Help diagnosing clown loach

CassCats said:

Bacterial infection would be my thought, don't bother with melafix as it is useless.

I'd opt for trying salt treatment, if that doesn't work or it gets worse, you will need kanamycin

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MaloK said:

While I can not answer on what is influencing the growth of your fish. It can be from genetic to food availability crossed over by aggression produced by resources scarceness...

presonally, I would treat him with any medication that contains malachite green, if not pure malachite green.

If he comes back and start to grow in QT, the problem for him is probably from tank mates or stress caused by the points mentioned before.

Edit: Try to cover that bottom with enough substrate to cut reflection.

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fishorama said:

After you address his tail bacterial issues (good luck!), you might want to try deworming. While males are smaller & slimmer than females, that is quite a difference in growth rate. Treat 1 thing at a time & do lots of water changes in between treatments!

How many clowns do you have in what size tank? Maybe an issue for another time...

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njbealey1 said:

I have 2 clown loaches in a 75 gallon, heavily planted tank. I bought the clowns as a pair, similar in size. I’ve had them for about a year now. The now larger one hides all the time and doesn’t come out to eat (it does eat algae pellets I feed other fish). The one that is sick came out all the time to eat during feeding.

I gave the sick one a saltwater dip last night. He started freaking out within a few minutes so I put him back in the treatment tank. He didn’t look so well so I drained down the isolation tank and replaced it with water from the display tank. While I was pouring in the water, he literally swam over to where I was pouring. He then started acting like his normal self again. I plan to leave him there for a while (without treatment) and hope for the best. I am concerned now that there is something else wrong with him since he isn’t growing.

Thanks everyone for your help.

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