clown loach died, what treatment now?

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crista.19
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:16 am

clown loach died, what treatment now?

Post by crista.19 » Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:38 am

I am new to having an aquarium, I acquired this one in May from a fish lover who had too many tanks. With it came 3 clown loaches, a large plecatamous, and some guppies. We have added some sunburst wags, mollies, and tetras. I have had a few of the newer fish die here and there, but for the most part, they seemed to be doing well. The loaches hardly ever came out though, they hide in the big dark "colleseum" in the tank. At night you might see them, but if they saw you, they'd hide. Read this was normal, so didn't think much of it. About 3-4 weeks ago, they started coming out during the day, they would swim and play, and began doing some of that play dead behavior, which worrried me until I read more about it being normal. I was happy that they finally felt adjusted to their new environment and would come out to play, took this as a good sign. However, the smallest of the clowns, began to act more odd about 2-3 weeks ago, breathing faster (although it seems all 3 breath pretty fast), he would also tread water if you will, right at the surface, gulping wtih his mouth. He may do this for many minutes at a time, but then would start to swim again normally. Also during this time, my water seemed to get real cloudy, I tried doing a 30% water change, but it didn't help at all. Read some about him, thought he might have ich. Didn't see the spots, but the behavior seemed similar, and I read that sometimes you can't see it, but it infects the gills (thus the breathing trouble). So, treated the tank with 1/2 strength super ick (malachite green and nitrofurazone), which is what the pet store recommended. Treated per the box, one treatment, repeat in 48 hours, then in another 48 hours changed 25% of the water. Did remove the carbon during that time, and raised the temp to about 80-82 slowly. Unfortuneately, my sick clown didn't make it. However, the other fish and clowns seem to be doing fine. Also, my water has cleared up quite a bit. My question now is, after reading some more about this, wondering first if I need to repeat the ick treatment, have read that need to treat for 10-14 days. Also wondering if the clown actually had skinny disease (he did seem to get skinnier- but not as bad as some photos I saw, and he wasn't eating during his last week of life) and need to treat with a different medicine. Not sure if it is best to just watch and see how the others do, or if I should continue treating for ich, or add treatement for skinny disease. Also read about adding salt, I have routinely done that as a normal part of maintenance anyway. Sorry for the long post, do appreciate any help.

EmilyMarie85
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 12:22 pm
Location: Boise, ID USA

Re: clown loach died, what treatment now?

Post by EmilyMarie85 » Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:23 pm

1. What size tank? What filtration are you using? Water parems?
2. Cloudy water can mean bacterial bloom, which could either be a mini-cycle or mean that your tank is not fully cycled yet
3. Clown loaches are very sensitive to medications, not sure that I would have gone with something as strong as malachite green - salt & temp increase usually work just fine and are a lot easier for the clowns to handle
4. You also said you slowly raised the temp to 80-82, what was the temp at before? Clowns really enjoy the warmer water temp. all the time, I keep mine at 81 -- when treating for ich, you should be slowly raising the temp. to 85-86 degrees. Here is a really good read on clown care http://www.loaches.com/species-index/cl ... cracanthus

Hopefully some of the experts will chime in --

crista.19
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:16 am

Re: clown loach died, what treatment now?

Post by crista.19 » Fri Aug 19, 2011 7:57 pm

1. It's a 35 gallon tank, it has an outside mount fitler, that uses large bags, that's all I really know, I inherited it, and can't find any size or number on it. Also, I am not checking the water, so that I don't know all the details, I did check the ph and it was 8 today, but when having the problems, it was closer to 7. I had heard to not go crazy checking the water as you can make the situation worse by trying to adjust all the time.
2. ok, again, cloudiness seems to be better now.
3. I use the amount of salt suggested with regular water changes (1 tablespoon per 5 gallons), so adding salt wouldn't help, as I was already doing that.
4. The guy who gave me the tank told me to keep it at 76-78, so that's where it was, upon doing some reading on my own, realized it really should be warmer, so I have left it at about 80.

Thanks for your thoughts, my main question is, Should I continue to treat the ich for 14 days or add treatment for skinny disease? Is it still likely to be in my tank? Currently all the other fish look great, so like you commented on meds, had to add if not needed. However, if the problem will recur, would rather get the full treatment in now, don't want another clown to get it and die.

Any other advice?

crista.19
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:16 am

Re: clown loach died, what treatment now?

Post by crista.19 » Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:12 pm

I did read the article you suggested. In regards to the bacterial bloom, I had read some about that too prior to this. And, I did find a dead fish eventually during this time of the cloudy water. I knew he must have died ( a sunburst wag) as I couldn't find him swimming, but couldn't find his body either. One water change and vacuum didn't find him, on the second one, I pulled up more of the gravel filter system, and did find him. Maybe there was never any ich, but rather a bacterial bloom due to the dead fish (who could have been in there 2 weeks), which sucked up the oxygen, making my clown die eventually. Just another idea, if that's the case, I would think no more medication or treatment would be the best choice.

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