Clown loaches with gray areas on their black bands?

[mrzap]

My loaches have been doing good for the few months I have had them, but one of them just started getting these gray areas in his black bands. It has progressively gotten worse and it looks like he is breathing heavier than normal now.

One of my other loaches has started to show a similar discoloration but not as severe. My 3rd loach looks fine.

Have you seen anything like this? I have pimafix and melafix ready, but I don't want to use meds unless absolutely necessary.

 

[Zagz]

Have you done a pwc recently? Hard to tell from the picture, it almost looks like a fungus. Are they still eating? Can you QT them? They certainly look stressed. Anything new in the tank?

 

[rich311k]

What are your test results?

 

[mrzap]

Last week I changed a couple gallons of the 30 total and yesterday I did about 6 gallons of the 30.

My quarantine tank met with an accident and cracked. I have a fish bowl, but it doesn't have a filter although I can throw in an airstone and I am afraid trying to catch him may stress him over the limit. I'd rather not qt unless its a must here.

I added tetras and some male endlers last night, but he showed the first signs of this about 2 weeks ago.

Should a general pimafix/melafix combo be harmful if I treat the entire tanks if I have tetras, endlers, golden algae eaters, loaches, and ghost shrimp? The label says it is "harmless" to tetras and loaches, but I am not sure how inverts will respond.

 

[mrzap]

What are your test results?

I ran out of strips last month. I'll have to get some more and check or take a sample to my lfc tomorrow.

 

[mrzap]

I wonder if this could be it? If its a fungus does it have to appear like it is raised off the fish? It seems just like the scaling is lighter and only in the black stripe areas.

http://www.fishprofiles.com/articles/freshwater/clownloaches.asp

When clowns become scared or fight their colors might change. The dominant clown usually has the darkest coloration of all your clowns and will become darker when fighting. The submissive clowns will turn pale. When a clown becomes extremely stressed out they will turn completely white so that it is hard to even distinguish the stripes. There is a distinct difference between the three noticeable color changes. Clowns “white out”, “gray out”, and “blacken up”. A stressed out clown turns pale and whitens out. A fighting sparring clown will gray out to various shades of gray depending on their place in the clown pack. The most aggressive alpha clown will have the darkest gray coloring. Lastly clowns black out which shows a state of relaxedness. The last state is rarely if ever seen in the aquarists’ tank. Not all Clown groups fight but in the ones that do they are just establishing their pecking order.

 

[mrzap]

bump for more opinions

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I'm not familiar enough with Clowns and how they look with anything but ich (aside from normal).. just wanted to ask.

Do you have a place for them to hide? I have a piece of 3/4" conduit in my tank that they will hide in, I've seen them grey out and it's not sustained for longer then the fight (tho some still aren't as dark as the largest one). They really need a place to hide and relax.

Also, you need to test your water, even if you scoop some and bring it to the LFS to have them test it. Those fish are very stressed. If that head in the background of that picture is a Golden CAE, you might want to watch him, they are very territorial and often chase my Clowns around (that's why I'm taking the Golden's back to the LFS and getting a couple more SAE when they get some more in.), without a place to hide they aren't going to get a chance to relax.

 

[Zagz]

Clowns do change colors depending on their stress levels. Fungus is typically somewhat raised off the fish. It is hard to tell from the pics. I have used melafix and pimafix several times with all of your inhabitants but shrimp. I'll see what I can find for you on the usage with the shrimp.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I've used Melafix with Vampire Shrimp, Ghost Shrimp, Wood Shrimp and 1 resiliant snail that the loaches won't eat (I'm not that big on escargo either).. All survived fine. Never tried Pimafix.

I couldn't tell if the white is raised either, I couldn't see only the black part being affected by a fungus tho.

 

[Zagz]

I couldn't tell if the white is raised either, I couldn't see only the black part being affected by a fungus tho.

Neither could I but the pic makes it look sort of like a fungus on the entire body of the loach. It might just be stress though as you suggested.

Everything I read on melafix and pimafix says they can be used with inverts.

 

[mrzap]

I added pimafix just in case it is fungus
I also added a low dose of aquarium salt a couple days ago
My tank is pretty heavily planted on the one side so lots of cover
I have 2 cavelike structure made of rocks
One cave is usually inhabited by the algae eaters though
My algae eaters get along with my loaches
They don't seem to use the other cave except for when one can wedge himself in a corner.
I think I'll go to the lfs for materials to make another cave and maybe pickup some cover plants if I can find some nice ones.
Also need to get that water test done.

 

[mrzap]

Water params are good.

PH 7.2. No nitrites were detected. Nitrates were around 20 ppm if I remember correctly.

I bought a peice of slate and made another cave for them. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Zagz]

Water sounds good, with the addition of some hiding spots you might have the problem solved. I hope so. Keep us updated.

 

[mrzap]

Well unfortunately I lost the one pictured at the top of the post. We will see how the others fare.

 

[Zagz]

So sorry to hear that. Unknown illnesses are the hardest IMO.