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Yet again, one of my clown loaches is showing signs of illness. symptoms include sluggishness, not interested in food and rarely coming out of hiding.

My other 3 CL's in my 50.5 gal are happy as can be and are eating heaps still. I've done nothing to the tank recently except put a water softening pillow in the filter, but i took this out thursday last week and the water only softened from 7 to 5 in 3 days.

My test readings are as follows:
pH: 7.6 (I didn't realise it was that high until i tested it just now. I can't seem to keep the water at 6.6 - 6.8 pH which would be preferable)
GH: 5 degrees (50-100ppm...probably close to 80ppm)
Ammonia: 0ppm

My other three loaches are fine but this seems to happen to all of them at some point in time...usually i'm forced to euthanase them if it gets really bad. My largest loach went through it a couple of months back (when i upgraded my tank) but then he got over it, but he is the first to get over it. I've had these two for alomst a year so I really don't want to loose this one.

I have two smaller ones that i have just bought to replace the last two that died when i first bought my CL's. I would like to know whats happening so i can stop it from happening to them in the future.

Every day I feed 3 nutrafin sinking tablets (cut in halves) and scatter them around the tank. I feed my neons flake food which sometimes the CL's will come to the surface to eat (especially the one that is currently sick). I have noticed that I have lost 2 neons recently but I have only extracted one body from the tank so the other one has obviously been eaten. However, this has happened plenty of times in the past and no dramas have occurred. i'm pretty sure this is the first time one of the CL's has gotten sick after a neon has gone missing.

PLEASE HELP ME!

i have just used the disease identification and was wondering whether the results were any good? It came up with Trichodina and said that Trichodinal would be the solution. What would happen if I was wrong and gave my CL a bath in the chemical? Would it harm him? Or just not do anything?

The instructions from this site were: a 10 hour bath in a solution of malachite green at a dosage of 1.5mg to 10L of water. But I’ve heard that scaleless fish need lesser dosages.

Also, when it says a 10 hr bath, can that be in just an empty tank with no plant or gravel, but perhaps just a hidey hole so he doesn’t freak out?

dont use malachite green on a clown loach. Those fish couldnt stand a 10hr bath in a high level solution of malachite. Generally, avoid any igredients that contain a colo (gentian violet, malachite green, methylene blue, etc) these medicines are actually dyes and could kill your fish. I would try using a less harmful medicine, like Kent Marine RX-P. This medicine is a natural one, made with some type of strong pepper. It is harmless to scaleless fish, but will kill invertebrates, so remove any snails or shrimp to a small bucket or something for treatment periods. Do not replace shrimp of snails till 3 50% water changes have been completed.
You could also try dosing melafix and pimafix in half doses over 3-4 days in case of secondary infections.
make sure you do a 35% water change after 2-3 doses of any medication.
Good Luck.


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simpkia

Have you tried to contact your local Aqu about the problem?

I know this could depend on your location. Even a good phone call could help.

Keith

Last edited by keithgh at 04-Oct-2004 04:25

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in case nobody has ever pointed it out to you, 4 clown loaches in a 50g tank is not a good idea. if your loaches keep doing this in this tank, it is probably a symptom of being in too close together since clowns need a lot of room. you should have a 150g+ tank if you want them all to grow properly.

---

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Water softeners often replace the magnesium ions we read as general hardness with sodium ions - I'd say it's entirely possible that's affecting them. This is why water softeners are sold for home use, and aquariums use RO/DI water - in terms of the fish, water softeners are doing nothing or possibly adding something worse to the water.

-Molly
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2 medium size CL's and 2 tiny little CL's in a 50.5 gal tank is entirely okay. There is plenty of room for them and this stage. There is nothing wrong with beginning with a smaller tank and upgrading. I had four CL's in a 20 gal tank for six months with no problems at all. Then I upgraded for their sake.

I am quite aware of the space a CL needs, don't worry about that.

The trick is to stop trying to change the pH...

You will, as you're finding out, create a sick tank where nothing will survive.

--garyroland.

Did you test the nitrAtes? Shops often check pH, ammonia and nitrites, but often overlook nitrAtes. Elevated nitrAtes cause appetite to fail and stress the fish by poisoning them. Fish vary as to their individual sensitivity to high nitrAtes. Some are like miner's canaries, quicker than the rest to sicken.

Control nitrAte levels via regular water changes.

As Gary points out, messing with pH is bad news. It is much better to acclimate the fish to the pH of your source water (taps, mains) than to try and "force" the water into a pH of your choice. You add an acidifier and the pH falls, then the buffers in the water shoot the pH back up again. The rollercoaster ride is not good for fish.