clown loach, white mucus all over

[jhd]

I noticed that one of my two clown loaches lost colors and is covered with whitish mucus. Maybe it is not mucus but some sort of severe discoloration. He was still eating and was quite active but you could tell it is not the same active loach.
The other loach is fine, color lines are sharp, no visible problems, but this one, the color lines are fuzzy and the whole fish is whitish, fins included also more on the body than fins. It all happened within one day.
I checked water parameters and except Nitrates 10ppm, ammonia, nitrite 0 ppm. Ph7.5, Kh6. Peaceful 55g tank, no stress
The only thing I can think of is that I added plant fertilizer and this might be a burnt skin issue. What would that look like?

It is not gold or rusty as velvet suppose to be also I have never seen velvet.
Any ideas? It is progressing fast, looks like I will remedy today or not at all.

thanks in advance for help

 

[cindywindy]

jhd,

I'm sorry to hear about your fish, maybe I can help.

The colouration of velvet does not necessarily always present itself as a gold dusting, altho that is its most telltale sign. For more information, please see my Velvet profile :

http://www.tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=27042#27042

 

[Mr502go]

an Excerpt from the book "Manual of Fish Health" by Dr. Chris Andrews, Adrian Exell & Dr. Neville Carrington. . .

Obvious Symptoms: A grey-white film of excess mucus develops over the body and is especially noticeable over the eyes or areas of darkened pigmentation on the skin. Reddened areas may occur on the flanks of the fish, perhaps together with swollen gills and rapid movements. Badly affected fish become listless and lie on the bottom, occasionally scratching themselves against rocks. Secondary bacterial infection is common. . . .

Occurence of the disease: This condition often occurs in fish that are in poor condition, perhaps because of overcrowding, poor water quality or inadequate nutrition. It readily passes from fish to fish and particularly affects coldwater fish in the spring as temperatures start to rise.

Treatment and control: Initially, treat affected freshwater fishes with a course of a reliable white spot remedy. Should this fail to bring about an improvement within five to seven days, carry out a 50 percent water change and use an antiparasite treatment based on formalin or an organophosphorus insecticide such as metriphonate. Unfortunately, certain fish, such as orfe, rudd and piranhas are rather sensitive to the latter. Eliminating the predisposing factors and quarantining all new fish are vital measures in the long term control of this condition.


Hopefully that will, help, I'm no Doc, but it seemed applicable.

 

[jhd]

Thanks guys,
this white film looks applicable. I have no idea how it got there, I have 55g planted with about half of average population of fish. What is this thing called? This is not a velvet, the white film stuff, is it?
What is white spot remedy? I Have rid ick+. Is that good? I changed 30% of water yesterday, loach looks better today, less mucus, only last black stripe and further towards the tail the white stuff is clearly visible. I will give it a couple of more days. I do not want to trash the plants with medicine. Should I continue to change water daily?
I did buy 6 Otos 2 weeks ago... But they are fine, busy cleaning algea fields on my rocks. maybe they brought this thing with them.
Thanks and please tell me what I should buy from petsmart or any other to treat this thing if it does not improve.

 

[Mr502go]

yes, the white spot thing is ich, however make sure it's based on formalin (active ingredient) I'll have to look through my stuff to see what medications have what active ingredients. I don't remember which one uses formalin.

 

[Mr502go]

did some more looking, Rid Ich is Formalin and Malachite Green.

 

[jhd]

Ok I give up,
fish looked better but I noticed it started scratching more which is not a good sign so I put in a half a dose of rid ick+, 25ml for 55g. They tell you to use 10ml per 10g but loach is sensitive. Hope it gets rid of that mucus.
I hate adding medicines to the planted tanks but anything for the loaches. They took care of my snail infestation problem in about a week some times ago, problem that I could not get rid of by pickin about 30 of them daily. Small nasty snails. So I owe them.
Hope this will take care of the problem.

For how long should I add 25 ml of rid ick+ daily?
thanks for all the inputs guys

 

[Scottw68TN]

3 days after the last visible signs.