Clown Loach Turning Black...

[Icewall42]

Thank you. It seems to be slowly getting better, though it is still hard saying. I went and got some ammonia-absorbing filter media to place in both filters, and along the way I got a Mardel in-tank meter for ammonia. Once I put that in the tank, it never changed from yellow. So was the other chemical test kit from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals expired, or giving a false positive?

I've never seen this meter change in either tank (and I thought the ammonia what skyrocket in the quarantine with a big clown in it). I'm almost worried that it's somehow not working right but the instructions were basically clip the meter cartridge in place and stick it in the tank... :/

Maybe it was just carbon after all.

[chefkeith]

The meters probably only detect ammonia.

To see if the test kit is working you could test some clean sources of water, like bottled water and tap water. Test the bottled water for ammonia, then see if the the bottled water with a proper dose of Ammolock will give a false positive. If I remember correctly, Ammolock will give a false positive with or without binding to chlorine or chloramines.

[Icewall42]

Yes, the meter is only testing for ammonia. I use newer test strips to test for nitrites and nitrates, and thus far there is no nitrite and nitrate is hanging around 40 ppm, down from 80 a few days ago. The chemical test is only testing for ammonia, and I used it in the 72 (where ammo-lock was used) and the 30 gallon (where nothing was used). The 72 showed toxic ammonia levels, and the 30 showed none. I don't think that test was defective, but that it was being thrown off by chemicals in the water.

I will have to try the control you suggest with ammo-lock and tap water, just to be certain. I think I was also just worried that the meter wasn't working at all, since I don't have a real way to test it (it must be a different type of test for ammonia than the chemical one).

EDIT: On the plus side, the white cloud of bacterial bloom has almost completely cleared up.

[chefkeith]

I'm still puzzled about the clown loach. I now remember a thread from a few months ago that was just as puzzling. I hope your clown loach doesn't have the same problem.

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=15618

[Icewall42]

Wow, the black patches look very similar to what happened to my big guy, except that he doesn't have the smaller white patches. I did see one large "albino" patch on his side, but that went away a few minutes after I saw it, so I might have just been seeing things. He hasn't had any white patches since, though the white of his normal fading did look more pronounced, as did the white between the stripes and the orange.

The tumor hypothesis worries me, but because he's not getting worse now and he's not turning white, I'm hoping it was just a temporary malfunction, most likely of his pigmentation chemicals. He was also losing some weight more than he was gaining it.

[Icewall42]

Well, the good news is that the clown is looking MUCH better with more normal coloration, and he's becoming just as fiesty and grumpy as he used to be. I was also getting worried that the alpha status had changed hands between my two largest clowns, but since I've never seen such a thing happen before, I doubted that.

I'm going to conclude that this particular mess was the result of a carbon "allergy." Somehow, the carbon seems to adversely affect the pigmentation of the largest clowns, either with these black patches, or with black freckles (from an earlier topic). I have since replaced the carbon bag with ammonia absorbing bags, and all seems to be well now. The tank just radiates clean, now, and the water is clear.

The bad news? I had to spend hundreds of dollars on this new filter >.< But if it ends my fish sickness and death problems, it'll be more than worth it. I'm hoping to add the skunks from the 30g to this tank (the 72g) very soon as they have been in quarantine for a couple of months.

[soul-hugger]

I have been watching your topic for awhile, and I'm very glad to hear he's getting better. I would have never thought of an "allergy" to carbon, until I read it here. Lately I have been hearing more negative things about carbon; from not using it in a planted tank, to this. All the filters in my range of "affordibility" use carbon as their main source of chemical filtration. Though expensive, purchasing a new filter with more options as far as media is a great thing to do. You may just find it gives you less problems, too.

I saw the pictures of your little guy, and he's a nice-looking Loach. I hope things continue to go well for you.

soul-hugger

[Icewall42]

Thank you, I would have really hated to lose this clown (he's 12 going on 13, and he's about 11"). I am rather glad I have more filter meduia options so I can find what works best for them. But even if you have a smaller filter, you can still run most of them without carbon. The Magnun 350s and similar filters have smaller canisters inside that must be filled, or else they collapse, but I've taken to just filling them with tank gravel or filling them with ammonia absorbing stones in place of the carbon. I believe the off-the-back filters can also run without carbon.

The strange thing is that this carbon issue only affects the clown loaches, and for this big guy, only just recently (He had been exposed to carbon for many years. Recently I stopped using carbon, for a number of months, then I used carbon again and that's when the irritation showed up). I'm actually not sure what to call the issue, except perhaps carbon sensitivity. It might even be something that develops with age, or after repeated exposure--like an allergy.

I've actually heard of carbon discoloring other fish. I doubt it has anything to do with not fully rinsing it, since the issue was getting worse as the week went on, and now the issue is getting better with no carbon (I only did one or two 25% water changes inbetween).

[Diana]

I am glad you found out the problem, and the remedy.

A caution about ammonia removing materials: These are starving the nitrifying bacteria.
When you add fresh material it grabs a lot of the ammonia, leaving very little for the nitrifying bacteria, which can die off to match the amount of ammonia remaining.
As the material gets full more and more ammonia remains in the tank and the bacteria population grows back to match the ammonia level.
Then you change the ammonia removing product, and again the fresh material starves the bacteria.

Much better if you want to use this material that you divide it into 2 or 3 bags and rotate the bags so that there is always some relatively fresh material in the filter, and some older that is still adsorbing the ammonia.

When you want to wean the tank off this product use less in the bags for a while and monitor the ammonia to be sure the bacteria are handling it.