Think Im About To Lose A Clown Loach

[Justin.Accurate]

Bit of a chain of events so bear with me

I have a 30"x12"x18" tank and have had it up for about 6 years in total now. Recently I was fed up with the aggressive barbs in my tank and rehomed them. I got a load of livebearers instead and then started to put a few more fish in. I dont think I went over the inch per gallon rule but suddenly had a big problem

A lot of the new fish I had put in died. At the time I had just ammonia and nitrite tests and they were minimal. I noticed the temp seemed a little high (about 27 degrees) with the recent warm weather and attempted to turn the heater down. I know you cant set these visitherm things by the indicator on the side so just turned it down a little. When I looked at the temp later that evening it was just under 30! So I turned it down some more and its settled on 25 now.

The next day 4 emperor tetras died. Then a platy, then two corys. All of these were new fish. I bought an all in one testing kit and noticed my nitrate was about 200 ppm. This explained to me why new fish may have died. The PH seemed a little low but its hard to tell with these kits whats going on. But it didnt stop there.

I have 3 clown loach and have had them for over 3 years. The smallest of the 3 just keeled over and died the next day. He was perfectly intact apart from small red patches under his skin around the back and side of his head. I took a sample to the LFS and they said dont worry about the nitrate and GH (which was also really high) as its a charicteristic of our water. They did tell me the PH was about 6.5 and I needed to get it higher and quickly. They told me to remove my bogwood, scrub all the soft bits off and then let it dry in the air to harden, I just removed it and placed a stack of slate for them to shelter under. I had already been doing water changes daily to get the nitrate down but they told me to water change to get the ph up.

The next day one of the bigger clown loach suddenly had puffy eyes, but was able to swim about normally. He has always had a big battle scar on his side from scrapping the other loach but this looked pretty sore now. I started using Myxazin (says its good for wounds and pop eye; ive even applied it directly to him), im on day 3 now and theres no improvement - in fact he car hardly move about at all now.

So heres the pics...

2 days ago
another from 2 days ago
last night

Any idea what this is and what I can do to save him/tank mates?

 

[WILDER]

Bacterial infection.
Popeye and septicemia.
Septicemia bleedning beneath the skin. Small red patches bemeath the skin. Hard to cure once it advances.

How many gallons is the tank.
How many fish and which type.

Test strip cards are not accurate.

Have you altered ph by just taking the bogwood out of the tank. Not using ph adjusters.


When warm weather raises your tank temp just increase aeration in the tank.

 

[crazychris]

Those clowns look fairly big so your 30" tank isn't big enough for them.

 

[Justin.Accurate]

Thanks for the advice.

He has had a wound on his side for years now - I guess its infected. Do you think it would be best to euthenise him and avoid infecting other fish

Tank is calculates to be 23g

I currently have

2x swordtail
4x platy
2x guppy
1x dalmation molly
1x angel fish (quite big about 5")
1x julii cory
1x sterbai cory
2x clown loach (big- about 6")
1x bulldog plec

The list of recent dead fish is depressing.

2x juvenile brochis
2x corydoras axelrodi (bought to replace the brochis who were quite frankly runts)
5x emperor tetra
1xdalmation molly
1x guppy
2x platy

The water here is a little alkaline so taking bog wood out and gradually raising ph with water changes. I realise test strips arent the best but at close to ten quid a kit its a more cost effective way to check to see a rough guide and then 50p a time for tests at the LFS if there is a problem

 

[Justin.Accurate]

Those clowns look fairly big so your 30" tank isn't big enough for them.

I know you're right but they are a favorite, having owned them for so long I dont want to rehome them and have no room or money to buy a bigger tank. I always wanted a synodontis decorus and had to give him up when he inevitably grew to 8" You could say i made the wrong choices years ago but its not a planned biotope its a collection of fish I like in a tank I could afford.

If (when) this one dies I will probably rehome the other; I know they dont do so well on their own...

 

[WILDER]

Your tanks was overstocked. If you had bad water quality the filter was coping with the stocking.
How often do you do a gravel vac and water change.
Plecs are massive waste producers.
I would rehome the clown loaches as they need 100 gallon tanks as they grow bigger. Should be kept in no less than a group of 3.

Can you describe the wound in more detail.

 

[Justin.Accurate]

Your tanks was overstocked. If you had bad water quality the filter was coping with the stocking.
How often do you do a gravel vac and water change.
Plecs are massive waste producers.
I would rehome the clown loaches as they need 100 gallon tanks as they grow bigger. Should be kept in no less than a group of 3.

Can you describe the wound in more detail.

Oh dear I just coaxed him out of the vallis for a picture and hes not looking good at all

Today

He's always had scrapes on his side from his wrestling with the other big one and it has looked sore in the past but always healed over itself. Now it just looks like a hole

I do weekly gravel vacs when I change the water. Its an undergravel filter with a powerhead rather than air stone but I use the power head to pull air into the tank.

 

[WILDER]

Did it start off as a spot and turned into a hole.
The wounds infected can you issolate. He really needs antibiotics but only availabe in the uk from a vet.
Antibiotics wipe the beneifcal bacteria out in the filter.

If it start off as a pink or red sore with a circling of dead white tissue it was an ulcer that has not ulcerated into a hole.

Or anti internal bacteria med by interpet. You can double dose in severe cases. Keep an eye on water stats.

 

[Justin.Accurate]

Did it start off as a spot and turned into a hole.
The wounds infected can you issolate. He really needs antibiotics but only availabe in the uk from a vet.
Antibiotics wipe the beneifcal bacteria out in the filter.

If it start off as a pink or red sore with a circling of dead white tissue it was an ulcer that has not ulcerated into a hole.

Or anti internal bacteria med by interpet. You can double dose in severe cases. Keep an eye on water stats.

Just a quick update on this -at the time I posted the pic he was totally unable to swim and would circle round madly and sort of end up places in the tank (usually the thick vallis plantation I have)

I dont have a quarantine tank so treated with normal dosage of anti internal bacteria (after reading the label) and 2 days on he is showing signs of improvement. He still spirals a bit when he swims but he is able to hold his position in the water and his eyes have gone right down. I must say Ive never seen a fish fight death this well - from experience of seeing fish die normally they seem fine then suddenly keel over and just stop, less than 3 hours total process. So fingers crossed

 

[WILDER]

Does he look on the thin side.

Bless him didn't see the pics before.
His weight fine.
He does look in bad shape.

 

[Justin.Accurate]

I'll be happy when (if) I see him eat again but to be honest he doesnt look thin.

The other one is acting concerned and confused. He's started digging gravel, thrashing at the top and swimming into the powerhead flow. And every now and again tries to start the battle for strongest clown loach (the sick one had just started developing a hump on his back and had recently bulked up to be the biggest and they were contesting again)! Thankfully the alpha one is spending most of his time leaving the sick one alone tho

 

[WILDER]

Your tanks overstocked and until you sort your stocking out fish will carry on getting ill and die.

That nitrate reading high so tap water won't be that high.

Remove all ornaments and give the substrate a good hoover.
Also if sponges are really mucked up just sqeeze one sponge in old tank water. Do the other sponge a few weeks later.

A nitrate reading of 100 starts to become harmful to fish.