I don’t know what to do. One of the yoyo loaches (Botia almorhae) in my fish tank is ailing, its body kind of pocked looking and thin. Doesn’t resemble any of the images of sick fish I’ve seen online. Ten days ago I thought this fish was close to death. It was languishing on a rock, panting, hanging kind of sideways. I thought I’d remove him from the tank so as not to infect the other fish with whatever he had, and quarantine him in another small tank. But catching him proved difficult in my heavily planted aquarium and I figured I was just burning what little energy the poor fish had in avoiding capture. So I stopped. The fish hasn’t died yet. Is looking marginally better. None of the other fish in the tank appear to be ailing.

I’m reminded once again that when I don’t know what to do, it’s OK to wait. When I don’t know what exactly it is that I don’t know, doing nothing is better than doing something that will complicate the issue and might be worse. But it isn’t easy, doing nothing. In our hurry-up culture we don’t really go for patience.