Aquatic Vet Services/lab services/necropsy

Hi everyone,

I posted last week about my 10 year old Clown Loach suddenly thinning out and becoming ill (thanks to those of you who shared some info)... I tried Levamisole to no avail and also treated for bacterial infections with Kanamaycin... nothing worked.


He is on his way out now which is breaking my heart. So upsetting. I feel I've failed him.

Anyhow, I have been trying to find a vet or a lab where I can send the fish for a necropsy. Google is yielding nothing other than something in Australia which obviously isn't an option.

I wanted to get a positive diagnosis so that I know what kills him and can effectively prevent my other fish from suffering the same fate.

About 2 weeks ago, my 3-4 year old Keyhole Cichlid passed away as well, although he did not lean out, he became lethargic and bloated and on his last day his body bent in an S shape.

My Clown has been leaning out for weeks, and today has lost his equilibrium almost entirely.

Does anyone know where/how to get a diagnosis on aquarium fish? I live around Boston, MA and surpisingly I can't find a single aquatic vet or lab in the area... I'm so frustrated because this shouldn't have happened and now I can't even officially find out what it actually is, whether its parasitic or something worse like TB...

Could really use some help...

I'm also posting this here in General Freshwater because this section gets the most views

I should also mention that today my Clown Loach's belly is slightly swollen. How am I supposed to officially diagnose this if I can run cultures post mortem?

rufioman said:

This is a weird, weird, strange situation for me. A three-year-old cichlid and ten-year-old clown going in the span of two weeks, different symptoms, same outcome. I would think you could find someone to help you in the greater Bostonian area. Huge place but fish necropsy might be hard to come by. I agree with trying an aquarium or mom and pop store with decent knowledge. My set of questions:

1) Have you changed regular feeding habits or food within the last month or two?
2) New water change or maintenance schedule?
3) Any changes in your filtration or filter media?
4) Could something foreign have gotten into your tank that either may have eaten?
5) Is this old-tank syndrome, maybe? I've seen it firsthand before, nasty business.

Such a sad day, man...though I do feel your pain. I hope this gets worked out for you

Click to expand...

Yeah I don't know what's going on... I had to euthanize my clown last night with clove oil which absolutely sucked and broke my heart. He had been through everything with me. Still hurts today.

All I can think of is this... about a month or so ago I lost power in my bigger tank for a while which caused my tank to have a crazy nitrite spike which killed a bunch of cichlids... my Clown survived it and I moved him temporarily to my 36 gallon... I left him in there for awhile fearing unstable water parameters in the other tank, and I wanted to protect him.

He seemed perfectly fine until the past 2-3 weeks he began getting thinner and thinner up near his spine/dorsal fin. Water was constantly changed in this tank, 0 ammonia although it did hit .25 a few times (used Prime when it did) 0 nitrite, .5 nitrate...

The Keyhole became lethargic and swollen

The Clown did the opposite until his belly bloated last night. I dunno... was it stress? Parasites? Bacteria?

I treated with Kanamaycin/Furan originally as a few Cories showed some fin rot/possible columnaris... that didn't do anything for him though, so then I read about Skinny Disease with loaches, so I treated with Levamisole... no changes, although my juvenile electric blue acara who had a slightly sunken belly did poop out some thick white casing looking thing. He's now eating again.

The CL never stopped eating though... yesterday I knew it was over though when he finally lost his equilibrium. I really don't know what to do. Toughest thing in aquaria is trying to treat different ailments because its all guess work. We really need access to labs to confirm diagnoses. I can't find anything around here, have googled everything I can think of to search.

I'm moving next week or so. Fortunately I'll be able to set up quarantine tanks in the basement. Hopefully I can prevent disease from ever reaching my display tanks again in the future. I didn't have the luxury of space to set up QT before. I had added a few new fish to that tank but they all seem completely healthy and fine.

I'm tempted to dissect the Clown and open up his stomach to see if he's got worms... but I don't know if I have the heart to cut him open. I placed him in my freezer for now in case I can find a lab to run tests.