Clown Loach Issue!! Help!

[Cichlid_Man]

Hi, I posted this in the wrong section so I am re-posting
I had a pretty serious NitrAte problem but that has been resolved.
All my fish in the tank are perfect except the clown loach.

He is flashing along the gravel but does NOT have Ich or white spots.

What he does have is just a funny looking appearance to him, sort of like his skin is almost peeling. Nothing cottony like a fungus. He is eating well.

All I have in the house is Rid-Ich.
Should I treat the tank with that? It says it is for a variety of fish diseases and is relatively safe. It is made up of that malachite green, etc.
Thanks for your help!
P.S. He was perect yesterday, but worsening...He is under a rock right now not looking too good???

[PostalPenguin]

My corys had something like that once. Two of them got stuck in my decorations and in trying to get out they scraped some skin off. So likely they are flashing so much that they are scraping their skin off. Do you have any decorations that he could get stuck in? I had a pile of rocks that formed a lot of traps and I had to rescue them several times until I redid the tank.

I am not sure what could be causing it but it could be a type of fungus that he is trying to scrape off. I would hold off on the Rid-Ich since I think clown loaches are sensitive to it. Try Pimafix + Melafix, at the very least it will allow his skin to heal faster. Someone else may have an idea specifically what it is.

[Cichlid_Man]

My corys had something like that once. Two of them got stuck in my decorations and in trying to get out they scraped some skin off. So likely they are flashing so much that they are scraping their skin off.

I am not sure what could be causing it but it could be a type of fungus that he is trying to scrape off. I would hold off on the Rid-Ich since I think clown loaches are sensitive to it. Try Pimafix + Melafix, at the very least it will allow his skin to heal faster. Someone else may have an idea specifically what it is.

Well, he looks worse as we chat here.
I read the label on the rid ich and it does have several anti-fungal ingredients and it also says loaches handle it "better" than other meds.
I am too far away from town to just go and buy aquarium salt. All I have in the house is table salt that is not iodized, but I am not going to use that even though some folks do.
Thanks for your input!

[Lady Hobbs]

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

I just posted this link in another post but seems to fit your problem, as well.

[Cichlid_Man]

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

I just posted this link in another post but seems to fit your problem, as well.

Thanks Hobbs!
I just did a re-check and my nitrates are back up to 40!
What could it be?
I do my water changes every week, I am over-filtered, I have air bubbles and I feed once a day???

[Lady Hobbs]

How about gravel cleaning? You take good care of your tanks so I'm sure you do that but just tossing out the idea that maybe it needs to be done more often?

Could be, too, that your filter media either needs replacing now or rinsed out in dechlorinatored now? Don't replace filter media and vac gravel all at the same time, tho. You don't want to take out too much bacteria at once.

Not likely this would cause itching, I don't think.

[Cichlid_Man]

How about gravel cleaning? You take good care of your tanks so I'm sure you do that but just tossing out the idea that maybe it needs to be done more often?

Could be, too, that your filter media either needs replacing now or rinsed out in dechlorinatored now? Don't replace filter media and vac gravel all at the same time, tho. You don't want to take out too much bacteria at once.

Not likely this would cause itching, I don't think.

Everytime I do a water change each week, I do about 30%, and also clean the gravel while draining the water. The tank looks immaculate.
I just did filter maintenance and I am always careful not to change everything at once. Sometimes the sponge gets rinsed, another time the bio max gets rinsed, all in fish tank water.

This is what is baffling me.
Saturday I did my 30% change and the Nitrates were at about 10ppm...Not too bad, certainl;y not life threatening...
Today is Tuesday and the loach is a mess so I re-check and the Nitrates are 40 or more?? I tested my tap water and it is zero.
Today I did a 25% change, then another 50% change, and the Nitrates are STILL a bit high at 20ppm.
So, between Saturday and today, I did 30%, 25% and 50%...
Where in heck is it coming from?

Maybe because I only feed blood worms? That is all they will eat...Could it be the food? Only once a day!

[Lady Hobbs]

It could be but you have got to start weining those fish off so many blood worms. They start getting them all the time and you get the problem you now have and that's them only eating the worms. Fish need a diet of other things like fish food that contains the vitamins they need. They need vegtable matter to keep from becoming constipated, as well.

[Cichlid_Man]

It could be but you have got to start weining those fish off so many blood worms. They start getting them all the time and you get the problem you now have and that's them only eating the worms. Fish need a diet of other things like fish food that contains the vitamins they need. They need vegtable matter to keep from becoming constipated, as well.


That could be the problem with the loach then.
All he'll eat is blood worms, and at night, when I throw in either algae wafers or shrimp pellets for the Pleco, the loach gets them first, so my Pleco has become a top feeder!
He eats the flakes or the shrimp, but he floats on his back and top feeds!
The loach is probably over eating. He is swimming on his back right now. I think his time is coming soon!

[Lady Hobbs]

Bottom feeders feed at night and you may not see them feeding on other things. The also like zucchini and cucumber slices, algae pellets, shrimp pellets, etc. Feed at night when the lights go off and drop food on both ends of the tank for different bottom dwellers.

Sorry about your loach.

[Cichlid_Man]

Bottom feeders feed at night and you may not see them feeding on other things. The also like zucchini and cucumber slices, algae pellets, shrimp pellets, etc. Feed at night when the lights go off and drop food on both ends of the tank for different bottom dwellers.

Sorry about your loach.

I will try a small slice of cucmber tonight. Maybe the other fish will leave it alone and my Pleco can eat when he is supposed too. I have never seen a Pleco top feed like him.

As far as the loach, he is still with us and hiding under a rock. Funny thing is, my rainbow shark is staying close by him but there is nothing wrong with the rainbow. Maybe he is waiting for him to drop dead and then eat him :-)

[Sharon]

I think you must be overfeeding, and the choice of food is probably contributing as well. Stop the blood worms, fast the fish for a two days, and then try pellets, flakes, veggies,(on different days) with a treat of Bloodworm once a week.. You feed once a day, but you may be feeding more in a single feeding than some would use in three feedings...

[Drip Loop]

Yea, fish dont normally eat just one thing in the wild. So for starters I would stop feeding them bloodworms. Secondly, how many fish are in this tank. chances are your producing a ton of waste thats being converted to nitrates before you know it.