Clown Loaches with shrinking fins

[asieh]

I have 3 loaches (had them for about 6 months). They are all eating and growing fine, with nice deep orange colors, but two of them have shrinking fins. Their fins are not ragged or nibbled on, and no rot.

The tail fins have become a sharp V and the top fins as well as pectoral fins have become very small. They other clown loach is perfect.

The are active and eat well and very sociable. Aside from the shrinking fins, everything is perfect.

Water quality is excellent - 55g tank - well planted w/co2 system - nitrate 0, ph 6.8, i do a water chage of 15% every ten days, gravel vac every other water change.

Diet consists of variation of frozen bloodworms & brine shrimp, sinking pellets and flake.

Anyone knows why this is happening.

[Graeme Robson]

Can you supply us with any pictures?

[chefkeith]

What other fish are in the tank? and how big are all the fish?


0 Nitrates doesn't necessarily mean that the water quality is excellent. The water could still be very high in organic pollution from decaying plant matter and fish waste. High organic levels will have high impact on bacterial levels. Columnaris disease is quite common under these conditions. Fish that are infected with this bacteria may have disintegrated fins, like that of your loach.

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disea ... mnaris.htm

Frequent Water changes is the best thing to control columnaris.

[asieh]

Fish in tank are:

7 fancy guppies (2 male 5 female)
2 burmese loaches (1.25")
2 chain loaches (1.25")
2 yoyo loaches (1.5")
1 zebra loach (1.5")
3 clown loaches (2 are 2" the ones with shrinking fins - 1 is 2.5")
4 algae shrimps (1 carrying eggs)
4 ottos, 2 SAE (2")

plants : 2 large Crypts, 2 large melon swors, 3 dwarf swords, giant Hygro, water sprite (panted and some floating), lots of java ferns, 2 moss balls, 3 other small pants i havent identified yet (got them as a gift from a friend)

had most of these fish for over 18 months except the zebra loach wich i got about 3months ago (found him at a local Petsmart and they had no clue what it was and they gave it to me for free when i was buying some dog food!) since then i been looking for one more but cant find them.

My plan was to add some corey catfish also , but i dont want to add anymore fish until i figure out this fin issue. So far none of the other fish seem to be affect at all.

I have already treated the tank for fin rot and ick as a precaution.

[chefkeith]

Sounds like a very beautiful tank.

Do you have a pic of the affected fish?

I'm not sure what's going on, but I do know that Meds often don't work against Columnaris. Water Changes need to be done more often. 15% every 10 days just isn't enough. I think 30% weekly might be better. Gravel vac and filter cleanings need to be done weekly also. I'm not sure about the water changes because I don't know the quality of your source water. What is your water source? Tap, Well, RO water? What city are you from?

[asieh]

I have been trying to get a picture of them but have failed miserably. they all come out too blurry or they dart behind a plant or rock.

anyways, i am now going to weekly water changes of 20% and will go to 30% . I live in CT and use the tap water after conditioning it. (mainly i dont have enough of those big water bottles to keep enough water for a 30% change ) but will get another next week. I am also going to do the gravel vac weekly. As for the filter system I have two cannister filters - one is a magnum 250 (i think thats the model) piped into a second housing unit (homemade of pcv pipe with carbon/zeolite) the other is a eheim pro wet/dry and inside the tank i have one small pump going into a seastorm 60 and then into a turbo twist UV sterilizer. one small pump adapted with the CO2 injector. I clean each cannister filter every two weeks (alternating)

as for light diy housing with 3 - 18 watts sun grow lights and 2 65w (6700k) straight pin compacts - have the smaller lights go on first and last to create the morning/evening effect (13hrs) and the others 11 rhs.

I hope the more frequent water changes and cleaning will ghange things.

[TammyLiz]

(mainly i dont have enough of those big water bottles to keep enough water for a 30% change )

Hi. Most water conditioners do not require you to leave the water sit for any period of time before adding to the tank, so I'm assuming this means you don't use any and do the let it sit method for your water? Do you know if your water supply uses chloramines? Likely it does, and I've heard that by two weeks it can begin to break down but I wouldn't count on it, especially after only ten days. It would probably be worth it to invest in a bottle of water conditioner. Then you could do larger water changes more frequently, and wouldn't have to have all that water sitting around, either.

[asieh]

Thanks for the advice. I am using now water conditioners, and actually started going to 15% water changes daily. after 3 days i have noticed the pectoral and dorsal fins started to grow back already. I have not noticed any growth on the tails but hopefully that will start soon. :)

I hope that in the coming weeks I'll be able to add either one more yoyo, burmese or chain loach and would love to find 2 more botia striatas.

If all goes well, next summer my wife and I will remodel our family room and my plan is to put a 150 gl tank with builtins to divide the dinning room from the family room.

[chefkeith]

Glad to hear it.
Sounds like a great plan you have there with a new tank.

Be sure to quarantine any new fish though. Cross contamination is the #1 cause of fish diseases. Adding new fish to an established tank needs to be done with great caution.

[shari2]

As I can personally attest, and recently.