Little Clown Loach Death

[IDunnoWhy]

Hi all, My sister has fairly new tank (About 2 months now, fishless cycled 6 weeks, fish in the tank approx. last 2 weeks) It's a 75g, it's stocked rather modest, handful of danios, 5-6 rasboras and 5 clown loaches (Now only 4) She phoned me about a fish death, I ran over there to find her smallest clown loach dead (it was about 2" in length, the rest are 3-4"), I extracted it from the tank and inspected it closely, It looks absolutly normal, no swelling, no sores/wounds even still has it's colors. Every fish in the tank appears normal. I tested her water for her, the results were 0/0/15to20 (ammonia/nitrite/nitrate respectivly) I can't figure what happened here, shes concerned that she's going to loose further fish, and I'm not sure what to tell her.

I didn't post this in the disease forum, as I'm not sure if it's a disease at all.....Any thoughts?

I have virtually no experience with loaches, are clowns fragile at all? Were there special tank conditions required for them? She bought 2 last Nov. for her old 30g and then 3 more, 2 weeks ago when she started stocking this tank.

Lastly, I told her the clowns will probably outgrow this tank (We've had similar discussions before) Is a 75g really adequate for 4 adult clowns (assuming they make it)? She still has the 90g (I think it's a 90) sitting empty, they may end up in that. (A note, in the profiles section, it says Clown Loaches require a minimum 29g, now thats just foolish )

As always I appreciate the info everyone

 

[Lotus]

If you saw no symptoms on the loach, it's hard to say what happened. With no visible signs of disease or trauma, it's pretty much impossible. Keep an eye on the other loaches, in case they show some kind of symptom. The water parameters seem OK.

Generally, loaches like nice clean water (like other fish), and prefer a lower pH (less than 7), although they'll be OK in a higher pH.

I'd say you could possibly have 4 adult clowns in a 75g tank, as long as it's wide enough. They do get to 12", so you wouldn't be able to keep many other fish in the tank with them. It does take them a long time to get to full size, though.

I'd highly recommend your sister quarantines all new additions to that tank. Loaches get ich very easily, and you should try to make sure any new tankmates are 100 percent healthy before adding them.

 

[IDunnoWhy]

Thanks Lotus!

I've got a spare 20H I'll give her to setup a Q-tank for all her future fish, I did know Ich was an issue, especially with Clown Loaches, but the remaining 4 have no Ich symtoms aka no white dots, nor do the rest of the fish, but we'll keep an eye on them as well. All I can figure is maybe the lil' guy got bullied/stressed to death, but it's been my experience that Clown loaches generally don't hurt one another aside from establishing the "natural pecking order" in the tank, and none of the other fish are big enough to really bully a loach, except maybe the nippy little Danios if enough of them gang up, but again, not likely.

 

[Lotus]

I doubt it was aggression. They're not known to kill their own, and your other fish wouldn't have done it. I guess it was a mystery death. I'm assuming she saw no unusual behaviour before he died.

 

[IDunnoWhy]

I doubt it was aggression. They're not known to kill their own, and your other fish wouldn't have done it. I guess it was a mystery death. I'm assuming she saw no unusual behaviour before he died.

Well it is just an assumption (that she's actually been paying attention), but as far as I know there was nothing going on prior to it's death, I don't live with her, so I'm not able to view the fish as often as I'd like, but I asked the basic questions, "how has the fish been looking, acting, eating etc. and she said fine or normal. So yea I think we'll call this one a mystery, and keep watch over the others.

Thanks again Lotus