Hi folks –
I’m having a tank emergency here, and am not sure what steps to take.
The tank has been up and running for about 18 years. In the last few years the only fish that have been around have been a pair of clown loaches. It’s a 55 gallon freshwater tank with UGF and off the side filtration. I decided to give the loaches some company, so a month ago I added a couple of small clown loaches. The only other fish in the tank is a pleco.
Early last week I noticed that the loaches were acting a bit off – burying heads in the gravel, laying on their sides. I figured that it was a bio overload on the filters with the new fish and did a 50% water change.
I haven’t dealt with fish disease in ages and really missed the signs of ich with the new fish – they were swiping their sides on a bit of driftwood in the tank, and I just did not connect that to the disease.
On Saturday last, the two small clowns were dead in the tank and the two large clowns were n deep distress. I did another 50% water change. By the end of the day I saw the white spots on one loach, and started raising the tank temperature and adding salt. I’m reasonably sure that the new fish introduced ich to the tank. Before the water change I tested for amonnia and nitrate - both came back at zero.
I found one of my old loaches dead in the tank on Sunday morning. The temp had been around 75 Fahrenheit on Saturday. I rose it slowly to about 88 tuesday morning. I also added about 1 teaspon of salt per gallon of water, again gradually over two and a half days. The salt I'm using is freshwater a aquarium salt.
Starting Saturday I opened up the tubes on the UGF powerheads and got a pretty good aeration going in the tank, and that’s continued.
The pleco seems unaffected by all this. My last loach just lays on its side on the bottom of the tank, “gasping” with its gills. It has sores on its skin and its eyes are getting cloudy. I dug out an air pump and a 4 inch aeration stone from my supplies and set it in the tank this afternoon to add more oxygen. I also did a 10% water change this afternoon and tried to vacuum the gravel in the tank. I saw lots of sparkly specks in the stuff from the gravel– they look like small fish scales though I have no idea where they would come from.
Is there anything else I could try to do to save this old clown loach? I was thinking about a commercial anti-ick treatment, but the fish is so stressed I doubt it would survive that. This fish is almost as old as the tank and I’d like to see him hang around for a while.
Thanks in advance.
I’m having a tank emergency here, and am not sure what steps to take.
The tank has been up and running for about 18 years. In the last few years the only fish that have been around have been a pair of clown loaches. It’s a 55 gallon freshwater tank with UGF and off the side filtration. I decided to give the loaches some company, so a month ago I added a couple of small clown loaches. The only other fish in the tank is a pleco.
Early last week I noticed that the loaches were acting a bit off – burying heads in the gravel, laying on their sides. I figured that it was a bio overload on the filters with the new fish and did a 50% water change.
I haven’t dealt with fish disease in ages and really missed the signs of ich with the new fish – they were swiping their sides on a bit of driftwood in the tank, and I just did not connect that to the disease.
On Saturday last, the two small clowns were dead in the tank and the two large clowns were n deep distress. I did another 50% water change. By the end of the day I saw the white spots on one loach, and started raising the tank temperature and adding salt. I’m reasonably sure that the new fish introduced ich to the tank. Before the water change I tested for amonnia and nitrate - both came back at zero.
I found one of my old loaches dead in the tank on Sunday morning. The temp had been around 75 Fahrenheit on Saturday. I rose it slowly to about 88 tuesday morning. I also added about 1 teaspon of salt per gallon of water, again gradually over two and a half days. The salt I'm using is freshwater a aquarium salt.
Starting Saturday I opened up the tubes on the UGF powerheads and got a pretty good aeration going in the tank, and that’s continued.
The pleco seems unaffected by all this. My last loach just lays on its side on the bottom of the tank, “gasping” with its gills. It has sores on its skin and its eyes are getting cloudy. I dug out an air pump and a 4 inch aeration stone from my supplies and set it in the tank this afternoon to add more oxygen. I also did a 10% water change this afternoon and tried to vacuum the gravel in the tank. I saw lots of sparkly specks in the stuff from the gravel– they look like small fish scales though I have no idea where they would come from.
Is there anything else I could try to do to save this old clown loach? I was thinking about a commercial anti-ick treatment, but the fish is so stressed I doubt it would survive that. This fish is almost as old as the tank and I’d like to see him hang around for a while.
Thanks in advance.
I'm sorry that it us because of such sad circumstances.
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