Clown Loach Problem

[Zikofski]

Okay sadly we lost a clown loach the other day we think he got stuck in our ornament we've since taken that out but noticed today the rest of our loaches have white spots on them , we have taken them out and separated them from the rest of the fish seem to be moving okay just spotty? dose anyone know what this is, if its curable? and if possible what could have caused this? we have red line torpedoes and a angel fish they seem to be fine, i have done a severe water change tho since i found the spotty loaches this morning any help much appreciated thank you

 

[fluttermoth]

It's a disease called 'whitespot' or 'ich', caused by a parasite called Ichthyophthirius.

Ich is very common in clown loach, especially if the fish are stressed by poor water quality, being in too small a tank, or not having enough company.

It's not hard to cure, but you must make sure you buy a medication that is safe for 'scaleless' fish like your loaches; it'll say on the bottle; some may recommend that you use only a half dose in tanks that contain scaleless fish.

How big is your tank, how long has it been set up, what filtration do you have, how many and how big are your water changes, how many clowns do you have?

Sorry for all the questions, but if we can't get the conditions right for your fish, they'll be very likely to keep on getting the whitespot.

 

[tribalbrit]

Purchase a good brand of white spot treatment from your Lfs asap, treat as per instructions, turn up the temperature to 80 degsF to speed up the process

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Purchase a good brand of white spot treatment from your Lfs asap, treat as per instructions, turn up the temperature to 80 degsF to speed up the process

Bear in mind the OP has scaleless fish that are very sensitive to medications. She cannot use just ANY medication for whitespot. It has to be safe for scaleless fish.

 

[tribalbrit]

Ooops my mistake, I have not had to treat white spot since WS3 was available (as its not now) and my clowns are more than 20 years old.
I think uping the temperature is a big help if I remember righttly

 

[Zikofski]

It's a disease called 'whitespot' or 'ich', caused by a parasite called Ichthyophthirius.

Ich is very common in clown loach, especially if the fish are stressed by poor water quality, being in too small a tank, or not having enough company.

It's not hard to cure, but you must make sure you buy a medication that is safe for 'scaleless' fish like your loaches; it'll say on the bottle; some may recommend that you use only a half dose in tanks that contain scaleless fish.

How big is your tank, how long has it been set up, what filtration do you have, how many and how big are your water changes, how many clowns do you have?

Sorry for all the questions, but if we can't get the conditions right for your fish, they'll be very likely to keep on getting the whitespot.

Thank you, we are going to buy medication as requested


my tank size is 30" x 12" and 15" tall

we have a Fluval U3 filter, i know its over rated for my tank but it dose work well from what i see, one thing i have done is take out the biomax stuff from the 3rd stage of filtering, these i don't know what they are like chalk i guess but made the water cloudy we followed them annuals and left the tank for 2 weeks but still cloudy so we took them out and all went gd

we have 3 red torpedoes and 1 intel fish in there still, we did have 5 loaches and were happy until randomly we lost one the other day, the tank has been setup for 5 weeks total but only had fish in for 3 weeks i do a water change every 2 weeks was the plan i changed the water last weekend at changed around 20 to 30% of the water but today i changed around 75 to 80% of the water after i took out the 4 remaining loaches and took out some gravel as my gravel takes up about 2 inches in hight from the bottom is it better to have more or less gravel i don't know but when i disturb the water it made the water look really cloudy the fish in there now seem happy and fine

now we have temporarily put the loaches into a tinny tinny tank around 8" wide 4" deep and 4" tall i know its way to small for them altho the loaches are only 1" in length themselves that has a basic filter that come with the tank,

since i started to type this we have lost another loach he was worst of them this morning, tomo i shall go out at get the medicine asap, we have stress coat will that help them? so at moment we have 3 loaches left i hope they can service through the night

***EDIT***

I have looks around being in the uk looking in shops is hard but this is the only shop i can look at online here is this product look okay to use it looks okay to me?

http/www.petsathome.com/shop/love-fish-anti-white-spot-and-parasite-fish-treatment-57284

 

[Man of fish]

I recommend you buy a much larger tank for the loaches anyways. That tank is way too small for them. No wonder they got white spot.

 

[Zikofski]

I recommend you buy a much larger tank for the loaches anyways. That tank is way too small for them. No wonder they got white spot.

hmm okay i thought this size tank would be okay for a few months to a year until they grow to a size then getting bigger what tank size would you recommend? from the shops i have been looking in my tank size is the largest size only cost around £30 and going to 100L tanks there like £150

also when i said they are an inch there about half an inch actually my bad

 

[Man of fish]

Once fully grown they can live up to 25 years and get 2 ft. Long they require a 75 gallon tank with sand substrate and 55 at the bare minimum. Their growth will be stunted I'm afraid. And that little box may kill them.

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, your tank is far too small for clown loach, which can grow to a foot long, and prefer to be in groups of at least six; the red line torpedos are also not suitable for a tabk that size, I'm afraid.

Your whitespot problem is almost certainly caused because your tank isn't cycled (ie, doesn't have a colony of the beneficial bacteria that keep the water free of toxins).

You'll need to be doing a lot more water changes until those bacteria grow, probably 50 or 60% daily with the amount of fish you have. The clowns should go back into the larger tank for treatment, as the whitespot parasite has part of it's lifecycle that is free swimming, so that tank will be infected and need treating, even if the other fish aren't showing signs of infection yet.

There are some good articles on the nitrogen cycle and fish in cycling in the beginner's resource centre (the link for that is in my sig) which I suggest you read as they'll give you an idea of what's going on in your tank.

Raising the temperature speed up the lifecycle of the parasite which helps the medication work; you can kill off the disease with high temperatures, but the torpedo barbs won't like that, so I think you should rely on the med doing it's job.

You are going to need to sort out your stocking or you will end up with constantly sick or dead fish. You either need to re-home the barbs and loaches, or get a much, much larger tank; a 4'x15"x18" would do you for the moment, but even that won't be big enough for the loaches, long term.

 

[tribalbrit]

The interpet one is probably a better brand,, I would also put the clowns back in your main tank and treat that as the rest of the fish will probably be infected as the parasite is waterborn one

 

[Zikofski]

Once fully grown they can live up to 25 years and get 2 ft. Long they require a 75 gallon tank with sand substrate and 55 at the bare minimum. Their growth will be stunted I'm afraid. And that little box may kill them.

sorry are you talking about the the small tank i have moved them into or the larger tank i took them out off as i put them into the small tank temporarily will move them back into the big tank once healthy just to check there is not a mis understanding here our big tank is around 80L small one is 19L

 

[Man of fish]

They are both way too small for loaches and the only fish suitable in your tank is possibly the angel.

 

[tribalbrit]

Put them back in the bigger tank and treat that one as the whole tank will be infected with the parasite, once healthy start looking for a bigger tank or swap the fish for smaller ones.

If left in the smaller hospital tank they WILL die! and you will still have to treat the bigger tank too

 

[fluttermoth]

sorry are you talking about the the small tank i have moved them into or the larger tank i took them out off as i put them into the small tank temporarily will move them back into the big tank once healthy just to check there is not a mis understanding here our big tank is around 80L small one is 19L

As I and the other posters have said, both your tanks are too small for the clown loaches and the torpedo barbs, long term.

You need to put the clowns back in the big tank, as they'll die off pretty rapidly from ammnonia poisoning in the very small one, and the main tank with have the whitespot parasite present now, and would just reinfect the clowns when they went back in.