sad news

[Feyna]

Those of you who helped me in the freshwater forum with my tank. After keeping track of readings, water changes, etc...

I lost my two small clown loaches. One a week ago, and another tonight. I'm actually pretty upset over losing these little guys, despite the fact that the whole setup was given to me, and I wasn't the original owner of them. I had quickly grown to enjoy their antics, and I loved learning about them. I still have the big clown loach left, and will hopefully be able to get him a couple more buddies in a week. I hate to leave it so long, but I need to watch things the rest of this week. As far as I was told, the big loach is 7 years old, and I'm not going to lose him.

Thanks.

[Ashleigh]

Thats unfortunate, sorry to hear that

Just make sure you quarantine any new additions for a few weeks, treat for parasites etc so that they don't infect your big clownloach when you add them to his tank.



Ashleigh

[Feyna]

I honestly don't know if it's going to be physically feasible for me to quarantine new arrivals, as I don't have room for another tank, even my lil 5 gallon, which is the only tank I haven't set up yet. To be honest, I've never done quarantine on fish before...

[raecarrow]

I have a 5.5 gallon hospital/quarentine tank. I dose any new fish with Melafix, Pimafix and for intestinal parasites for a week or two before adding them to my main tank. This really does cut down on the die offs I have had. This has mainly been for guppies as an illness can sweep through a tank of guppies VERY quickly (I went from 10 adult guppies and 30 babies to 2 adults and 6 babies in a week). Trust me, there is always room to set up a quarentine tank. I am currently in a 220sqft studio and I still have a q-tank. It isn't worth having your big guy die off.

[Diana]

Quarantine, do not gamble.

[raving_wayne]

in reply to space for a quarantine i have seen this for my self a friend of mine has a large 100gallon like mine and has fitted a 12" squared tank inside it just above water level and he uses it for a hospital/quarantine tank and it works fantastic its just plain glass not sand/gravel and he has it running on a box air filter and it really is amazing the way he done it he has however covered the front in a jungle plant so its not really visible from the front, next time im there and have my cam ill photo it and show you but does show that if you have a decent ish size tank you can have ya own hospital tank built in


Rave

p.s no chance of fish jumping in or out as he has a little lid which sits over the hospital tank to

[Feyna]

If I get a couple of clowns, can they do ok for a week or two in a 5 gallon, though? I guess it would depend on their size? Because my big clown is about 6 inches, I'm not sure that I could mix him with some 1-2 inch young'uns.

[raving_wayne]

my 5inch is fine with the other loaches infact he/she seems to watch out for them in a fish kinda fashion, i see no real reason why a 5 gallon cant house fine for a week or so while quarantining fish i use a 60 litre tank for mine but i have the sapce for it if i didint and only had room for a 5 gallon then i would use it as most the fishes i buy are babies anyway and a week in confind quarters so to speak shouldnt harm them really

Rave

[Joe Khul]

I am very sorry to hear this Fenya!

I recently lost my signature loache, my khuli Joe, after almost 7 years. You have my sincerest sympathies.

Joe Khul, aka Mike

[Sea Sprite]

I'm sorry, too, Feyna.

[Ashleigh]

It will take several weeks to treat baby clown loaches.

Look for a product called Kusuri Wormer Plus (found on ebay) or Levamisole (pig/sheep wormer avaliable either online or from loacl vets). You will need to search 'Levamisole' to get treatment amounts/concentrations and the time between treatment one and two (I think its about a week). The Levamisole treatment will take 2 weeks total to treat-basically you treat to kill off any parasites, then a week later to kill off any eggs that may have hatched. Kusuri Wormer only needs one treatment-I would leave it in for 4-6days.
You will then need to try and get hold of prazipro, carry out that treatment for a week. Levamisole and (i think) Kusuri Wormer only treats for roundworms. It could be possible that Kusuri Wormer treats both round and flat worms but it doesn't state on the packaging specifics.
Prazipro treats for flatworms. It would be best to treat with an antibiotic also, to ensure no secondary infection occurs. I think you can use maracyn/2 and prazipro at the same time, but Ive always done it seperate.
Treat for ich as well once all the above treatments have been carried out so you don't bring that into your main tank. Ich can hide in the gills and so not visable to eye-treat as a precaution.

This seems like a lot, I know. But its more worth while treating a few weeks and having healthy little loaches, insetead of taking a gamble and having a sick loach/loaches down the line.

Young clowns will settle in well with larger individuals, I wouldn't worry to much. Your big guy will most likely be happy of the company



Ashleigh