too fat? yoyo loach

[sotvotkong]

well i think my yoyo loach is too fat for its own good. so i need others opinions as well before i change things up.

its 2 years old ive had it 1year 11 months. moved tanks 2 times. its 4 1/2 inches long, and i cant really tell but probly 1 1/2 inches wide lol, not to mention a huge belly. seems to get around ok and sits alot like loaches usually do. so what you think? does the whole tank need a diet because of 1 fish?

[carriej]

wow. I'm at loss for words. I've seen yoyo loaches (young ones) and look at that bad boy! I'm not sure if this is normal or not but I am just like..wow big loach!

[Tommy Gun]

Wow is right! I haven't seen any loach look like that before. Although, I don't think your loach is eating too much, I think it has some sort of internal infection or may be constipated believe it or not.

Problems like dropsy can be somewhat tricky to diagnose because it is always said that the symptom is a pine cone look to the fish...but when the fish is scaleless or has tiny scales such as tetras, loaches, plecos, etc, they obviously cannot look like a pine cone.

What are you feeding this fish?

How much/often are you feeding?

How long has it been swelled up like that?

Is it the only loach you have? If not, can it move like the rest of them?

If you can, you might want to quarantine this fish so you can monitor its diet and perhaps treat with medicine. You might want to try feeding it a few peas (squish them and place them on the substrate....hopefully it will eat it). Otherwise, you might want to feed it some more veggie matter like spirolina flakes or maybe a cucumber/zucchini.

[sotvotkong]

ok i will try the pea thing first.


i feed the tank as a whole. 50g tall.
3 red eye tetras
2 kribensis (pair)
1 gold algae eater
1 dario boita loach
1 black kuhlii loach
1 synodontis ocellifer catfish
1 yoyo loach obviously


they get about 6 of the small chilid attack pellets 2x day and flakes 2x day, couldnt really measure flakes but its only enought to cover 1/4 the top of the tank after i put em in. and there all gone in under 5 mins. its been the same feeding cycle and feeding times for the last 2 years.

yes he has been fat a long long time, tho its gotten worse lately. so first step peas! tho i think hes just fat and needs a diet in witch case i would need tips on how long he can go without food safely and if a change in foods would help ect.

he can move just fine, as far as i can tell. besides being too fat to fit in some places lol.

i dont have a tank to quarenteen him in this is my only freshwater tank, the rest are saltwater.... and in no way do i want to get rid of it.

[fernival brainard]

I have a sucker loach that is ubber fat like your yoyo. Can we get a little jenny craig?? I think the sucker loach just has the fat gene, maybe your yoyo got in line at the same gene pool as my sucker.
On the other hand, he could be getting ready for a long hard winter of hibernation, lol. :-)
l8tr,
fern

[Tommy Gun]

I would try the pea thing...maybe try using a garlic suppliment as well (you might be able to use the garlic suppliment to entice your fish to eat the pea too). The pea should help with digestion and the garlic is prtty good for dealing with/preventing internal parasites and such. If you don't see any improvement in a week or if you start to see more problems, you might want to consider using an antibiotic treatment...but rather than treat the water in the tank, you would want to treat the fish's food so that it ingests the meds. This is why a q-tank would make your life a lot easier....even a very small and cheap tank would be ok if you can come up with one. If not...maybe a breeder's net or something. Obviously the problem is how to get the food to your loach before the other fish get to it.

You might also want to try some frozen foods as well. Your loach will LOVE blood worms (and this might be a good way to get the garlic or antibiotics to him)

[sotvotkong]

well i fed him peas twice now, saw him eat at least half of one. ive seen some odd poops that are larger come from somewere in the tank, hoping it was him. but on the other hand he doesnt seem any thinner yet, and ive decreased feeding to 1x day flakes only. might be too soon to tell but i tought a week or so would be enough.

[Tommy Gun]

might be too soon to tell but i tought a week or so would be enough.

My advice would be to stick to what you are doing and have patience. I realize that I also mentioned the one week timeline as well, but I didn't mean to imply that I expect your fish to be completely 'normal' by now. I think that you should observe closely to see if you can attribute the new wastes you noticed to this specific fish. If you cannot do that within the next couple days or so, then I stand behind my suggestion about looking into using an antibiotic...but I strongly suggest using one that you can add directly to this fish's food so that you are treating the fish and not just treating the water. Like I said, it might be hard to tell if your fish is bloated from an internal infection within a fish that has extremely tiny scales or no scales at all in absense of the tell tale 'pinecone' look...so this might be an example when treating blindly is a good thing to do.