2 Dead Kuhli Loach

[PDSimon]

Hi,

Yesterday I found a dead kuhli loach in my tank which I had noticed for a few days had been very skinny, I tried to feed it a few times specifically but it just swam off. After that I also noticed a older kuhli which was bloated and breathing havily/gills moving a lot. Soon after it died too.

After some research I found that the skinny one probably had skinny disease/chronic wasting disease which therefore is internal parasites which can be popular with wild caught loaches. The fat one was bloated so that also indicated it was something to do with digestion/parasites. It also was very pink by its anal fin.

So IF it is parasites, whats the best thing I can get (in the UK) that can treat it? Or if you suspect something else, what is it and how do I try that? I have a 30 gallon tank with now 6 kuhlis and 2 bolivian rams. I don't have another tank available to seperate the fish. Water conditions are 0ammonia 0nitrite and 10nitrate. It is a fully cycled tank the fish that died were just 11 days old.

Any help would be much appreciated and cheers for reading,

Si

 

[Twinklecaz]

Oh what a nightmare we're all having!

I've been reading today Simon, you can get a food (by Jungle) that treats parasites. Or apparently you can get tablets. I don't know if you can get Jungle stuff in the UK though. If you can I wanna get some too coz if it can treat parasites in a non-invasive way then it's worth a try.

I'm gonna dose some of my ant-bacterial med on Tuesday. There is definite darkening of colour in some of my fish and I figure it can't do any harm. I'll just keep an eye on the water stats like Harlequins said.

How are your other fish looking?

 

[PDSimon]

The rams are fine, normal behaviour. The other kuhlis (as far as I can see..) look fine too. Midday they tend to be under bogwood most of the time.

Cheers for the info

Be careful dosing anti-bacterial medicines as they can wipe out the filter bacteria too? Good luck with it hope yours sorts itself out asap.

Its irratating isn't it, you spend all this time cycling and then one thing puts all the fish in danger. Its difficult to enjoy watching the fish anymore until some unknown time.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Oh I was worried about that with the Antti-bacterial thing! Gah, I wonder what people do then.

I know it IS annoying. I couldn't have been any more careful planning and preparing and I wrote off god knows how many LFS's coz I wan't impressed at the health of their fish.

Maybe they were old? I was thinking this the other day. Some of my fish are definitely older than the others. I think my yellow Platy is fully grown. The red one inbetween and the black and white one is very young I think. As for the Gouramis either I do have a male and female (please no) or Ruby is much younger than Scarlett (has occured to me Ruby may actually have been Scarletts fry). She's a fair bit smaller.

So for all I know, the yellow Platy could actually be a couple of years old. Maybe your loaches were?

 

[PDSimon]

Well the first one that died was really short so must have been young and the bigger one still wasn't full length so can't be

There must be some way of using the anti-bacterial medicine I was just saying be careful

 

[Twinklecaz]

Yeah it prob just means you might have to do water changes for a couple of something. Harlequins said she had Nitrites for 2 days after using it.

Simon, you could try the Interpret Liquisil General Tonic if you're not sure. I used it on mine and they do seem a little better(not 100% though). It's apparently good as a preventative measure to before fish get sick.

 

[JoshuaA]

Depending on how long the treatment lasts you could always take the fish out of the tank into even a plastic tub to treat them as a very crude hospital tank. Get some ideas from the hospital tank thread thing.

I wouldn't be too happy about dropping anti bacterial treatment in knowing it could nuke my filter.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Nah I'll prob hold off. It's just the dark greyish skin the Honeys seem to have developed (especially round their heads). It's weird.

But I have noticed it doesn't show up so much in natural daylight. It's mainly when the light is on.

 

[PDSimon]

Josh, I spoke to greg on the phone, they said they would replace the 2 kuhlis that died but he wasn't to sure why they had died, he thought maybe bacterial infection (but i'm pretty sure its skinny disease tbh). Not sure if I want to replace them though. I love my kuhlis but I don't want to risk bringing more potentially worse parasites into the tank again.

Any thoughts?

I didn't go today anyway as its chester races and I couldn't be bothered going through traffic.

 

[Twinklecaz]

That's why I'm holding off with my Corys. I just don't wanna risk any other infections.