Water Quality Information:
Hello. I have had a recent bout of disease among my loaches, and upon returning a recovering loach to the tank, am having a scare. Please skip to disease round 2 if you do not care to read the history. It's where I need opinions on how to proceed.
History:
I have a 72 gallon planted tank. I recently introduced a new kuhli loach to the tank without quarantining it first. I had a small school of kuhli loaches and 4 dojo loaches (2 golden, 2 natural big-ones).
Disease Round 1:
A week after introducing the new kuhli, the new kuhli and one of my existing kuhlis died, followed shortly by one of the smaller golden dojo. I could find no cause of death.
I noticed that one of my large dojos had a swollen mouth, so I moved all dojo and kuhli loaches to a hospital tank and nuked the tank with a round of erythromycin. During this time the dojo with swollen mouth had all but one of his whiskers fall off, and most of his lips, exposing the bone.
The other loaches seemed healthy after the treatment, so I moved them to the main tank.
The sickened dojo loach was my largest loach. It had lots of reserves and was my favorite pet. I ordered some clove oil for amazon while preparing for euthanasia, but in the meantime treated it with a round of triple sulfa and melafix. Amazon's clove oil got lost in the mail, but this may be fortunate for the loach since the disease was wiped out and his lips and mouth began to grow back, covering the bone. By the time the clove oil arrived (11 days later... thanks amazon...) the dojo's mouth had recovered to the point where I could hand feed him several times a day. He was still having difficulty sucking the food into his mouth, but with assistence was eager to have the food.
Recovery:
After another week and a half in the hospital tank and several-times daily assisted feedings, the dojo loach was able to suck food into his mouth and eat on his own. Though the mouth was a little raw, I wanted to return him to the main tank so he could be back in the better water quality. (the hospital tank is always a mess because all the drugs mess with the ecosystem and established bacteria. I returned him to the main tank and he seems to be doing great.
Here is a photo of him with his still-healing mouth: (note: every day he has improved and has more tissue on his mouth that seems like his tissue and not a fungus.) However, his mouth is pinkish. I do not know if this is bad.
Disease Round 2?
It has been a little over 14 hours since I reintroduced the dojo loach with the messed up mouth to the tank.
I looked at my second large dojo loach one hour ago (with the intact mouth), and one of its whiskers has turned blood red. It has been laying side by side with the recovering dojo loach frequently. Here is a photo.
Do you think that I have reintroduced disease to my tank? Should I remove both dojo and dose them with another 4 day course of antibotics in the hospital tank? I am loathe to remove the recovering loach, because I feel the net hurts his mouth. I also worry that all the medicine is going to do him in right as he is getting better. However, I do not want to lose my healthy loach.
Another consideration: I put additional rocks in my main tank when I returned the dojo loach to it. These rocks are fairly jagged, but I wanted to give him some good hiding places if he wanted to stay away from the other fish in case they tried to peck his mouth. Is it possible that a single blood-red whisker on the "healthy" loach is not a disease that appeared within 14 hours of reintroduction of the sick loach, but an injured whisker?
(apologies for the repost. It seems my posts disappear when I edit them!)
- 1: Type of Fish: Weather Loach, previously Kuhli Loach
- 2: All tank parameters seem good. Ammonia/nitrites/nitrates all 0/lowest color setting on chart. Water is 76 degrees farenheight. PH is 7.2, which is the PH of our tap water.
- 3: Size/Setup: 72 gallons. Moved (with living bacteria and plants preserved) 2 months ago. Overall tank age is one year 4 months.
- 4: Filtration: Fluval 406 - 383gph
- 5: fish in tank. 36 Fish - 15 small tetra (1in), 5 turquoise rainbowfish (3.5 in) 7 swordtails (2.5in), 2 bushy nose pleco (3in) 1 siamensis (4in) 1 balloon belly molly (2 in) 2 kuhli loach (small), 1 golden dojo (small, 4in) 2 dojo (large 7 in)
- 6. Last water change: 6 days ago. Weekly 20% water change, though live plants prevent a full gravel vacuum
- 7. All living fish are over 6 months old.
- 8. New additions: 2 large rocks
- 9. Food: Omega 1 Freshwater Flakes, New Life Spectrum Small Fish Forumla Pellets, Algae Wafers, Frozen Blood Worms (weekly treat), Frozen Brine Shrimp (weekly treat)
Hello. I have had a recent bout of disease among my loaches, and upon returning a recovering loach to the tank, am having a scare. Please skip to disease round 2 if you do not care to read the history. It's where I need opinions on how to proceed.
History:
I have a 72 gallon planted tank. I recently introduced a new kuhli loach to the tank without quarantining it first. I had a small school of kuhli loaches and 4 dojo loaches (2 golden, 2 natural big-ones).
Disease Round 1:
A week after introducing the new kuhli, the new kuhli and one of my existing kuhlis died, followed shortly by one of the smaller golden dojo. I could find no cause of death.
I noticed that one of my large dojos had a swollen mouth, so I moved all dojo and kuhli loaches to a hospital tank and nuked the tank with a round of erythromycin. During this time the dojo with swollen mouth had all but one of his whiskers fall off, and most of his lips, exposing the bone.
The other loaches seemed healthy after the treatment, so I moved them to the main tank.
The sickened dojo loach was my largest loach. It had lots of reserves and was my favorite pet. I ordered some clove oil for amazon while preparing for euthanasia, but in the meantime treated it with a round of triple sulfa and melafix. Amazon's clove oil got lost in the mail, but this may be fortunate for the loach since the disease was wiped out and his lips and mouth began to grow back, covering the bone. By the time the clove oil arrived (11 days later... thanks amazon...) the dojo's mouth had recovered to the point where I could hand feed him several times a day. He was still having difficulty sucking the food into his mouth, but with assistence was eager to have the food.
Recovery:
After another week and a half in the hospital tank and several-times daily assisted feedings, the dojo loach was able to suck food into his mouth and eat on his own. Though the mouth was a little raw, I wanted to return him to the main tank so he could be back in the better water quality. (the hospital tank is always a mess because all the drugs mess with the ecosystem and established bacteria. I returned him to the main tank and he seems to be doing great.
Here is a photo of him with his still-healing mouth: (note: every day he has improved and has more tissue on his mouth that seems like his tissue and not a fungus.) However, his mouth is pinkish. I do not know if this is bad.
Disease Round 2?
It has been a little over 14 hours since I reintroduced the dojo loach with the messed up mouth to the tank.
I looked at my second large dojo loach one hour ago (with the intact mouth), and one of its whiskers has turned blood red. It has been laying side by side with the recovering dojo loach frequently. Here is a photo.
Do you think that I have reintroduced disease to my tank? Should I remove both dojo and dose them with another 4 day course of antibotics in the hospital tank? I am loathe to remove the recovering loach, because I feel the net hurts his mouth. I also worry that all the medicine is going to do him in right as he is getting better. However, I do not want to lose my healthy loach.
Another consideration: I put additional rocks in my main tank when I returned the dojo loach to it. These rocks are fairly jagged, but I wanted to give him some good hiding places if he wanted to stay away from the other fish in case they tried to peck his mouth. Is it possible that a single blood-red whisker on the "healthy" loach is not a disease that appeared within 14 hours of reintroduction of the sick loach, but an injured whisker?
(apologies for the repost. It seems my posts disappear when I edit them!)
