2 Clowns Dead In One Day !

[Scoobyk]

I don't understand what's going on ! I've lost two Clown loaches today......1 floating, and 1 wedged in a false plant (now removed from the tank (the plant as well as the Clown).

Gutted as I love these fish.

The only changes I've made in recent times (following what I've read on here), has been the use of prawns and cuecumber as a food.....Clowns seemed to major on it, wondering if I've overfed them ?!?!?

I know have just 3 clowns left, and 1 blue loach....could handle fishing them out too........any ideas ??

 

[Truck]

water params?

 

[Scoobyk]

All as should be, amon slightly up (.25) - most likely due to the additional feeding (cue / prawns) AND giving my son some of my filter med over christmas - 25% change today, will do same tomorrow and hope amon will be back to 0.

 

[Truck]

do a 50% WC now, ammonia KILLS fish

 

[dcarmor927]

sorry about the fish man...i have 5 myself and would be so upset if i lost any prematurely...hope everything works out for the best!!

 

[Truck]

what size tank are they in? i hope its a 500 litre+

 

[AdAndrews]

dont panic, people will make you panic, dont listen to the sizes they require, you have them in watever you have, just do a water change and the bacteria cycle stuff is good, it speeds up the nitrogen cycle, so use this if you can and double the doses until things calm down, take into account that there might be a disease outbreak in your tank, not all things are caused by toxic conditions. Buy protozin and some anti bacterial remedy just incase

 

[Truck]

dont panic, people will make you panic, dont listen to the sizes they require, you have them in watever you have, just do a water change and the bacteria cycle stuff is good, it speeds up the nitrogen cycle, so use this if you can and double the doses until things calm down, take into account that there might be a disease outbreak in your tank, not all things are caused by toxic conditions. Buy protozin and some anti bacterial remedy just incase

clown loaches can grow to one foot, thats why they need a 500 litre plus long tank, if they are in a small tank their growth will be stunted, the fishes body will release a hormone which will stop the body from growing but not the insides so your fish will basicly die prematurely.

their wont neccasarily be an outbrake in your tank, whats protozne? some crap thats meant to treat everything, nearly all aquarium diseases have a specific treatment which should be used.

your nitrites and ammonia need to be kept at 0, you may be experiencing a mini-cycle, so daily water testing will help.

you need to keep your params between or below these

ammonia 0 ppm
nitrIte 0ppm
nitrAte 10-20ppm

and never double dose unless prompted to by the manufacturer, or one of our experienced fish med experts

 

[Scoobyk]

Hey hey hey, all advice is good advice guys, I know nothing !!! I cant believe how much I've learned in the last 6 months. My tank is a 240, HOWEVER, I have bought the CL's witt the expectation of increasing to a corner 400l or so...just for the CL's as my whole family loves them. The good news is that my other 3 "seem" to be ok tonight.

50% WC will be done tomorrow....no comments re the cuecumber or prawns, so assume that's ok ???

Just weird, and very upsetting that two have gone today....gutted.

Now leaves me with the dilema.....I have 3 CL's, 1 x blue loach...I should keep a min of 5 CL's...but don't want to buy anymore that will die.....will the 3 be ok ?

How can I ensure they feed ? When I drop a bottom feed pellet in, the mollies and odessa barbs seem to hog it, and whilst the clowns loved the cuecumber, I've had two die since.........HELP !

 

[Truck]

the prawns and cucumber should be ok if removed.

if you want to feed them successfully then you must feed at lights out before all the lights go off in the fish room.

i hear your after a bigger tank, wise choice, but i recomend a longer tank rather than squarer as such as clown loaches are VERY active fish.

personally i would perform a WC now or you could risk loosing another loach if the ammonia or nitrite levels get too high

 

[Scoobyk]

If removed ??? Please explain...the cue was in for 2 days, on a fork (as per a photo in one of the forums on here) - I took it out yesterday as there was nothing left !

Not in a position to do a WC now, too many beers, but will do one first thing tomorrow on all of our tanks (I'm quite OCD about Wchanges !!!).

Next tank will depend on what we stock.....either a big corner tank, or a longer tank in the dining room - need to sweet talk Mrs first...40th birthday in March, happy days !!

Please explain about feeding...we've tried dropping pellet at same time as flake, when lights out, and when the CL's are out....but anytime, it seems to be the mollies and barbs that fight over the pellet !

 

[Truck]

if you turn the lights off for 10 mins as well as the room lights, then drop say 3or4 algae wafers in leave it 30 mins, and see how that turns out.

if any food is left in the aquarium for more than 24 hours it will rot and cause ammonia spikes

 

[Scoobyk]

ANY food....so that includes the cue/prawns ? So I guess it's back to feeding once every other day, and daily water changes.....?? Is .25 enough to have killed the CLs

 

[Truck]

remove ANY Un-eaten food.

feeding every other day would be good until weve established whats causing the ammonia spike.

any amount of ammonia is lethal to fish(it burns their gills) so i would do a WC now. it may be a pain but its the only way to be sure of keeping further loaches from dieing.

 

[TheRedDiscus]

Just out of curiousity, have you added any chemicals like any type of cleaners into your tank accedentally of purposly?