Skinny/Dying Clown Loach

This forum is for all health-related questions on Loaches and other freshwater fish.

Moderator: LoachForumModerators

Post Reply
RBhd1
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2013 2:41 pm

Skinny/Dying Clown Loach

Post by RBhd1 » Mon Jun 24, 2013 3:24 pm

Hi everyone,
First time poster here, but long time lurker, but unfortunately I'm sorry to say my first post here is asking for help if at all possible?

I have 7 clown loaches in a 350 litre tank, a couple of torpedo barbs and a severum, all the clown loaches are quite small 2-3 inches apart from one big guy Jerry who is about 6 inches long.
Approximately 5 weeks ago I added two small clown loaches (to take me from five to seven) and after adding the two new loaches they all come down with a mild case of white spot. I treated with Esha exit and all was cleared up within a few days, but I noticed Jerry my large loach starting to show signs of rapid gill movement, but I put it down to the white spot/treatment. I did a large water change thinking this would solve the issue, but still no improvement.

Now 5 weeks on Jerry is still breathing rapidly and hanging by the filter intake, he has gone razor backed and is not eating, when I put food in he becomes pretty active and is the first there, but he sort of sniffs it and moves on, if he does eat a tiny bit he starts shaking/flicking his head side to side. I cant see any signs of external parasites or anything, his gill plates seem red and he has had a few sores appear around his mouth, but they have cleared up and healed and one of his eyes looked like it had a case of popeye for a day or so, but it has since cleared.

All the other fish in the tank are unaffected, apart from one torpedo barb which one day last week suddenly started spiralling around the tank and within 2 hours died.

Now I have tried treating Jerry over the last 5 weeks but to no avail and between treatments I have run carbon for 24 hours and done large water changes. Firstly I used Esha 2000 as it is safe to use in conjunction with the Esha exit I was using to treat for white spot. I then thought it had to be an internal problem so I treated with Waterlife Octozin and Interpet number 9 anti- internal bacteria after reading online of good results using the meds combined. Still no improvement so I thought maybe its gill flukes and I tried Tetra Medica tremaex which contains praziquantel. Again no improvement so finally I thought maybe its internal worms so I treated with Chanaverm which contains Levamisole hydrochloride, that was four days ago and there is still no improvement. I have had Jerry for 3 years and have become really attached to him and its killing me watching him slowly waste away, does anyone have any suggestions on what it possibly could be? I am aware it has gone on for a long time now so he may not be able to recover, but I'm not willing to give up the fight just yet.

The current tank has been set up just over a year, its running an external canister filter at a temp of 27/28 degrees Celsius. Fifty % water change once a fortnight, ammonia and nitrite all reading 0, nitrates go up to about 25 before coming back down with a water change.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and once again sorry for such a lengthy post and subject matter for first time post.

Thanks

Rupert

Diana
Posts: 4675
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:35 am
Location: Near San Franciso

Re: Skinny/Dying Clown Loach

Post by Diana » Sat Jun 29, 2013 10:55 pm

I am not familiar with the products you are using, the active ingredients, or what they are supposed to treat.

A fish that does not eat and is getting skinny highly likely has internal parasites. I would treat with Prazi-Pro, Safe-Guard (dog wormer) or other product that kills internal parasites. You may have to alternate 2 products. Not all parasites will be killed with any one product.

When you buy new fish quarantine them for a month or so, treating as needed, so they do not bring parasites and disease into your main tank. I would treat all bottom dwelling fish (Loaches, Catfish, some others) for internal parasites, even if they are not showing signs.
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.

Happy fish keeping!

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 66 guests