bites from the betta, occasionally frozen spirulina brine shrimp goes in, and only very very recently I am trying out repashy community once or twice
Consistently:
-Ammonia 0
-Nitrite 0
-Nitrate 10-20 (there's nearly a 10ppm base in my tap which is annoying)
-I do weekly water changes, shoot for 30% lately because I felt like maybe I was doing too large in the past
-pH like 7.6 to 7.8, I always have a weird time reading this one, but the internet has made me feel like with the amount of time things are stable in between this is an unlikely cause, similar to if there was ever an ammonia spike I didn't catch like more than just ONE loach would be showing issues
Once learning that there's a high chance these are wild caught, I mostly concluded that HAS to be it. With the amount of effort I put into tracking params, appropriate water changes, and the other fish being just fine the whole while, I don't know that I could be doing anything differently. But I don't like that answer if I have this third one pass, so here I am for some healthy dialogue.
Thank you for hearing me out
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