Sick Fish

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Tank size: 450 ltr
pH:7.6
ammonia:0
nitrite:0
nitrate:10
kH:
gH:
tank temp:27/28

(normally test for kH and gH but until I get to the fish shop in a minute and get some more strips I don't know what it is right now. It was fine when we tested it a a couple of days ago, after the problem started.)

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

Clownloaches are bloated in the stomach area, breathing is poor, seem to be gasping constantly. Colour is pale. Not all the fish are afflicted at the moment. We have lost a couple already we have one currently in the tank which is very poorly and another just showing signs of the bloating. Once the bloating becomes noticable it takes a day or two before they die. When the bloating starts fish act normal but won't eat. Once it gets more pronounced they stop swimming around, stop eating, just lie there and try to breathe.

Volume and Frequency of water changes:
Normally do water changes every 10 days, about 20-25%.


Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

Nothing extra in there except something for phosphate, LFS tested our water and said it was quite high.

Tank inhabitants:

Clown loaches, a few other loaches (skunk, zebra, yoyo, botia) angels, cory's. a plec, hatchets, a ruby shark, a cat fish(syndontis) and a lonely platy. As yet none of the other fish in the tank are showing any sign of illness at all, or any kind of strange behaviour.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):

Nothing new has been added to the tank, most recently was the platy about 3 weeks or so before the problem began. It was living in another tank we have but not getting on along too well with it's tankmates. The other tank is absolutely fine, no signs of any kind of disease at all.

Exposure to chemicals:

We put in some melafix a few days ago, and the LFS gave us some Bacteria Control to try. The Phos-Zorb went in yesterday.

Digital photo (include if possible):

This was taken yesterday, but the fish died shortly after, the blown/pop eye has not been present on any of the other fish, and none of the ones in the tank are showing signs of this. We had another one die yesterday morning, before the sick fish died, it had no signs of bloating, but it did have a distinct redness around the gills. Which none of the other fish have presented with.

Definately appears to be a bacterial issue. I would treat with Interpet Anti-internal Bacteria for the problem (if in the UK). I would also remove the phosphate removing pad. Phosphate is not an issue unless it is sky high. The LFS was probibly just trying to push the product onto you. Also the phosphate removing pads can also remove ammonia. Though this initial sound good, in reality it isn't, as this media will outcompete the filter bacteria, and put you into a mini-cycle when removed. The longer it's been there, the worse the mini-cycle

Test strips are innacurate. I would invest in a good liquid drop test kit. They start arround £17, and work out cheaper in the long run.

Unfortunately internal bacteira is hard to treat for, and once the fish are showing outward symptoms, they are usualy un-savable Be prepaired to euthanise, as they pass the point of no return quite quickly

HTH
Rabbut

Can you tell if the fish are pooping. It looks plugged up to me. this can be due to diet, bacterial infection or internal parasites or worms.

What are you feeding them? Diet is most offten the cause of constipation.

You can try adding some Epsom Salts to the tank as it is a great fish laxitive. The ultimate dose you are looking to achieve is 3 tablespoons/10 gals of water, However Epsom will effect gh and TDS levels so it should be added gradually. Dose it in 1/3s- ie 1 tablespoon/10 gals at a time. Mix it with tank water and add it to the tank. Wait about 8 hours and repeat and then another 8 and repeat.

If you want to be proactive, you could also begin a round of antibiotics in case it is bacterial.

Parasites can be harder to treat for here since the fish have stopped eating and metronidazole is mostly effective when dosed internally via food. I have never needed to use a water pased parasite treatment so can't suggest one. If you want to try it dose in the water you will need to turn up the tank temp to the mid 80s F for it to be effective.

For worms flubendazole or levimasole work great. Finding them can be tricky.

I don't think they can use that much salt with the scaleless fish in their tank.

Salt is a no-no here I'm afraid. It would almost cirtainly kill the patient, as loaches are scaleless fish. Salt can have serious conciquences for scaleless fish. Parasites are a possibility, but only common in wild caught fish. They are commonly blamed when an aquarist cannot find any other problems. Though I will not dispute that they occur, I doubt it is as often the caurse of the problem as most think.
I doubt that costipation would caurse that much swelling. I would think that a bacterial issue is most likely here.

All the best
Rabbut

We've just done a big water change, hoovered all the sand to get any horrid stuff out of it.

Oddly now the clown loaches are out more than we've ever seen them, swimming around normally. Hopefully they are feeling better and will start to show signs of improvement.

We feed them on frozen food, herb flakes, sinking pellets and veggies. We've had them for about a year and have had no problems like this at all before. We fed them a little while ago and they all seemed to be eating well.

I will cross my fingers and toes!