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White lines/dry or cracked skin on clown loach

Posted: Sat May 26, 2018 4:15 pm
by Platotamus
Hi,

New to the forum but wanted to get some advice.

Recently we added some red phantoms to our 180L tank and everything seemed fine. A few days later I noticed that 2 of the phantoms looked unusual- covered in loads of white bumps. This had also spread to the clown loaches in the tank- white spots/bumps all over their bodies, tails and even on one of their eyes.

After a quick look online it suggested it was ich and to treat with formaldehyde and malachite green so a quick visit to the shop and we have been using this as directed on the bottle. All of the affected fish have now returned to normal- eyes look healthy and no visible white spots/bumps anywhere.

However, one of the clown loaches (the smallest one) appears to have white lines on his body and it looks like cracked skin. I am not sure what this is or why it has happened. Other than these marks on the body it is eating and swimming normally as it was before the initial outbreak- I am hopeful that this is just him recovering but wanted to get some advice.

Thank you

Re: White lines/dry or cracked skin on clown loach

Posted: Sat May 26, 2018 9:13 pm
by Diana
I have not heard of this reaction.
However, some fish are much more sensitive to certain medications, and need careful dosing. Even within a species one individual may react in a different way.
It sounds like the Ich episode is over, but here are a few tips.

1) When you buy new fish, put them in a separate tank (often people use a 10 gallon for this) and monitor them for several weeks to a month, and treat as needed before adding them to your main tank.

2) When you are treating Loaches, Catfish or certain fish with extremely fine scales, and a few others, you can try dosing like this:
Use half the dose on the label. Dose this much twice a day, instead of once a day (as most meds are dosed).
Here is what happens: When you dose per label (higher dose once per day) this adds a very high dose to the tank. Then the meds break down over 24 hours. The label directions add so much medication that as the meds break down they are still at effective levels.
The alternate method, twice a day, but half as much, will maintain the effective dose, but without that initial high dose that can affect sensitive fish.

3) Include other Ich control techniques to the treatment. This can include:
~Frequent water changes that emphasize vacuuming the floor of the tank and other surfaces (driftwood, stones, ceramic merpeople) plus inside caves or under arches where water flow may be restricted. This removes the breeding Ich organisms, helping to break the breeding cycle.
~Raise the temperature if the fish can tolerate it. Higher temperature water holds less oxygen, so increase the surface movement with additional bubbler, circulation pump, or other methods.
~Do not combine medications unless both meds are labeled for use with each other.

Re: White lines/dry or cracked skin on clown loach

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 3:28 am
by Bas Pels
If you write "white bumps" - how large are these?

Ich is small. At most a millimeter (1/25th of an inch) across, and hardly any thickness.

I get a feeling the white bumps should me much larger, 2 mm thick 3 or more mm across, and in that case the ilness was not ich. Most likely the fishes have recovered from it, the bumps have gone after all, but it is not cured.

I once swapped half the fishes of a tank with a friend's half. All fishes looked OK, but all had some unknown desease which was sleeping. The swap awoke the illness, and all fishes died, at my place and his.

What your fishes have? I'm thinking of some bacterium or virus. Unknown.

I would not try and cure an unknown illness, but I would not add any new fishes, and I would be rather carefull when I would have to put a hand in this water, always sinse it thoroughly with soap afterwards.