Panting Clown Loach! :(

[cradle_gurl]

Hello!

Woo my 1st post and it aint a good one

im in need of some urgent advice...


Background

We have recently just treated out tank for some parasites (tiny white ones... however couldnt see any on the fish, just in the water) they fish were rubbing themselves on the gravel & rocks. We have used Myxazin for 5 days and used 15ml each night we have treated them. Our tank is about 260litres and we have an external filter - tetratec 1200.

Anyway, today on day 7 our clown loach are not happy bunnies...
One is lying on its side on the bottom of the tank and "panting" like mad, its hardly moved today. Another 1 is hiding under a rock and has been there for about 20 hours now.

All the other fish seem to be fine and not rubbing themselves anymore.

have tested the water levels are they are as follows;
GH 180
KH 120
PH 7.0
NO2 0.5
NO3 160

Could this be a nitrate problem? How can i resolve this ASAP??

Any help would be fantastic!!!

 

[moochy13]

do a water change, quite a large one if you can, bear in mind you need to get the new water roughly up to temp so you dont temp shock the fish. your nitrates and nitrites are too much. No2 should be 0, anything over that is bad news. No3 should be 40ppm max. the water may not be the problem, but it certainly needs to be sorted out. do you have an ammonia test ? my guess is thats over the limit aswell.

 

[cradle_gurl]

Hiya, thanks for the reply.

I have just looked in the little booklet that came with the testing strips and it states that high nitrate might be due to an inadequate bioligical filter... well we had to take that out due to the medicine... could this be a cause?

Whats a good way of reducing these?

No we dont have amonia testing strips, is it worth getting some to check?

I was thinking of going to our local pet shop tomorrow with a water sample and see what they recommend (they usually very helpful and informative)

 

[moochy13]

how much of the filter did you remove ? you only need to take the carbon element out i think. removing just the carbon may have removed some of the good bacteria, but not enough to make a difference i dont think. i treated with myaxzin recently and only removed the carbon. i havnt replaced it yet and have had no ill effects.

nitrate should be 40ppm max, the only way to get rid of them quickly is large water changes. they are the end product of the biological filter doing its job. real plants can help to keep levels low. nitrites and ammonia build up if the filter isnt doing its job properly. test strips aren't great, liquid tests are better. check ebay for API liquid test kit. its 20 quid but worth it, 30 quid in shops. what are you testing with, i dont know of a strip that doesnt measure ammonia. it wont hurt to go to the pet shop, but ask to see the results and have them explained to help you understand whats going on.

 

[cradle_gurl]

Ops yeah we only took out the carbon bit of the filter.

Ive just done over a 25% water change, does more need doing?
ah well, i have just recently bought some live plants, so might get better

Using API 5 in 1 test strips, doesnt mention anything about amonia

The clown loach is full laid on the gravel now and its tail keeps kinda twitching.. poor lil thing

 

[moochy13]

whats the temperature ? just incase the heater has broken or something, though that would effect all fish. id invest in the API kit i mentioned, sounds expensive i know, but its good for 800+ tests apparently. taking out the carbon shouldnt have made the filter noticably less efficient i dont think.

theres nothing wrong wih changing more water, it cant hurt your fish, you just need to make sure the temp doesnt sway too much and you use enough dechlorinator. id probably do another 25% for tonight, then do another test. then in the morning test again and go from there, hopefully your loach might be a bit mroe active by then.

also, do you have an air bubble or anythign to improve aeration of the tank ? if not try lowering the water level to create more surface ripples/break the surface, this will help oxygenate the tank.

 

[cradle_gurl]

The temp is at 29, it has slightly gone up over past few days.

Yeh the tank has an long air stone in it (which our plec likes to float over i must add!! )

Right i will crack on with another 25% water change!

Ohhh, just noticed 1 of the clown loach is swimming about now!! *fingers crossed*

 

[simonas]

Good point about the aeration perhaps put an airstone in or level the outflow from what ever your filter is to the sirface to increase water movement.

 

[moochy13]

unless you're using meds in the tank, get the temp down to 25-27 i'd say. hotter water has less oxygen in it.

 

[onebto]

A couple of things I picked up on sorry if someone has mentioned it already

1. Those test strip are notoriously unreliable and only capable of giving you inaccurate readings. In my humble opinion you will get better results and better value for money with a liquid regent test kit like the salifert range or a big favourite on this forum the API fresh water master test kit.

2. Air stones have been mentioned, please do not think that an air stone will add extra oxygen to your water which is what you need to do while your tank has medication in it, Air stones are pretty much just for looks the bubbles coming out of the stone are to big to saturate into your water some one did mention surface agitation which in my humble opinion is the very best way to increase the oxygenation of your water so just change the angle of your filter output to increase water agitation.

I agree with moochy13 about the tempreture

A 25% water change is commendable a bigger water change would be better.

Good luck

Regards onebto

 

[cradle_gurl]

Well, i did about a 40% water change and i think more water ended up on me than in the tank!!

We do have a wave maker in our tank, so i think our water should be pretty well circulated

Thanks for the advice about the strips, i shall go look on ebay now!

 

[moochy13]

hows the fishies ?

 

[mirrorpad]

Clown loaches are very sensitive to meds as are most scaleless fish. Meds are usually halved when dosing. WAter changes are the way to go with carbon to remove the meds. Lots of acceleration as stated above, to break the surface. Also as stated warmer water means less oxygen which is also true about the bottom of the tank. Larger fish show signs of low oxygen before small ones. One last thing, I haven't heard of the med you used so I looked it up and it seems to be for bacteria and not parasites?

 

[moochy13]

the med being used was suggested to me about a month ago to treat whitespot, and done a very good job of it at full dosage. it was suggested to me on the specific basis it wasnt harmful to scaleless fish, as i have a few cats in my tank. i did lose 2 fish, however they were not 100% healthy before treatment started. the higher temp i went with could have contributed to their deaths aswell as the med.

 

[cradle_gurl]

Unfortunately one of the clown loach died but *touch wood* the other 2 are looking a alot healthier and havent been panting at all today.

I tested the water and both the nitrate & nitrite have dropped after the water change. The guy from our local petshop said to leave it a couple more days and test it again and maybe do another water change.
He has also stated to leave the lights off for a while as it is less stressful, so giving that a go