Mysterious Weather Loach Illness, Help Needed!

[mosher]

Hello

I bought a weather loach back in january, and all has been fine until last weekend. I noticed several red dots/bloches on its underside.

I moved it to a seperate quarantine tank and added a higher dose of salt, which had no effect. I then tried Interpet Internal Bacteria number 9, which cleared up the red spots after a few days.

This is where the confusion/mystery comes in - after a few more days the "skin" of the loach has begun to die and fall off. This has gradually spread higher along its body. After the required number of days I switched to Interpet anti-fungus number 8. Again this has had no effect.

In the 75-80 litre community tank there is:

- 3 loaches (including ill one)- too many I know, 2 of them are still very small though so hopefully not too much of a problem currently
- 2 African Dwarf frogs
- 4 Guppies (1 Male and 3 female) + 3 tiny guppy fry still in own enclosure within tank
- 2 small algae eaters -otocinclus vittatus
- 4 neon tetras

The loach is now is a 5 litre quarentine tank with a small filter (removed the carbon due to medicine), a heater at 25 degrees and a air stone & pump.

Latest readings: Ammonia and nitrite levels in both tanks are 0, ph in community tank is 7.2 and 6.5 in loach's tank. Water changes of 25% weekly in community tank and about 40% daily in quarantine tank, where he has been for just over a week.

Last bits of info, it arches it's "back" so the mid section does not touch the floor and seems to try to relieve irritation by swimming through the bubbles created by the airstone. All the barbels have curled too. I originally thought the injury was from a lava rock in the community tank (now removed) but now I am not sure. Its about 6 inches long too.

substrate is fairly large polished stones

I can provide more photos or details if required, I just really want this loach to live...unsure whether the problem is bacterial, parasitic or fungal

When we bought him he had very bad finrot on his top fin, but we cured it and it has since almost completely grown back. He still eats, but for some reason now only seems interested in the live bloodworm we feed him and not the pellets.

thanks

Sick Loach Image 1

Sick Loach Image 2

Sick Loach Image 3

Sick Loach Image 4

Sick Loach Image 5

 

[WILDER]

it could be the salt that causing the skin to dry and shed.
Water changes to get the salt out of the tank.

Red dots on fish can be septicemia to parasites.
Any sign of flicking and rubbing, excess mucas, darting, erratic swimming, laboured breathing, swimming in a jerky movement.
What do the gills look like.
Is the spine bending.
Any red streaking or red sores on the fish.

Why is the ph in the issolation tank different from main tank.

What test kit are you using?

Just done some research and weather loaches don't tolerate salt.

Need to find out if it's septicemia or parasites the fish has.

Here some info on septicemia for you.

Septicemia

Symptoms:

Fish may have reddening at fin bases, blood streaks throughout the fins and body, small hemorrhages around the eyes. Dull listless behavior and lack of appetite may also be present.


Cause:

Systemic bacterial infection caused by various bacteria, including Aeromonas, Pseudomonas and Vibrio. The illness is often brought on by poor water quality or as a result of parasitic infestations or other infections. These bacteria enter the blood stream and circulate through the tissues causing inflammation and damage. Inflamed blood vessels in the skin and at fin bases stand out. Blood vessel and heart tissue damage cause hemorrhaging and consequently leakage of body fluids into the abdomen, which may lead to Dropsy.


Treatment:

Water conditions must be improved for all fish in the tank, regardless of how many fish are infected. Check your water�s Treat with Kanacyn or Tetracycline as well as with a medicated food if the fish will eat. If parasites are suspected, all the fish in the tank should be treated with antiparasitic medication. Using salt to help restore osmotic balance might be helpful.

 

[mosher]

it could be the salt that causing the skin to dry and shed.
Water changes to get the salt out of the tank.

Red dots on fish can be septicemia to parasites.
Any sign of flicking and rubbing, excess mucas, darting, erratic swimming, laboured breathing, swimming in a jerky movement.
What do the gills look like.
Is the spine bending.
Any red streaking or red sores on the fish.

Why is the ph in the issolation tank different from main tank.

What test kit are you using?

Just done some research and weather loaches don't tolerate salt.

