Help Blood Streaked Fins And Sick Clown Loach

[bev911]

please can someone help, in my 130l tank with the 3 gouramis, 2 small plecs, 1 clown loach and 1 silver shark i am having problems with the shark and the clown loach. We have looked on so many websites and health guides but still unsure. The silver shark has got clamped fins and they are blood streaked, especially the one on top of his body. We have treated this with bacteria infection, but still no change, this was done 2 days ago and again today. The clown loach is plastered in white spots, but dont know if it is white spot as we know clown loaches are prone to white spot. if so we dont know what to treat it with as putting in bacteria control and having to be careful with the shark and loaches sensitivity to medication. We did a 50% water change yesterday and have retested the water all being good
nitrite <0.3
nitrate 0
ammonia <0.25

please help as i dont want these fish to die, i just feel really sorry for them.

Thanks Bev

 

[WILDER]

Silver shark and clown loaches need to be kept in groups and need 100 gallon tanks.
Bad water quality, immediate water change and increase aeration in the tank.
How big is the clown loach and shark.
How long has the tank been set up.
Whitespot looks like the fish has been sprinkled in salt, you will need a whitespot med.
Increase temp to 30 and increase aeration as the high temp and med reduce 02 in the water.
Remove black carbon if you use it.
Check meds instructions they you can use full dose with the clown loach.

 

[bev911]

the shark and clown loach are both about 3-4 inches long. They have been in the tank for about 2 months, we set the tank up about 3 and a half months ago. will it be ok to treat the white spot at the same time as bacteria control? Do you think our silver shark will survive the blood streaked fins? We were planning on putting these into our other tank with the silver sharks and clown loach so they can have company. i will up the temperature to see if that helps. We took the carbon out cos of using the meds. we have 2 aeration stones in the tank so have lots of air circulating around as both are big air stones.

thanks Bev

 

[WILDER]

How often do you maintain the tank as it saying uncycled.
Not meant to mix meds, but you will need to get going with the whitespot med if the clown loach looks like he's been sprinkled in salt, clown loaches are prone to whitespot when there stressed.

What filter are you using.

 

[bev911]

we do a 20% water change every other week and do a gravel clean every 4 weeks. We rinse the filter sponges in the aquarium water every 2 weeks, just squeezing them slightly so not to get rid of all the bacteria. we will treat for both as cure is better than nothing. We are using a fluval 3plus underwater filter. We have another tank exactly the same as this but have had no problems with that one.
bev

 

[WILDER]

Need a fluval 4 filter.
No need to touch the sponges every month, you only touch one sponge when there really mucked up, then only one at a time.
Need to be doing a gravel vac and water change once a week.

 

[bev911]

okay we will give this a go and just hope our sick fish pull through. thankyou for your help. Bev

 

[WILDER]

I would do a water change.
Good luck.
What your tap nitrate reading.

 

[bev911]

i dont know i will have to test that. i always put tap safe in when doing my water changes.

 

[WILDER]

Its quite rare to have a nitrate reading of 0 thats all.
Or the tanks started cycling again if you removed to much bacteria from the sponges.

 

[MHunt]

Hope it goes well, i would definitely treat for whitespot as soon as it is apparent. I did the wait and see the first time round for me, and it lingered for weeks. I treat on the first sign of it now, it usually clears within a few days and doesn't need the second dose of treatment. I use Interpet 6 for whitespot treatment.

Just a question about your water test readings, are the ammonia and nitrite just the lowest reading on the test kit, as they should really be 0 in a cycled tank.

 

[bev911]

we have just put the white spot treatment (king british) in and will repeat again everyday for six days then every other day for the remaining 10, i read this on this site somewhere. ive just redone the samples and they are read the same except the nitrate, that says 25mg/l i think i looked at the wrong chart before!!! does this sound more normal? And yes the nitrite and ammonia are the lowest readings on the test kits, just the nitrate is one from bottom.

 

[WILDER]

Yes thats fine the 25 reading.
Need to get going with weekly vacs and water changes.

 

[bev911]

ok will do i will do that tomorrow as too late now!!! thanks everyone and hope my fish survive.

 

[WILDER]

Good luck.