Update with good news, and maybe some bad news

[chefkeith]

Other notes:

I never saw loaches so happy for a water change before. They waited right underneath the outlet hose where I was pumping in fresh water. The loaches in the main tanks seem happy right now. I dialed down the tank temps to 82F also, so they are happy about that too.

The clowns in the quarantine tank, I'm just going to let them rest for a few days. I'm just hoping now that the quinine at least beat back the ich for a few days.

I just noticed that one of Gracies blotches looks just like a heart. Must be that Purple Heart medal she earned.

[Keith Wolcott]

Sorry to hear that you are having this problem, but I hope that you get it all sorted out.

[bookpage]

Hang in there, chefkeith. We are pulling for you and your fish. Know that you are doing all you can for them.

[chefkeith]

Thanks for support.

A few hours ago, I finally realized that activated carbon might help. So I went back to the LFS and bought 2 cartons of the API Activated Carbon. Got home, loaded up 5 canisters, and it seems to be doing it's job. I'll know more in a few hours.

The sudsy bubbles and mucus on the surface seem to be clearing up, not sure that's related to the activated carbon though. I've been using filter floss inside a fish net to scoop it up.

I have a few more pic's
Here you can see how the mucus looks like a spider web when I was doing a water change earlier. It stuck to everything and it was everywhere.

You can see the sudsy froth in this one, it's not nearly that bad anymore.



Naturally, Gracie is the only one brave enough to let me take a picture. No longer the beauty queen she once was, more like rocker with tattoos .




I need to check the quarantine tank now. See if the activated carbon helped there any. I'll get some more coffee too while I'm up. It might be another sleepless night.

[bookpage]

Only experience I have had with loach mucus is when my 125 started leaking and I had to (in a hurry) net my fish out and put them in a 35 gallon plastic bin. Only the clowns gave off the mucus when I netted them. It was a mess.

When I move them from the 125 into their new 240 gallon home I am going to try catching them in a bucket and pouring them and water and fish into the new tank.

Sounds like you may be on the road to recovery. I know you can pull it off.

[chefkeith]

On this fine morning, I'm here to report that things are going seemingly well. The activated carbon worked rather miraculously over night. The water is clear and the mucus layer on the surface has disappeared. The blotches on Gracie, are fading away faster than I can believe. The rest of clown loaches in the main tanks look excellent, as if nothing ever happened to them. The discolorations that many of them had are gone. I haven't seen any ich spots either. I got some sleep last night too. So I'm pretty happy right now.

I haven't had a good look at the loaches in the quarantine tank yet, but I know that mucus layer in the water has cleared up there also. The loaches seem to be comfortable.

One thing I do know is that Activated Carbon when used in large quantities works fast and works awesome.

[chefkeith]

Take a look at Gracie now. Amazing.

[Loachloach]

I am really glad the fish are better. That must have been horrible to experience.
Why did you treat them in the first place? Medications aren't harmless at all. You said the khulis are fine so whatever it is, it may not be from them at all.
Flashing/scraping, frail fins are not only signs of ich but low levels of ammonia for example. My fish do that when I overclean the filters although my test shows 0.

[NancyD]

Wow, I can't believe those spots are gone so fast. The slime looked bad too, did it stink? I had a clown die overnight once & the smell was how I knew something was very wrong.

[LeStat]

Glad to hear things are on the mend, that must have been very stressful for both the fish & yourself!!!

[chefkeith]

Loachloach- Thanks. Yes, it was horrible. Yes, the frail fins probably weren't caused by ich. There was an underlying problem that probably caused it, but I did see 2 ich spots near the tail on a different clown. That confirmed that ich was present. Later, after I started the salt treatment, I saw a few other clowns with what looked like ich also. My tanks probably still have ich and I'll still have to deal with it, but with a method that I know and trust. The kuhli's look fine because I wisely started the preventative treatment the day I got them, which was about 2 weeks ago. They probably had ich in their gills when I got them. Prophylactic treatments actually work and are less stressful to the fish, especially for new fish. Reactive treatments and waiting until full blown infestations usually ends bad. It's best to stop the parasites as early as possible. If your fish ever get ich, you'll understand what I'm talking about. All the fish I've ever purchased locally have had ich. Which is one reason why I haven't purchased any fish locally for over 8 years. The current group of clown loaches I have, with the exception of Grace, were purchased from non-local tropical fish importers and they overnight shipped them to me, which was about 8 years ago.

Nancy- Yes, the slime stunk real bad. I needed to put a fan in the window to get rid of the smell.

LeStat- Thanks. Yes, I don't like stress and either do the fish.

[chefkeith]

Well I'm not out of the woods yet. One clown loach is listless and breathing rapidly. Not sure what to do.

[chefkeith]

She's almost lifeless. I moved her to bucket with water from Q-tank with just enough to cover her. Lots of aeration.

[chefkeith]

She didn't make it. She's already in the freezer. No others are showing the same symptoms. Not sure what to think. Hopefully its isolated. Earlier, I was thinking about moving the clowns that are in quarantine back over to the main tanks, but this death cancels that thought.

I did do a quick inspection of the loach after she passed. She looked a little bloated, so I slightly squeezed her belly, and out shot thousands of eggs.

[Loachloach]

I am so sorry to hear that. Did she show any other signs?
On a side note, what age was she? Its interesting that she had eggs, so they may not need to be a humongous size to be capable of breeding after all. Not that it will happen easilty, but every little bit counts.