Loaches Online Forum

Hello, I was wondering if anyone on here had any thoughts on how we can help this fish!

This problem started a few months ago with some tiny ulcer looking defects on the skin, which then led to 1 eye becoming cloudy. King British disease clear didn't do anything, but a 2-3 weeks quarantined with standard dose of melafix seemed to help, and at least cleared the cloudy eye. We put the loach into the main tank thinking it was better, then overnight this happened.

The other (golden) weather loach is absolutely fine, as are all the kuhlis and other fish. They are currently housed in a 200 litre heated tank 24 degrees centigrade with external filter.

I did have a weather loach die with some ulcers around spring time, but as it was quite a few years old and deformed when we bought it I had assumed it was age related, but perhaps not.

Any help would be much appreciated!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1VqgHe ... sp=sharing

The picture shows a classic example of Columnaris, also called Saddle Disease because it often shows up across the dorsal surface, as in this picture.

Caused by a Gram negative bacteria, Flavobacteria columnare.
Treatment can be with external medicines when you first see it.
Better treatment is with medicated food. Look for antibiotics that target Gram negative organisms, and you can do some research to see which meds are available to you (active ingredient) and how to make your own medicated food. It is pretty easy. I started with the recipe here at Loaches, and carefully figured out the dose of medication (how much per day... how many days...) and made a plastic baggie of the medicated food. By squishing the food flat in the baggie then freezing it you can then break off just the amount you want to feed the fish each meal.