Clown loach illness

[melis2929]

I keep losing all of my clowns. They stop eating , lose coloring, then labored breathing, then they die. The rest of the fish have been fine. All the tank levels are fine. Any thoughts.

 

[depthC]

Clown loaches are scaleless so are prone to diseases such as ich. But in your case im not too sure what it is. Is there any salt in the water? They dont like salt too much is why i ask .....

- depthC

 

[mann]

This exact same thing happens to my clown loaches. Let me point you to a few of my recent threads regarding this:

http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5606
http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5606

 

[melis2929]

They are still alive so far. They don't have ich, that I've seen before. The one clown has a white patch, that looks like he's burnt or the the color is just missing and his body is bent slightly in a c shape and his is really thin, pale and breathing is labored. No salt in the water, the tank is cycled, no algee, ph level has not moved in 6 month, no nitrates or ammonia. No one is picking at him. Fins all in tack.
Tank Mates: placo, ghost knife, 2 silver sharks, catfish and 1 other clown left. 26 Gallon

 

[mann]

I would look into internal parasites or Velvet(another paracitic condition).

Another possibility is cholorine in the water "burning" him. What kind of water are you adding?

 

[catfishmike]

check for internal parasites and ick/velvet these are the most common with clowns.most loaches are wild caught so by the time they get to your retailer they have been under considerable stress,which allows parasites that are found naturly but are kept in check by the immunosystem to establish themselves.once this happens it's generaly all over.it seems the only hope for a clown is extreme tolerance to shipping.try garlic extract on the food to help feeding and get rid of parasites.in extreme cases it can help to use a u.v.sterilizer

 

[mann]

I would like to know some more about what garlic treatment actually does. I tried to find some additional information about Cloan Loaches and internal parasites. It seems that these parasites live and feed in the digestive tract of the loach and lay eggs that are passed out of the fish through the bowel. After a gestation period the eggs hatch in the water and free float in the water column until they find a host.

I recently treated a tank with garlic extract and a clown I had nearly written off is up and about again, although he's not his fat old self and he's not eating as voraciously as the others. He appeared to react favorabley to the presense of garlic extract in the water, but are there unhatched parasites waiting to infect him and his clan? This is my second loach to fall sick in this same manner, and he didn't get ill until maybe a week or so after the first victim died. I don't want to see another skinny white loach - How do I break this cycle?

 

[catfishmike]

thats where the uv sterilizer comes into play.you have to give them the ole one two punch.kill with the garlic and get the the free floating parasites in the uv.right now we are treating a tank at work and we are using arciflavine plus i think and the loaches seem ok despite the fact that dye based medication usualy drive them nuts.if you want to learn more about loaches there is a great website called www.loaches.com i like this site.also once i had read an article about breeding hillstreamloaches and it was writen by the author of this site.it was cool he had the same idea as me for trying to breed river fishes,although i suppose it was his idea first as i wasn't a magazine.so anyways keep up on that garlic and your loach should get better.don't give up cause clown loaches can be very hard to get established but once they do,it's all worth it.

 

[mann]

Loaches are all active and clicking for the time being.

I looked at UV sterilizers at the lfs today: $100! I don't think so. I realize it's a handy thing to have in many situations but I can't justify that expense. I think there're a few aquarist clubs around here that I could potentially get active in and find one to borrow, or I can also try to hit up the guy that manages the fish tanks at my friend's bar, but this is not something I can purchase right now.

The guy at the fish store suggested the product Clout. Any thoughts on this? Also, the guy at the fishstore was kind of an asshole and either wasn't that knowledgable, or really didn't want to share. I may have to go back in the next few days and talk to one of the guys I like.

"$100??"

"Yep."

"Can I rent one or something?"

"Ha. Right."

 

[catfishmike]

heck don't even think about buying one in peson.they act like those thing are the MOST advanced technology ever.it's just a light in a tube with two holes.try bigal's but i'm sure you already knew that.thay have one kind or another on sale like every month.usualy about $80 dollars u.s. clout?i'll check on that but i don't think that will help.half the time when you use a med.it kills the bio-filter so your back to step one.i don't see how this will heal the animal.anyways thanks for the reply

 

[lil_mikey69]

Be careful with Clout. Its a very strong med, and could effect the clowns pretty badly. Depends on how they are taken care of at the LFS. Mine treats with Clout, so the clowns dont have a problem with it their.