Clown Loach Round 3

Hally

Hally

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Sep 22, 2004
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:thud: Hi all .... I have had a bad time lately with my clown loaches all 5 died :sad I don't understand why either! I ended up treating my tank 6x2x2 with a tablet form remedy (I disposed of jar & cant remember its name) for flukes & some parasites .. it put a horrible film of white stuff through my tank until the filter got it, thats all old news now ... I stocked up with a few more clown loaches & you wont believe it now today 1 of my clowns has suddenly died ... but here is a breakthrough, I just noticed the poor dead clown has a thing sticking in his head section, it looks like a spike or a cats claw type thing, I'm thinking that all the other clowns might've had same thing even though I didnt see it ... Is it a major parasite... Can anyone identify this because I'm pulling my hair out ..... Help Appreciated ... Thanks :D
 
The spikes are probably normal. Clown loaches have barbs near their mouths. Your fish probably have ick. Clowns are very suseptable to ick. I would slowly raise your temp to about 88 degrees.
 
Aside from ick, clowns are pretty succeptible to internal parasites. If you ever notice "wasting" away, constantly getting skinny? Clowns should be full and fat. Sometimes you can notice a dimple near their spine where where their body is pulling in at the top. Out of my first 3, I had one that would absolutely not grow and started to get really skinny, even though I would watch him eat. At least he picked at the food, I could never tell if he was actually eating. I decided to treat him w/ a recommended(by clown loach enthusiasts) dewormer called levamisole hydrochloride, a common sheep wormer. Sadly, my loach died in treatment. I've heard that in advanced cases, the intestines are so riddled w/ parasites, that when treated, the intestinal walls collapse, and I fear this is what happened to my fish as lower portion and anus were red the next day.

Just a thought. This is the only other common clown loach problem(aside from ick) that I've heard of.
 
I treat all new clown loaches for ick as soon as I get them.I use nothing but Copper Safe in their quarentine tank.Clown Loaches are very sensitive to most meds so care should be given when treating them for any sickness.

When I first started with my clowns I lost 3 to ick.A friend online has alot of very large Clowns and he recommended treating them for ick even if no signs are present.All Clown Loaches are wild caught and will most likely get isk from the stress of being netted then transporting.Since i`ve done this I haven`t lost a single Clown.
 
Thanks to all for your very welcome advice, I really don't think its ich though. I don't mean to be difficult, I've dealt with ich a few times over the years ... My clowns are panting, a couple of them are fairly easy to catch in the net which tells us something... they kind of hover in the same spot for a while but over balance, 1 had a small patch of white ... I really am concerned about my poor clowns ... thanks all
 
Steve i`ve lost clowns to ick when not all had the spots yet.They get very weak and seem to just waste away.You don`t use salt in their tank do you?They can`t tolerate even a tiny bit of salt.
 
Salt and Clown Loaches

Hi Steve,

I've got 3 clown loaches, and feel salt is a must. I keep my clowns in a ratio of 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons of water and they do absolutely fine, I'm sure if you add some salt to your aquarium your clown loaches may well recoveer. I found most people who dont use salt often suffer from bouts of ick and fungus etc and by simply adding salt this will help reduce/eradicate any such problems, certainly ick hates salt so by adding this you should find you greatly improve the situation . My only advice is to add the salt slowly take a few days to get up to the salt ratio I mentioned above, dont just throw the whole lot in instantly. By the way enusre the salt you add is aquarium salt and not just your bog standard table salt, table salts etc contain chemiicals which are known to be harmful to fish.

Also I'm going to suggest something that no doubt every one will object to but clorine isn't a massive threat either in low doses infact I find it can help. For example I do a 20% water change of my aquarium once a week and dont bother with decloronising the water simply because I have it on good advice that this low amount of clorine helps reduce parasites in the water and wont harm your fish at such low levels. Just remember to replace any salt as syphonig water obviously removes the salt and adding fresh water will obviously dilute whatever salt is left. Obviously if your ever going to change more than 20% of your water then I strongly suggest treating your replacment water with a decloroniser of some kind.

Trust me my clowns are healthy and do tolerate salt as do most other fish. Try this along with your miedications and I'm sure you'll get results.

Finally and I'm sure you'll wonder how this relates but if you have more than 1/4 inch depth of gravel in your aquarium then try removing the excess. In most case poor water quality which produces problems like Ick are caused by dirty water and most often this is becuase people have tons of crud which is lodged in the lower levels of your gravel, in 90% of cases uneatten food and fish waste in deep gravel doesn't get touched by your beneficial bacteria amd is just left to fester and pollute. So as I say make sure your substrate isn't too deep. Let me know how you get on.
 
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I don`t claim to be a professional by no means but the clowns inmy tank have never had ick.I raised them all fry fry and the oldest is now 6" or better.I have never use salt and never will.Gee isn`t it nice we all can successfully raise our fish and use different methods.What ever works for you do it.I have a fat and very happy active clown family of 4 . ;)
 
Hey thanks to you all, Vyper & Marypa good advice ... I absolutely love clown loaches & for the last 4 days my 5 clowns have been in a hospital tank (two & half footer) with Ich treatment, temp 28C & I must say they're perking up a fair bit now, improving day by day ... looks like its going to be sweet, a happy ending .... I will keep em in there for 2 weeks to be safe :dance
 
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