HELP Clown Loaches not eating

[redshark1]

In my 45 years of fishkeeping I have found that water quality is behind many of the problems we encounter in the hobby. The fishkeeper should always strive to improve his water quality (yes, even after 45 years improvements can be made as I have recently found). Water quality (and then fish health) declines as soon as he stops trying to improve it.

If I were in this position as it is now I would do the following.

I would check the skin and fins of the fish for tiny white spots the size of a grain of salt. This is because Clown Loaches newly purchased usually become infected with the whitespot parasite which sucks the life out of them. Whitespot is also known as ich. It must be treated immediately as it is rapid and fatal. Heat and medications are usually combined to treat the fish, google will reveal the details.

I would check that I have a very good understanding of the nitrogen cycle (you cannot successfully keep fish alive for any length of time without this) and that there is not a high level of ammonia present in the aquarium as this can also be fatal. The API liquid ammonia test is the one to buy.

I would ensure the tank is not overstocked. A guide can be found at Aquadvisor which is a reasonable starting point before discussing details with others on the forum.

Water changes will dilute elevated toxin levels but will not solve the fundamental problem of their production and processing.

It is possible that the fish are now too weak to eat which would explain their loss of appetite. Clown Loaches are normally very easy to feed. I would say that live bloodworm is the most attractive food to them but frozen bloodworm is very good also.

I have isolated a Clown Loach in a floating container in the aquarium and treated it for whitespot while feeding it bloodworms. The fish is still with me 24 years later.

[NancyD]

A very good post by redshark! I would like to see the test results for ammonia, nitrite & nitrate. Stressed out fish will not likely eat well if at all.

Often LFS will test your tank water for free if you don't have an API kit yet. Try to get actual numbers, not just ok.