I give up! Clown loaches are so touchy!

[sudz]

I Love clown loaches...
They just hate me!
Every clown loach i get slowly starts "wasting" away.
Is it possible the're is something in the substrate thats killing my bottom feeders? I look at the "Death" history of my 44 gallon tank, and its: 2 cory cats, 1 Flying fox, and 2 Clown Loaches. I have 3 loaches right now, and 2 of them are showing signs of this "wasting" disease. I've been treating the whole tank with internal, AND external parisite medication by Gel-Tek for over 3 weeks now.

The loaches eat the stuff up, as do the foxes, and the other fish ignore it (sometimes the cherry barbs eat it) Yet, the loachs get smaller... and smaller.

The loachs are VERY hard to catch, its only once they're almost dead can i catch them.

Temp is 82, PH 7.2, Nitrates at 10, nitrites and ammonia at 0. Hardness is 10 degrees.

Does anyone know what could be the problem? I'm almost thinking there's something in the substrate.

 

[Guest]

The loachs are VERY hard to catch, its only once they're almost dead can i catch them.

I had to take apart all my rock caves and my clown loach would dive under the sand beneath airstones, and when I removed those, it was faster than lighting across the tank to the other side.

 

[sudz]

Its phsically impossible to catch them. I even try and feed shrimp pellets in a fish net... they just Dart the second i even THINK about scooping the net. They're physic fish. Its their clown magic trick.

 

[DarylF2]

I recently bought this Fish Corral and used it this weekend to help catch my fish when moving them to a halding tank while I overhauled their main tank. It was very helpful in catching my Zebra Danios, Corydoras, and Salwnsis Loaches! I found for the bottom-dwellers it was helpful to dig the closed end into the gravel a bit; this seemed to make the Corys and Loaches feel it was safer.

Its a fairly large device (4" by 9.5" and 9" high) so make sure you have room to use it in your tank if you decide to get one, but the larger size helps prevent injury to the fish. The "door" works really well, too. I was pleased with both how it worked and its effectiveness. Its always nice when you can avoid netting fish, especially ones that thrash a lot...

 

[JustOneMore20]

I needed one of those for my loaches and cories when I redid my 55g...it took me forever to round up all 4 loaches and all 9 cories.

What kind of substrate do you have sudz? Could it be too sharp and be causing them to have an infection on their barbels? I'm not sure if this would make them waste away. What do you feed them? How often do you gravel vac and what is your water change schedule like?

I hate having mysterious deaths that you can't find the cause of....its frustrating.

 

[sudz]

My tanks overheated today. I came home to find a cory and an oto belly up in my 15 gallon. My 44 gallon seemed to weather it ok.

RIP. :'(

 

[DocOc]

same thing

I have the same thing happen to some of my midwater fish. I have had danios and platys waste away to nothing too. I, too, have tried parasite and bacterial treatments in a separate tank ('cuz I can actually catch these guys) and nothing works to bring them back from death's door.

Very frustrating!

 

[buttercup]

do you by any chance add any salt to your water? Or what kind of decorations do you have? Once when i had first started i bought 4 clown loaches and treated ich with salt and heat and then they all died... i finally figured out it was the salt that killed them. what kind of water conditioner do you use? It could really be anything because they are scaleless they are more sensitive to a lot of chemicals and stuff... it could even be that you are givin them to many meds at once because that can even be toxic. Try laying off the meds for a while and doing some water changes and see if that helps.

 

[sudz]

No salt. I have only natural decorations. Driftwood and live plants

I keep the temp around 82.

New symptom: The black is becoming patchy. It looks like the fish has the fish equivilant to Vitiligo (pigment loss)
It does not look like ich.

I've been feeding them ALL their favorite foods, trying to get them fat again. They just LOVE spirulina tablets, i stick them to the window and they click/eat away at it.