Dojo Loach laying on it's side

[amaruq]

I put this at first in the wrong area...I'm a dufus..what can i say! :mad:

Actually I'm quite worried! I got the Dojo (gold) on Saturday and she wasn't bad then. Past few days she has been laying on her side. I looked up some stuff and it said to do a epson salt dip. I did that last night and she is still laying?

I can pick her up in my hand and she does nothing?

Is she ok? I did read they can become egg bound? I don't know if it is a she or not?

Any ideas?????? Tested water and it's all ok. Other Dojo's are fine....just her :(

[CACAdmin]

Sorry, I really know nothing about loaches, but if it were me, I'd isolate her in case she has something contageous. Best of luck with her. Hope someone drops by soon who can offer more advice.

[Zebrapl3co]

Well ... this is kind of hard to answer. Does it look normal or does it look like it's struggling?
It's quite common for loaches to rest on it's side. They do that alot when they are overfeed and becomes complacent.
It will be up to you to spot the difference of resting or in trouble. Does it get up and act normal when get excited? Like when you stick your hands in the tank? or did it struggle to get up right?

[amaruq]

Well *SNIFF* sadly I had to take the loach back to the fish store. I had called him and told him what was happening. He said to bring the loach in. I did and he tested my water and it was fine. He figures it was the loach itself. He put it in a hospital tank and gave me a new one. He figures it was injured during shipping. *Sniff* I hate to watch something suffer but i was quite impressed he didn't get rid of her but was going to treat her :)

He told me a story and I wonder if anyone else heard this? He said about 10 years ago loaches would come to the stores and die. They stopped shipping them and in the past year loachs have been shipped again. He said Kuhli loaches were really bad (I have one that is quite active :) ) So I'm quite greatful i have a few of the species now and I have become quite a fan of them :wink:

[CACAdmin]

Glad to hear that the lfs responded that way. You now have a new loach & also the other little one hopefully stands a chance of getting better as they are attempting to treat her.

[KnaveTO]

Your LFS staff member is fairly correct in that comment. For the longest time loaches were much harder to get and more expensive than now because of the high mortality rate on shipping them. It was explained to me once what changed... but for the life of me I cannot remember.

[blainep]

If you've ever seen how fish are shipped, it's amazing any of them survive.