Need to find out if it's septicemia or parasites the fish has.

Here some info on septicemia for you.

Septicemia

Symptoms:

Fish may have reddening at fin bases, blood streaks throughout the fins and body, small hemorrhages around the eyes. Dull listless behavior and lack of appetite may also be present.


Cause:

Systemic bacterial infection caused by various bacteria, including Aeromonas, Pseudomonas and Vibrio. The illness is often brought on by poor water quality or as a result of parasitic infestations or other infections. These bacteria enter the blood stream and circulate through the tissues causing inflammation and damage. Inflamed blood vessels in the skin and at fin bases stand out. Blood vessel and heart tissue damage cause hemorrhaging and consequently leakage of body fluids into the abdomen, which may lead to Dropsy.


Treatment:

Water conditions must be improved for all fish in the tank, regardless of how many fish are infected. Check your water�s Treat with Kanacyn or Tetracycline as well as with a medicated food if the fish will eat. If parasites are suspected, all the fish in the tank should be treated with antiparasitic medication. Using salt to help restore osmotic balance might be helpful.

Thanks for your reply

Here are answers to your questions:

Salt: We have been giving him only low doses of salt due to him being a loach, and have reduced the amount over the week so there is probably only about 1/8 of a teaspoonful in at the moment...it could be that causing the flakiness but not sure

Redness: Mostly red patches/blotches- worse after swimming around a lot- on his underside with some red dots...interpet anti-internal bacteria did seem to clear the redness up when we treated with that to start with, but did not prevent skin falling off area.

Spine: He does appear to arch his back quite a bit at the moment- not all the time-, we thought it was to keep the affected area off the tank floor...? Is that a symptom of something?

Gills: Normal as far as I can tell, currently resting and breathing gently

Swimming: Not swimming as much other than swimming around for a bit when bubbles are switched on and water is changed, however he does not lie in the same spot all day...swimming style seems normal (though obviously fed up with being in a small tank, other than as mentioned before he likes to swim in and out of airstone bubbles, knocking the dead skin off.

pH:I'm not sure why the pH is so different, other than we have recently changed from using bottled water to treated tap water, and the hospital tank will have had more of the original water swapped out...could try putting water from the community tank in there to alleviate the problem?

Mucus: No excess mucus as far as I can tell, slightly cloudy eyes though

We are using API test kits for pH, ammonia and nitrites (adding drops of a chemical to 5ml of the water to change colour).

Hope that helps, hopefully will find out what we should be treating him with to help him get better

 

[WILDER]

What substrate do you have in the tank?

Add the anti internal bacteria med by interpet again. Remove the salt completely with water change. Just add the correct amount of med back to water removed.

Also half dose some melafix. Or even less than half dose.

If you been using bottled water that would account for the different ph.


If the skin condition improve with the interpet med. Double dose. You can use double dose in isolation and in severe cases.
I just want to make sure that the interpet med didn't irratate the fish skin.

 

[mosher]

What substrate do you have in the tank?

Add the anti internal bacteria med by interpet again. Remove the salt completely with water change. Just add the correct amount of med back to water removed.

Also half dose some melafix. Or even less than half dose.

If you been using bottled water that would account for the different ph.


If the skin condition improve with the interpet med. Double dose. You can use double dose in isolation and in severe cases.
I just want to make sure that the interpet med didn't irratate the fish skin.

Thanks

Haven't had the chance to get any melafix yet but have put him back on the anti internal bacteria stuff today, salt should be gone completely...we've made an appointment to see a vet with him tomorrow as they might be able to prescribe him something better, he's even flakier today poor thing and its horrible to see him like this, so would be good to sort it quickly before it gets even worse

Substrate in community tank is polished largish stones with some large smooth rocks, fake piece of wood and live plants. We think he might have injured himself on a lava rock to start with, we've now got rid of it.

Busy day today, have had to rescue 11 unexpected newborn guppies from being eaten by other tank inhabitants!

 

[WILDER]

if the vet prescribes antibiotics I would only use them in issolation.

Flaking skin can be irratation, bad water quality, bacterial, parasites, toxins.