Sick dwarf loach

[Andy Sager]

The vet is out of town until Monday, so he told me to call then if the fish is still alive. I've tried to look for live worms but from what I've been told they're not available here. I do have snails in the tank that live in the filter of my main tank and the loaches love them, he hasn't been interested. He does still swim around a little, but still breathing heavily this whole time.

Can you get frozen blackworms? Bloodworms are not really " worms" which may be why the fish doesn't want them. Blackworms are meat. If not, how about live or frozen brine shrimp?

 

[chelseymoreau]

I have not seen blackworms, I have tried frozen brine shrimp almost every day, fish flakes, pellets, and there's lots of snails in his tank now i was really hoping he'd go for one.

 

[Andy Sager]

I have not seen blackworms, I have tried frozen brine shrimp almost every day, fish flakes, pellets, and there's lots of snails in his tank now i was really hoping he'd go for one.

Okay then, I wouldn't give up on the fish just yet in the hopes that maybe it makes it until the Vet gets back. I wouldn't try feeding anything other than live or frozen foods to keep the water clean but hopefully it's going after a snail or two. Anything else I would suggest involves medications you don't have access to outside of a Vet. Just make sure you are doing water changes as scheduled.

 

[chelseymoreau]

Ok, sounds good I will continue and also hope he eats a snail. He doesnt seem to be getting worse I just hope he isn't suffering

 

[Andy Sager]

Ok, sounds good I will continue and also hope he eats a snail. He doesnt seem to be getting worse I just hope he isn't suffering

Sadly, Canada and a number of other countries have made it harder to save more fish with their medicine bans so the reality is that we can't save them all. Here's my philosophy: As long as the fish is breathing, there is hope. Once the fish stops breathing, all hope is gone. The only time this doesn't hold true is when the fish, while still breathing, can't even swim upright or has an incurable disease.

 

[chelseymoreau]

I've just gotten the fritz paracleanse from Amazon finally, which i ordered a while ago. I'm wondering if it is hole in the head now as the fish does have the discoloration on the head. Would it be safe to start this treatment although he just did a week of metronidazole?

 

[Andy Sager]

I've just gotten the fritz paracleanse from Amazon finally, which i ordered a while ago. I'm wondering if it is hole in the head now as the fish does have the discoloration on the head. Would it be safe to start this treatment although he just did a week of metronidazole?

Hole in the head is not a discoloration but actual pits in the flesh. This is Hole in the head:
As for the paracleanse, it's a combination of Metronidazole and Praziquantal so since you did the week of metronidazole, it may not work at all. You made it this far, I'd wait until tomorrow and contact the vet. If you can, try to get a close up pic of the area to show the vet as well.

 

[chelseymoreau]

The fish has suddenly passed. Thank you for all your help and advice.

 

[Andy Sager]

The fish has suddenly passed. Thank you for all your help and advice.

I'm sorry to hear. I did a little more digging in case it was something besides what I was thinking and all I could come up with was possibly a gill disease or a kidney disease or both which quite frankly if it were both, you would not be able to cure without strong antibiotics with the problem being that they may cure the gills but damage the kidneys so you probably would not have been able to save the fish anyway. To add to that, it would have taken a process of elimination to rule out parasitic issues ( which is what you started with) and then gone from there while in the meantime, the fish would have gotten worse. You might want to have the fish autopsied by the vet to get a more definitive answer as to the cause in case any of your other loaches start to act like this one did.