Question: Possible diseased clowns

[doglover_50]

Hi all, my first post, so hopefully not violating any decorem.
I have 4 clown loaches in my 46 gallon tank--all over 12 months old, all appearing to flourish. However, 3 of them have developed some sort of blemish on their skin--mostly between eyes and nose on the head, but also some on the fins. It's like lots of brown splotchs--it almost looks as if they had very small spots of algae growing on them, as part OF the skin, NOT on top of the skin. IT LOOKS LIKE TINY FRECKLES!
They appear as part of the pigmentation, part of their skin, definitely NOT looking like ich or an external parasite.
Duration: At least 4 months. Once it showed up, didn't get worse, hasn't spread to other loaches (golden dojo, angelicus). Stayed stable on the fish those 4 months, and again--fish are eating and behavior is normal, they get varied diet.
My LFS had no idea. Is this a problem? Sorry no pix right now--hopefully can get some in next few days.

[Emma Turner]

Hi doglover_50 and welcome to Loaches Online.

Have a read through this previous thread to compare with what you have been noticing on your clowns:

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=2148

Emma

[doglover_50]

Thanks Emma--read through the thread (and added an entry). Glad to know it is no more serious than fish acne.
I tend to be very conservative on treating my fish or pulling out to QT,
so other than the risk of the spots affecting their self-esteem, I'll be leaving things as is.

[Icewall42]

Weird... I had something very similar happen to one of my modestas a few years back. Only, the brown splotches actually dented the poor fish's head area. He developed these splotches and died only a few days later. It was not contagious. I still don't know what it mgiht have been.

If your loaches have had this for a while, then it probably isn't serious, as long as they still eat and behave normally.

[chefkeith]

Got any pictures?
If it's just a freckle or 2 then it's probably nothing to worry about. But if it's getting worse and worse you need to find out the cause. In my case it was a persistent water quality issue. All the environment changes I made fixed the black spot problem. I took out all the rocks/gravel that was driving up my TDS and stopped dosing ferts. No more large TDS drops since.

[doglover_50]

Keith,

Mine is similar to pix from others with lots and lots of spots. On my most affected fish maybe 20-40 total. However, as I mentioned, these developed months ago (like 4+) and the fish continue to look great. I am tracking closely ammonia, nitrates, nitrite. All generally look good. My well water has somewhat elevated nitrates, but still within acceptable levels. So I keep a really close eye on that so that waste from the tank doesn't shoot it up unacceptably. Anyway, will continue to track things, especiall new ideas like TDS from the threads.

[chefkeith]

It would be great if you could get some pic's.

[doglover_50]

hope this works! You'll see fish #1 has more of the spots than #2. However, as I've noted, all 4 clowns have had it to some degree for many months, no changes in behavior or apparent health.

Most importantly, Keith, you have NOT been punk'd.

DL

[Tinman]

If that is a sea shell in there LOSE it immediatly

[chefkeith]

Thanks Doglover. I agree, it looks like the same spots my clowns had. My clowns had those spots crop up for about 2 years. I'm glad it ain't happening anymore though.

[doglover_50]

Keith, me too.

Tin, GONE. But not after washing it out 10 minutes to make sure no one was in there.

[Tinman]

Good Job .Anything from the sea will cause problems in a fresh water set up. That will take your water the wrong way no matter what the conditions at your location.. Very smart to wash it and check for occupants.Let us know if the complection problem starts easing