Brownish spots on a loach

[laikinasis]

http://soften.ktu.lt/~s665731/liga.jpg

Today I've found that my loach has some brown spots on his body, though he's acting rather healthy (always looks for snails), interested in food (when I feed him). Some sources suggest that this may be a natural pigmentation, but I've look through month old pictures and didn't find any brown spots.

My tank ( http://soften.ktu.lt/~s665731/akvariumas_balandi.jpg ):
* 2 years old
* 95 litres (25 gallons)
* JBL e700 external filter
* Bluclima 125W heater
* ~28W of light (Philips Aquarelle and Osram Flora, yet I don't remember watts exactly)
* 2 clown loaches, 1 SAE, 3 ancistrus sp., 4 tiger barbs, 1 synodontis decorus
* Feeding - once per day, usually flakes or granules (Tetramin)

I measured water parameters a month ago with JBL Easytest, everything seemed to be in order.

[soul-hugger]

Hi, laikinasis,

Welcome to Loaches Online!

Very nice-looking tank! Love the Vallisneria in the back.

In the more distant picture it is impossible to tell there is anything wrong with your Loach. In the closer one, I can see the brown spots you mentioned, but it doesn't look like anything to worry about to me. Clown Loaches do have pigmentation that can change over time, not only throughout their life cycle, (fading as they mature) but also with day to day changes in mood.

The spots don't look like they are sticking out, and the skin does not look patchy in other places. Perhaps someone else might have another opinion, but it looks to me too like it might just be pigment spots. Each Clown will have his own markings, and as they grow might get a spot or two that wasn't there before, just like we do.

But I would watch him just in case. Look for changes in the spot, places that are protruding in any way, red flecks in the fins, tail, or skin, and fuzzy patches. Most other diseases such as ich are quite distinguishable.

You might also want to try varying his diet a little with some food from your own table. The Loach and Barbs particularly will enjoy fruit, veggies, beans and peas (skins removed), and raw seafood. The Ancistrus will love a bit of lettuce weighted down with a rock and may go after the other items as well. I don't know much about Synodontis Cats and what they eat, but I'm sure he would enjoy this as well.

Hope this helps,
soul-hugger

[chefkeith]

Many of my clowns use to get those kind of blemishes real bad. IME, it was due to sudden water chemistry changes (TDS drops) when I did water changes. I had several issues with the water chemistry particularly with the TDS. My TDS was too high because rocks were leaching and I was adding plant fertilizers. Also the water changes I was doing were too large, and water changes weren't done frequently enough.


IME, the spots or freckles kept getting worse until I solved the water chemistry problem. My remedy was to keep a steady TDS, keep the nitrates low, and do frequent small water changes. The spots didn't clear on their own easily. It took 6 months to year for the spots to fade away naturally. My loaches haven't had any freckle breakouts for a very long time. I think it's been 3 years since I last had this problem.

I think the spots are just fatty secretions underneath the slime coat. In my case, when the TDS was dropped suddenly, the fish experienced sudden internal osmolority pressure. I think this pressure caused an outbreak of the fatty secretions and the result looked like either a brown blotch, a small freckle, or a black spot.
Here's a pic of what some of my clowns looked like when they had the problem -

There could be other causes for the spot outbreaks as well, such as environmental stress, tank not being big enough, not enough oxygen, CO2 level too high, pH shifting too much during photosynthesis, too much lighting, or water quality issues. Basically, it can be anything little thing that may cause stress. If the loaches are in a 25 gallon tank, that alone is a problem that could easily stunt their growth.