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Hi Everyone,
I have had my 3 Clown loaches for about 3 weeks now, two are doing great but the third has become extremely skinny, it is very active, always grubbing around in the sand and searching the plants, it is very fussy over food and wont touch anything apart from bloodworm. I have been told that it may well be 'Skinny Disease, an internal bacteria that affects Clowns and is brought on by amongst other things, the stress of transportation.
I have become extremely fond of my Clowns and their antics and feel for the skinny one especially. I have been told that a course of Anti Biotics should clear things up the only problem is I live in the UK where these medicines appear to be hard to aqquire. Maracyn 1 and Esha products have been suggested but I cant find a source for either, can anyone please give me some info on treatments available as I would like to sort the little Clown out before its too late.

Nitrate 0
Nitrie 0
Ammonia 0
Ph 7
Temp 25c
30 Gallon Tank (40 inches long) Planted, 2 Lava rocks, Bogwood, River Gravel.
Clown 1 and two around two and a half inches long
Clown 3 (skinny one) about two inches
Other fish in tank: 6 Cardinal Tetras, 6 Zebra Danios, 3 Julii Catfish.

Many Thanks

Last edited by mutley at 31-Dec-2004 19:13

Have you try feeding him different food? What are you feeding him right now? I use to have a bala shark, I fed him nothing but flakes, he did not grow at all for 3 months. I feed my clown loach blood worms and their stomach always plump, till the point where they are fat and being lazy. Clown loaches love worms, you can try switching diet.

I'd give feeding brine shrimp and bloodworms a try before dosing the tank with anything.

Good luck, Mike

EDIT- Are you sure you're nitr(A)tes are 0?

2nd EDIT- I think for internal bacterial infections you might need food with antibiotics in it. I'd post in the hospital, some one had a recipie for antibiotic food but I can't remember who.

Last edited by Mike R at 31-Dec-2004 19:18

Last edited by Mike R at 31-Dec-2004 19:21

I feed Nutrafin Max Flake, JMC Catfish pellets, which the 2 Clowns got nuts for but the little one wont touch and Tetra Prima granules. I have tried Algae tablets, Catfish Tablets. Once a week I feed them Freeze dried brine shrimp and Frozen bloodworm, I have been putting a little more Bloodworm in recently for the little one but dont want to overdo the high protein stuff just in case it upsets the water stats. I have also tried muscles, the little one had a few goes at that but again not much interest.
The other 2 clown are nice and plump and feed on everything I put in.
I will try the Brine shrimp and Bloodworm for a while but as I mentioned earlier I am concerned about overdoing the High Protein foods, how many times a day should I feed these foods???
Yes, the Nit(A)tes are 0

Last edited by mutley at 31-Dec-2004 19:47

I feed once a day.

You should ask in the hospital about the antibiotic food if you think it's and internal bacterial infection. Some really on the ball people hang out there. One in particular, Garyroland, has alot of experience with loaches.

Good luck, Mike

One of mine is the exact same way. He is very active but won't eat anything other than frozen brine shrimp or blood worms. He seems happy as any of the others....but yet I am so concerned about him...Like yours, he is also skinny.

He wouldn't eat for a bit but then I realized that he adored the brine shrimp and blood worms...I've been watching him eat and waiting for him to fatten up but it just isn't happening. It has been a couple of weeks now and to tell you the truth I am suprised that he is still alive.

I feel so bad for him I have named the poor thing "Tiny Tim".....

Jamie had asked me about his Clown and was concerned because the trop was not growing and remains on the thin side...

It's been my experience that some young Clowns just refuse to fatten up and remain thin even though others in the same school do well.

Those that remain thin, even though they seem to be good eaters, eventually die either from internal parasites or from a failure to thrive, something lacking from birth, probably a missing growth hormone.

Clowns, by their very wild nature, will react unfavorably to parasite meds of any kind and may not be able to tolerate antibiotics either.

It's best just to continue a feeding regimen and hope whatever growth problem is retarding them will eventually become favorable and growth will begin.

When the trop's stomachs begin to sink in and the fish shows signs of weakness, the end is near.

--garyroland.

my clown eat anything. Real People Shrimp make him grow really fast. They would chew on that thing for hours. Be aware of cloudy water.

Just a quick note on my Skinny Clown loach, since my last post it had got increasingly worse to the point where it had given up eating even the live bloodworm which was the only thing he ate anyway and I feared the worst. Then a week and a half ago I noticed some white patches on my Zebra Danios, after having a good look around the web and taking some advice I was told it was probably columnaris, It was suggested that I should try treating it with some Pimafix, 3 days into treatment the patches were fading pretty quickly on my Danios but my little loach sadly appeared to be fading fast, 5 days into the treatment he was still not feeding but was a bit more active, day 7 of the treatment (last day) my little loach was moving around a lot more and even starting to play with my other two loaches, its now 3 days after finishing the Pimafix course and its a changed fish and belting around the tank like a gooden, it is still very thin but its appetite is really good and its the first time I have seen it fight for bloodworm. The Pimafix is very mild compared to most medication, uses natural ingredients and doesnt harm your filter and although its still early days yet appears to have at least helped my little Clown, what a bonus!!!!

mutley

Sorry to tell you that Loach seems to be wasting away. I have had this problem my self and have never seen them progress no matter what I did.

Keith

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IME, clown loaches can be effectively and safely treated for internal parasites. Read in great detail here:

http://www.loaches.com/faq_parasites.html

As an update to my skinny clown loach... he has fattened up significantly, though I keep his name as..tiny tim.

I sure hope yours gets better too!

Thats great news Jamie, mine is certainly doing better, his appetite has increased dramatically and he is definately putting on some body mass too which is great, still early days but keeping my fingers tightly crossed.

Last edited by mutley at 04-Feb-2005 14:48

Hi Everyone,
Well my little fella was doing great, eating everything he could and putting on weight. He was even taking bloodworm from my fingers at the top of the tank. Then 2 weeks ago he just stopped eating, in that time the poor little guy slowly wasted away to nothing. Yesterday he was struggling to keep going, finally this morning I could take no more looking at him in that state and sadly I had to put him too sleep, I think the poor little chap has been through enough in his short little life. I am totally gutted and very sad at the thought of no longer seeing the little guy in my tank.
This hobby is or was up to this point a wonderful and very rewarding one, I have just had to do something awful and feel terrible about it, hope I dont have to do it too often.
Thanks everyone for your help

Sorry to hear about that.

But if you could get that clown loach to eat, you wolnt have to do something like that again.

clowns are one of the neatest fish, and i bet he was happy to acually have comeone caring enough to try an save him and not just get rid of him because he "wasnt normal"

Props to you

Mutley, dont be hard on yourself. Unfortunately the down side of the hobby is that sometimes (hopefully rarely) you have to decide if a fish is too sick to pull through. I think you made the right decision and it sounds like you gave it the best home you could. Now much else the fish could ask for IMO.

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Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.