Silicone II Poisoning in Loaches and Plecos

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Aynia

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So, I'm very overwhelmed and there's quite a bit to unpack here. I hope it's ok that I just made about a 10 minute video to explain the situation. You can find it here:

Basically, we used to wrong silicone, lost about 70 fish, and we have 2 yoyo loaches and 2 bristlenose plecos fighting hard to hang on. We're treating them with aquarium salts and stress guard but don't know what else to do j-j Any, any advice at all is sincerely appreciated.
 
I am so sorry for your loss, Do you have any QT tanks?
 
Yeah, the tank the loaches and plecos are in now is a clean quarantine tank, so they're safe and being treated with aquarium salt and stress guard. We aren't sure if there's anything else we can do for them, or if the stress guard and aquarium salt is all we're able to give them at the moment?
 
What kind of silicone did you use? And what did yo use it for? Also, what are your water parameters?
 
What kind of silicone did you use? And what did yo use it for? Also, what are your water parameters?
The OP said that they use silicone II, which is mold-free. From what I've been told at my LFS, mold-free silicone contains arsenic, which is poisonous to fish.
 
Right, we used silicone II which has mold free additives. when I went to the store I went to the silicone 1 bin but they must have had it stocked with silicone 2 and I didn't notice. I feel so horrible and I cried when they passed. It seriously happened so fast.

We used it to seal our sump, to make a decoration for the betta tank, and I resealed our 38 gal long preowned aquarium that we bought with it. We took the sump off, moved the surviving fish into a clean quarantine tank and our water parameters are: Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates ~5. I've treated the tank with 1 tbsp of aquarium salt per 5 gal and stress guard.

The two surviving loaches and 2 bristlenose plecos are alive, just not acting like themselves. The loaches just hang out in the corner and only eat the food dropped right in front of them, and are extremely skittish and easily frightened. The plecos are finally out of hiding and are starting to act more like themselves and are eating again, but I'm just really worried about these two loaches.

My biggest issue is while researching this, there is almost no information on how to treat fish that survive being poisoned due to silicone II, because there are rarely, rarely any fish that ever survive. My four seem to be the exception. If anyone has any advice at all on how we could help them, I'm all ears.
 
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Do large water changes. Keep dosing with aquarium salt and keep trying to feed them small portions of food. All you can do now is pray and hope they get better. :)
 
Hey all! Update here. The plecos seem almost back to normal. I've been doing about 50% water changes every 2-3 days and replacing the salt and adding stress guard. Now when I feed the plecos come right out and start eating, but my loaches still don't seem to have much interest in food at all. I've tried enticing them with the bug bites and with some colour pellets and veggie pellets and veggie wafers, hoping that maybe a variety might spark their interest. They seem to be moving about more, going in and out of their ship, actually swimming to the other side of the tank instead of just hiding in the corner in plain sight, so there is some improvement. My main concern is their eating. Is there anything else that loaches just can't resist that I could try to tempt them with?
 
Stop the salt and stress guard and keep up the water changes. You have done all you can and when they are ready they will eat. They are fine without food for a couple of weeks so don't stress about this, but the last thing you want to do is add to their problems by overfeeding the tank.
 
I agree. I'm glad they are doing better, but you need to stop dosing the salt. Keep up the water changes. :)
 

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