Help! My loaches just suddenly freaked and bleached for no reason!

[shimmercat]

I was watching my tank while on the phone this evening. I had just fed my yoyo loaches and rasboras and they were full of mischief as they fought for the food. The yoyos were playing around: scavenging and playing on the leaves of my sword. The dominant one was chasing the sub-dom around and around and around the tank, in a very lighthearted way. Generally being the clown-y fish they are, even though they are not clown loaches.

Then, about an hour after they were fed, both loaches changed behavior drastically and simaltaniously. They both bleached like they were under extreme stress and began convusling. My rasboras were acting normal with normal color.

I panicked, got off the phone, tested the water, and saw that my nitrites were high (I thought the cycle would be finished by now, apparently I was wrong). I changed half the water in a panic, and the loaches went to their seperate ends of the tank and were returning to normal color.

Then, one swam over to the other and they bleached and began spasming again. Does this sound at all like nitrite poisoning? Is it mating behavior (extremely unlikely)? A duel to the death? Why are they doing this?!?

 

[Lotus]

It isn't normal for them to convulse or spasm. I would assume it's because of the nitrites.

Sometimes when loaches squabble they will swim in circles around eachother and sometimes go pale, but it's more of chasing than any particular body movement. I've never seen any of my loaches spasm, though.

 

[shimmercat]

What scared me the most was that it was completely and totally SUDDEN. They were playing around normally and then at the same moment bleached and began acting really strange. They were heading back to normalacy after the water change, but then they saw each other and it began again.

This has repeated several times now. They will start to turn their normal colors again, then see each other, and bleach and start acting strange.

 

[shimmercat]

I snapped some quick pictures. Please ignore the tacky gravel and decorations.

The first three pictures were taken while the loaches were bleached and acting strange. The second two were taken off the subdominant one while he was hiding and returning to normal color. They are both looking better now, although not as brilliant as normal.

Sorry. This scared me; I was afraid that I was going to lose them. I think that they'll be all right now, though. I still wonder what was going on....?

 

[FishGeek]

My Loaches do that every once in a while too. They start out just slowly chasing each other, then the get faster and faster. I didnt think much about it cause they bleach for a few minutes and then are fine again. They have done it since I got them.
Im not an expert in fish (yet ) but I think that maybe this particular behavior might be them just trying to play hid 'n' seek. I mean cause the surroundings in "the wild" are all browns and tans. This way they have no markings and they blend in better. Just a geuss.

 

[shimmercat]

Yeah, that's what I finally decided must have been happening -- either they were playing with each other, or they were squabbling over something. Probably dominance. I'd just never seen them do that before, and they really looked like they were sick. Yay! They're safe!