Loaches Online Forum

Hello everyone,
I'm new to this forum and have had clown loaches for years. Some of my clown loaches are going on 10 years old.

Here's the problem: All but my youngest guy (he's at least 7) now have black freckles on them, especially on the fins. They don't appear to be raised bumps and they all still have a good appetite and aren't scraping themselves on anything, so it doesn't seem to itch.

Information to know: I recently had to treat for ich, with successful results. I was really concerned because I'd always heard that scaleless fish are very likely to die when treated. I used malachite green drops and turned up the heat and it did eventually work. I installed a UV filter immediately afterward.

I joined this website to find out what to do, if anything, because all the other places I went online seemed pretty alarmist. I already did a large water change (1/3) yesterday and put Melafix (one of my most favorite products EVER) in the tank.

Do I just wait this out or do I need to treat the tank again? What should I use?
Thanks for any information you can give!

Several years ago here at Loaches there were several people looking into this. The conclusion they came to was that activated carbon has tiny bits that get into the tank, and can cause the tiny black specks on some fish (Including Clown Loaches).
If you use AC, rinse it REALLY WELL before adding it to the filter.