Emaciated Clown Loach

[chefkeith]

Today I was cleaning the river tank, removed most of the slate, and noticed that one of my larger clown loaches is very emaciated. I imagine that the poor thing has been hiding under the slate and out of my sight for a very long time. The loach is about 6”.

For now, I put the clown in my 15g snail tank, to hopefully fatten him up. There will be no competition for food in that tank. All the shrimp and snails he can eat. At the moment he is already feeding on a wafer that I just dropped in there. I just hope it isn’t too late for him to recover.

Any recommendations on meds I should use. I imagine he needs to be treated for worms somehow. What would be the best way to do that?

Here are some pics. I can’t believe how skinny he is because all my other clowns are fat. The white spots on the clown are bone protruding through the skin.





I think I might move this clown to a different tank. I'm afraid he'll get eaten alive by the snails. I have an empty 5 gallon tank, but don't have a filter for it. I'll mull this over for a few hours.

[Erik]

Yikes that is terrible.
There are a couple of treatements that might help.
Levamisole, praziquantel(prazi pro) and maracyn 1 and 2 combo.
Personally I would go with Prazipro and maracyn 1 and 2 same time for 10 days. ALL at the same time. Keep in mind he is very skinny and it might be too late.
I have had very good success with the maracyn combo and also Prazi.
Levamisole is hard to get, pricey and only good reportedly at ph less that 6.9.
I recently saved a small 2 inch clown that was close to that skinny. He developed the disease very fast.
He is now looking so much better:)
Good luck and keep us updated.
Erik
Ps Prazi pro is supposed to be a one dose deal but I did 3 doses with a day in between each.
All with no negative effects.
Cheapest maracyn source I have found is JLaquatics.com

[Mark in Vancouver]

Yes, after seeing Erik's successful clown recovery, I'd recommend Praziquantel. Do it immediately, though - first chance you get. That's a very sick loach. Best of luck.

[chefkeith]

I doubt I'll find Levamisole anywhere soon.

I do have a few boxes of Parasite Clear that contains- praziquantel, metronidazole, and acriflavine. I also have a bottle of Maracyn, Maracide, and Triple Sulfa.

I'll run and get some Maracyn II right now. Be back in a few.

[mikev]

I've just posted my report on UltraCarePX, this is possibly another option.

This med is a gel which contains three meds:

Praziquantel
Flubenol
Metronizadole

Good luck...you need it, I fear.

[chefkeith]

Thanks very much for the quick responses Erik and Mark. Great timing we had.

It sure is nice having 2 LFSes within a mile from my house. The 1st lfs didn't have Maracyn 2, so I quickly left and went to the other before they closed for the night. They had Maracyn-Two and PraziPro, so I got them both. They locked the door as soon as I left.

I'll move the clown to another tank and start treatment with Maracyn 1 & 2 and the PraziPro.

I'll put the clown in a cycled 15g tank that some Rainbowfish fry are in (I'll move the fry to a snail tank). That seems like the best choice.

[Erik]

Awesome fast response.
Good luck.
Btw the ultracarePX sounds good too.

[chefkeith]

I moved the fry, then checked the water. Parameters are fine.

I put some slate in the tank, then put the clown in. I also medicated the tank with a single dose each of Maracyn 1&2 and Prazipro.

Now the only question is should I still try to get some Levamisole? It would probably be a week before I recieve it if I get it over the net. It would be a good idea to have it on my shelf just in case if this happens again. Anyone know where I can get some?

I'll have to check all my tanks carefully Tomorrow just to be sure this isn't the only sick loach. I usually check under rocks/driftwood on only one tank each week because I have 50+ pieces of slate/driftwood altogether in these tanks. I guess this is the drawback of having a multi-tank setup with water-bridges. A sick fish can swim from tank to tank between tank cleanings and go unnoticed for months.

There are pics of my set-up here- http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=97

Here's a few pic of the sick clown in his new home-

[Mark in Vancouver]

I would see what results you get before you order the Levamisole. Just be patient and see what comes of it. This is a fairly severe case, and one can easily make things worse by complicating the treatment. The loach's immune system must be in mind, and there is a low overload threshold, I think.

I really hope this works for you - or, your loach!

[mikev]

Btw the ultracarePX sounds good too.

IMHO, not for this case. Since chefkeith has a clean small tank, no reason not to use your combination.

Where UltraCarePX may prove helpful is in finding other infected fish which does not have any visible symptomes. If one of a group has a parasite, it appears that the chances of others having it are pretty good, and its much simpler to treat before you got a full-scale disease.

[chefkeith]

Thanks mikev. I hope you're still here.
How big is each dosage of Ultra Care PX. I'd need to treat about 400 gallons of water if decide to treat all my tanks. BigAlsonline sells Ultra Care PX in 4 oz bottles for $4 each. I'd have to figure out how much to order.

I do have 2 boxes (100 tabs each) of Jungle Parasite Clear, with each tablet being good for 10 gallons. Each box cost me $24 +shipping. I'd rather use this if it's more cost effective. It has most of the same ingredients as the Ultra Care PX.

Ultra Care has - Metronidazole, Praziquantel , and Flubenol.

Parasite Clear has- Metronidazole, Praziquantel, N-[[(N-Chlorophenyl)amino]carbon 1]-2,6-difluorobenzamide; Acriflavine.

[mikev]

Hi, Chefkeith,

The idea of UltraCarePX is to treat the fish, not the tanks --- I tried it because I did not feel like putting large amounts of meds into the main tank and spoil something. The diff is really not in the components, but how you apply the med.

Simply soak the food (flakes+pellets+dried bloodworms) in the gel (assemble the food you intend to feed together and put the gel on it so everything is wet), and then drop the food in the usual way into the tank. This way you use very little med. I used about 10% of a 4oz bottle on 10g+65g, so you probably need only one bottle. Don't use any food you cannot spike while treating (no frozen/live worms for example).

What you need to do is to watch the fish carefully for appetite loss. If you see this happening, this probably means that the fish was infected, and you might have cured it, but you should watch it and possibly give it an individual treatment in the hospital tank later.

See my "report" on this on another thread for more.

If you do decide to try this, I'd love to see your results.

[chefkeith]

Sounds great. I'll definately try it. I'll look around for some Tomorrow.

[chefkeith]

This morning, well about 15 minutes ago, I found another emaciated clown.

I removed all the slate caves from the river tank and about 15 clowns angerly flocked around the tank then went up through the water-bridge to the other tank. This poor guy was left all alone. He was sitting duck for my fish nets. He didn't put up a fight either.
This one is just as bad or worse than the other. He is a little bit bigger than the other, over 6". I put him in the Q-tank with the other. I don't have the stomach to take any pics.

I need to take a long break and get some fresh air. Then I'll continue on with the other tanks.

[CKfish]

Wow, Keith, sorry you're going through this. I'll throw my two cents in. I've managed to treat this successfully once. Unfortunately my shotgun approach isn't going to yield much in the way of a precise therapy.

First, I isolated the sick fish. Then dosed the hospital tank water with Levamisole. I also tried to use Levamisole mixed into food, but had limited success. I had better luck with a metronidazole medicated food that I purchased premade from rockymountaindiscus.com. I tried my own metronidazole food at an earlier time, but the fish didn't want it.

I followed this up with two full courses of Maracyn/Maracyn II and continued feeding the medicated food once daily with bloodworms. I tried to get the fish to eat as much as possible, and eventually he did start to put on weight. His growth accelerated and he has now caught up in size to the others that I purchased at the same time.

Good luck-- the photos of these guys looks pretty severe.