Clownloach need help

Harleygirl74

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*Pic attach*Please, I’d like to have help for my clown loach. I’ve had them for at least three years. My water perimeters are perfect. My tank has been up for at least five years hopefully somebody could help me, hope it’s not too late. I know it’s not ick because I dealt with that when I first got them all. This is kind of new to me. A few white lumps that are sticking out, some on fins too but the black seems grayish (but can be stress as i turned on the light to get a better view) and he’s breathing fast not eating. This morning saw a white dot on eye and flashing on rocks. I would like to treat it if possible with the right meds ect.... Sorry for the quality of the pics, fish are hard to take. Thank you
 

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They appear to be covered in excess mucous, which is produced by the fish when they are stressed by something in the water. This can be from external parasites like white spot, velvet, Costia, Chilodonella, Trichodina, flukes, etc. It can also be caused by poor water quality, a dirty tank or filter, or chemicals/ poisons that have entered the water. However, the fact it appears to be all over the fish, would suggest it's a water quality problem rather than a disease.

What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the aquarium water (in numbers)?
What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?
How much do you feed them and what do you feed them?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the aquarium?

Have you added anything to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?
how long has this been going on for?
 
BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Post clear pictures and video of the fish so we can check them for diseases.
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.
 
They appear to be covered in excess mucous, which is produced by the fish when they are stressed by something in the water. This can be from external parasites like white spot, velvet, Costia, Chilodonella, Trichodina, flukes, etc. It can also be caused by poor water quality, a dirty tank or filter, or chemicals/ poisons that have entered the water. However, the fact it appears to be all over the fish, would suggest it's a water quality problem rather than a disease.

What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the aquarium water (in numbers)?
What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?
How much do you feed them and what do you feed them?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the aquarium?

Have you added anything to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?
how long has this been going on for?
Hi and ty, it's only the one loach is sick all others are ok as I can tell its crappy pictures.
I figured out what happened i think where I live my tank was running on normal water and my tank was set up to that water quality and I added 5 baby cory cats. Every 2 weeks i use the master testing kit, every week id use the strips all was good. Little did i know they updated the water to a water softener so Im thinking with both of these threw my tank on the wack (but the strip said all is good) so did the master one and YIKES omg... I will never use those strips again. I do reg cleaning and do the gravel as I always use a python. I've never had any issues in the 5 years I have a 90 gal tank with 120 gal filter. I did a 50% water change today. Ammonia was good but everything else was off. working to get everything back to normal UGH. Thank you very much though your help was greatly appreciated will keep you posted...
 
BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Post clear pictures and video of the fish so we can check them for diseases.
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.
 
If you have the same kind of water softener my city uses, You will get a very low KH and GH and a high PH that persist, once the water is strongly aerated.

I'm Near Mtl and testing KH 10-20 ppm, GH 60-80 ppm, PH 7.8-8.0
 
BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Post clear pictures and video of the fish so we can check them for diseases.
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the l

If you have the same kind of water softener my city uses, You will get a very low KH and GH and a high PH that persist, once the water is strongly aerated.

I'm Near Mtl and testing KH 10-20 ppm, GH 60-80 ppm, PH 7.8-8.0
Thank you
 
If you have the same kind of water softener my city uses, You will get a very low KH and GH and a high PH that persist, once the water is strongly aerated.

I'm Near Mtl and testing KH 10-20 ppm, GH 60-80 ppm, PH 7.8-8.0
Thank you very much
 
Loaches like soft water but the water chemistry change will stress them. The change in minerals (gh doesn't measure which mineral are in the water and some of these water softner filter out specific minerals like iron) can have a rather negative impact on plants. I've started running more and more of my aquariums on ro water just seems simplier. This is my discus aquarium:
discus_may_2024.jpg


Anyway i'd dump the tap water and just use ro water. Plants don't need a lot of minerals but they hate change. Btw i have 13 clown loaches in my 600. Lovely fish though a bit shy. They do sometime clown around:
 
Loaches like soft water but the water chemistry change will stress them. The change in minerals (gh doesn't measure which mineral are in the water and some of these water softner filter out specific minerals like iron) can have a rather negative impact on plants. I've started running more and more of my aquariums on ro water just seems simplier. This is my discus aquarium:
View attachment 342853

Anyway i'd dump the tap water and just use ro water. Plants don't need a lot of minerals but they hate change. Btw i have 13 clown loaches in my 600. Lovely fish though a bit shy. They do sometime clown around:
Thank you, Id love to see the 600 gal with the loaches
 
BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Post clear pictures and video of the fish so we can check them for diseases.
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.
So far so good ty for the advise he is healing and doing well so far
 

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