Eek - My Clown Loach Is Losing Colour

[Fiori]

I have 4 clown loaches in a community tank, where they have been for a few months now and have settled in well. Water parameters all check out fine, although nitrates a little high at 20. One of the loaches has just recently started to lose colour in his black stripes, looking like pale saddles over his back. Anyone know what this is and if it is dangerous to the other fish? I change 30% of water every week to 10 days.

Thanks

 

[WILDER]

Need to no size of tank in gallons or litres, can you post stats so we can take a look, if the patch looks like a saddle, there is a desease called saddleback columnaris which is bacterial, and you will need a bacterial med.

 

[emma12321]

Hi,

Have a read of the section called greying out here http/www.loaches.com/markings.html could it just be they are arguing, in my group there are 2 the same size that often have sparring matches and one will go pale.

Emma

 

[Fiori]

The tank is a 55 UK gallon bow front Juwel, which also runs an external Eheim filter as well as the internal one. I use a Hagen CO2 diffuser for the plants. The loaches are still very small - approx 1 1/2 inch and one has grown substantially larger and heavier bodied than the others. The other fish in the tankare a young breeding pair of red angels, 10 praecox rainbows, 3 otos, 3 orange laser cories and a false SAE. The tank is very peaceful and all the fish get on well together, with an occasional nipping sessions bewteen the paired angels. It has been set up for about a year and the loaches have been my final addition to the tank, which should do them for some time yet to come.

I've just rechecked the water stats: ammonia 0, pH 6, nitrite 0, nitrate 40 (not 20 as I originally posted) I do have a problem keeping the nitrates down at a reasonable level, and want it lower than 40, but do water changes every week to 10 days and change about 30 - 40% of the water, depending on the nitrate level. The pH is a little low, but I am in an area where the tap water has a GH and KH of 1, so I stabilise the pH by having a stocking with some coral sand in the filter. It is low, but it is stable and the fish are all ones who prefer a pH range in the sixes. Maybe I should gradually bump it up a little?

No signs of any other problems - the loach with the marks is still eating, very active and seems healthy in behaviour - except for the marks. No other fish seem affected. I had already checked the loaches website that you recommended Emma12321, but its not the whole body that has greyed out, just patches on his back. Its almost like that skin condition that humans get, where it can lose pigmentation.

Any thoughts?

 

[WILDER]

I would do two water changes a week, as you are supposed to do small water changes with clowns.
Don't know much about clown loachs but if the patch runs along the back and comes down the sides to form a saddle it could be saddleback columnaris.
http/www.bollmoraakvarieklubb.org/artikl...own%20loach.htm