Loaches Online Forum

sorry to hear on what happend to her I had a feeling when I saw the picture last night that she look sick but don't know of what?

Ardillakilla wrote:...
If the fish bloated up really fast then egg binding is unlikely since the mass of eggs doesn't grow that quickly.
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Absoluetly true. I just want to add to your tipp, that unfourtunately the logic can not be reversed. Means there are most likely many different causes for the fish to bloat (same as skinny symptom), meaning there are also disease that bloat the fish over years. I had a colisa male that kept swelling for 1.5 years, until his amazingly swollen liver was totaly liquid (opened it up). And that could be contagious, that was about 3 years ago(?) and I worry that my alpha caught it. The other clowns of same age (5years) are not showing a large belly. One seems a male (much more slender).
I noticed recently my Ancistrus female being pretty bloated. I saw here at night, getting into flower pots, which she typically never goes into and vibrates and rubs her belly, additionaly squeezing herself between plants and rim of pot, I think I saw some eggs, but what I saw appeared rather too small, for a almost 4" fish. Her belly got swollen within 4 or 6 weeks.

What ever will be will be. I could not do anything anyway, I would not euthanice them just to be safe, and if it was "bloated" it's to far in prgress to cure, so I decide they are gravid.

Due to the rapidity of this loach's demise, it's possible it was acute renal or liver failure. Fish with bowel obstructions will usually survive quite a bit longer.

It's interesting that this happened while the tank was being medicated. I wonder if the OP got the dosing right?

Perhaps the levamisole worked. The parasites might of caused the damage during the treatment, which is well known to happen.

Hey everybody, thanks for the replies and condolences.

I unfortunately disposed of her body before thinking about opening her up. In hindsight, I wish we would have done an autopsy, to try to figure out what happened. We'll probably never really know now.

As far as the dosage we used for levamisole, we used the dosage calculator that chefkeith has set up.

That's an interesting possibility that the levamisole might have had something to do with what happened to her. We never thought she had parasites, due to her size. Not that it isn't possible.

On a slightly positive note, our remaining clowns, especially the new Alpha clown, seem more active and happier, without her bullying them around.