HELP! My Loaches are sick

[cj1raven]

It started the middle of last week. I had been changing the water because the Nitrates were high. I then noticed that my smaller loach had marks on it's body and wasn't eating. The marks look like spots or sores on it's body where the skin was scratched away. It just stayed in the corner of the tank. It would come over to me when I got close to the tank. I tried to do more water changes to help alleviate the problem. I can't tell if the sores are getting better. My other loaches seemed to be fine. Then a couple of days ago, I noticed that my medium sized loach had a white spot on it's back near his back fin. It was white and fluffy looking- maybe parasite? The loaches all seem to not be interested in eating. My biggest loach has been in his hiding place inside the sunken ship, so I couldn't see him. He didn't come out to eat over the past couple of days. Today, he finally came out and he is swimming upside down and very lathargic. It looks like he has developed the sores too.

My treatments since the beginning of all this has been as follows:

Water changes to help the 1st fish with the sores. I used Stress Coat to help with the healing.

I also added Melafix antibacterial fish remedy to repair open wounds, damaged fins and ulcers towards the begginning of the process.

I checked PH, nitrites and ammonia. They are all fine.
I'm thinking it may be a parasite or bacteria. It definitly isn't Ick because they don't have little white spots on them. Should I use something to kill parasites or bacteria?

Please help,

Chris

[Emma Turner]

Hi Chris, welcome to Loaches Online.

Sorry to hear about your loaches. If you could answer a few questions, it may be of quite a bit of help to us.

What type of loaches are they? (clowns?)
How long has the tank been set up for?
How soon after did you add the loaches and how long have you had them for now?
You said your nitrAtes had been high, what sort of level are we talking about?
You say the ammonia, nitrIte and pH are fine. Do you have the exact levels?
What size is the tank, what filtration do you use, and how often do you usually carry out water changes?
Is the water well aerated?
What other fish are in the tank, and do they seem to be affected?
Are the loaches breathing faster than is normal?
What temperature are you maintaining the aquarium at?

Any chance of providing photos of the affected fish?

Many thanks,
Emma

[cj1raven]

What type of loaches are they? (clowns?) THEY ARE CLOWNS
How long has the tank been set up for? THEY HAVE BEEN IN THERE FOR AT LEAST A YEAR
How soon after did you add the clowns and how long have you had them for now? SAME AS ABOVE
You said your nitrAtes had been high, what sort of level are we talking about? I THINK THEY ARE AT ABOUT 40
You say the ammonia, nitrIte and pH are fine. Do you have the exact levels? AMMONIA AND NITITES ARE 0. PH AROUND 7.0 to 7.2.
What size is the tank, what filtration do you use, and how often do you usually carry out water changes? THEY ARE SMALL LOACHES, SO RIGHT NOW IT'S A 15 GALLON TANK, CHARCOAL FILTRATION WITH BIO-WHEEL
Is the water well aerated? I HAVE AN AIRSTONE.
What other fish are in the tank, and do they seem to be affected? 3 SERPAE TETRAS, and ONE PLECKO.
Are the loaches breathing faster than is normal? CAN'T TELL
What temperature are you maintaining the aquarium at? ABOUT 82 F

Any chance of providing photos of the affected fish? DON't HAVE ANY RIGHT NOW

[Keeb]

Without a picture it is hard to do more than speculate, but it sounds like Flex to me. The flex maybe just a secondary infection from poor water quality. Here is a good article on it.....
http://www.flippersandfins.net/flexibacter.htm

Your symptoms match and it has spread to other fish in your tank. I don't like to speculate and I'm not an expert, but wanted to provide you with the option of researching Flexibactor as a possibility. IMO, Melafix will not help for most infections. Any minor symptoms it helps, such as fin rot, are avoidable by maintaining pristine water parameters. I'm sorry to hear about your problems.

Keeb

[Emma Turner]

The conditions they are being kept in will not be helping them. That aquarium is far too small, even for young clown loaches. It is extremely difficult to keep conditions stable within such a small body of water, and so elevated nitrates, plus low aeration and filtration levels coupled with probable fluctuating water conditions/temps is likely to be at the root of the problem.

An airstone will not be putting a huge amount of O2 into the water for these fish which occur in well-oxygenated flowing waters. The only place where this will be occuring is where the bubbles actually break at the water's surface. A better way would be to lower the water level by an inch or so in order to get splash down from the filter return, causing better surface agitation (the more the surface is churning, the better). You could also really do with adding a powerhead to the aquarium and angling the flow towards the surface to create even more movement. This, along with bigger quarters, will help alleviate some of the stress they must be under.

I'm not familiar with the type of filter you are using, but hopefully others will be able to comment on whether it is sufficient.

I do think the symptoms point towards Flexibacter, but you need to address the other issues as well as finding a suitable treatment.

Good luck,

Emma

[gulogulo]

I'm not familiar with the type of filter you are using, but hopefully others will be able to comment on whether it is sufficient.

Biowheel are HOB's that have a paddlewheel at the outflow that provides great biological filtration. I use them in my larger tanks and they work great. Even the smallest one should be sufficient for a 15 gal.