Loaches Online Forum

I have two clown loaches, one black moor and one golden dojo in a 20 gallon tank. The one clown loach is about 3.5 in and def. the alpha since our calico goldfish died. He was dominating the tank and everything was fine until he died. Now my second clown loach who is about 1.5 inches and was attached at the hip to the other clown is now going downhill. He is getting smaller and his body is being drained its so thin. He will not stop swimming vertically at the top and refuses to go to the bottom, sometimes he's on his side at the top as well. I thought maybe swim bladder bc that's what happened to our goldfish but I put him in his own bowl and he's just frozen on the bottom. He is losing his color and his tail is getting pale and whitish. I used a treatment of API tetracycline, did water and filter changes with Prime and nothing is helping. His body looks like a vampire is sucking the life out of him! He barely eats and is constantly moving when he used to sleep on bottom in a cave w the alpha. I'm sorry this is rambling but can someone please help, even the dojo seems depressed and all happened after the huge calico died, the next day the dynamic changed. Any help???? I love him and I'm so sad to watch him in stress.

Thank you

Sounds like internal parasites.

I would do the following:

1) Set up a separate tank for Clown Loach babies. They are not compatible with Dojo Loaches or Goldfish which are cool water fish. Read the species description here:
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/cl ... cracanthus
2) Get more Clown Loaches, they are social fish and thrive in groups of half a dozen or more.
3) Treat the Clown Loachs for skinny disease, alternating antiparasite meds with antibiotics.
(search the forums and read several threads about this problem)
4) Feed the Clown Loach babies well and often so they grow well.
5) Buy a much larger tank and set it up just for Clown Loaches.

Here is how I took care of this:
1), 2) Put several CL babies in a 10 gallon quarantine tank. Make sure the water chemistry, temperature, water movement and decor was appropriate to CL.
3) Treat them for skinny disease.
4) Feed them 3 times a day with a rotation of foods. Some foods were medicated, as part of step 3)
5) Move them up in tank size as they grow, always keeping ahead of their growth so that 1" of Clown Loach meant 1' of tank length. When they reached 4" they were in a 4' long tank, for example. Now they are in a 6' long tank.

Thank you so much for answering. He seemed ok and actually swimming around near the bottom like he used to after we got a new dojo. I didn't realize they weren't good for each other. Today he has a little cottony growth on his head by his eye, what is that????