Skinny Clown Loach

[FishSticks]

I have 5 Clown loaches in my tank and one of them looks perfectly fine no white dots or anything and eats out of my hand happilly just like my other loaches, except this one is super super skinny with a sunken belly and I have noticed the only time it joins the school is during feeding time.

What should I do? Is there a treatment for this? Does it maybe just want to be skinny? I noticed something today, you know how i said this skinny one rarely comes out well today it came out for a while and 2 of the loaches started fighting and went from black stripes to gray/white stripes in seconds, they stopped when the skinny one left. Well that was useless information

Any suggestions...BTW this clown loach has only been in my tank for less than 2 weeks along with 2 others. Please help, I hope it's nothing serious.

 

[WILDER]

It happens that desease with clown loaches they are prone to it at this time of year, it's called skinny desease.

 

[FishSticks]

Come on now I was being serious.

 

[Annastasia]

I think Wilder was being serious too. I searched the forum, and these few topics came up:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=69435&h

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=66717&hl

You could also try searching on Google.

Sorry, I personally don't know anything about the disease, but maybe you can find some info.

Good luck with your Loach.

 

[FishSticks]

OMG That's terrible! Does anyone know if this disease can spread to other fish? Should I quarantine this loach? I can't seem to find any information at all about this disease!

 

[LoachLover]

Come on now I was being serious.

Wilder is bein serious, however I don't know to much about this disease since none of my fish have ever gotten it. Although I should probably read up on it just in case

 

[squirrelrabbits]

Generally most discussions of skinny disease (also called "wasting disease") suggest that it is contagious. Some folks believe it is an internal parasite; other disagree with that... I think there is a lot of disagreement on it. You can google "the skinny on skinny disease" for some photos of loaches with this particular disease: they are usually skinny enough that you can see their backbones protruding when the case is further along. Treatment is erythromycin (Maracyn I, etc.), though I am currently treating one loach with a combination of maracyn 1 and maracyn 2 (it's unclear yet if the treatment is working, as we are early in its course). There are lots of reports of successful treatment however--so I would put him in the q-tank, give it a try, and hope for the best. Good luck with your guy.

 

[FishSticks]

Ok I quarantined him just in case. I still don't know much about the disease but I think I know what might of caused it. I've been looking for my neon blue gourami for over a week and I couldn't find him until yesterday, he looked all chewed up and was in the back of the tank between a bunch of my plants Maybe that skinny loach was the only one that took a couple nibles at it since he tends to stay in the back most of the time. I don't think he's going to make it. Some scientist should do a little more research about this disease and write some articles and then post them on the net.

 

[WILDER]

Mycobacteria:

-common in aquaculture, especially clown loaches
-rapid wasting despite eating (fish loses body mass faster than complete starvation, even with parasites)
-crowding, poor water quality increases risk
-almost always fatal if untreated
-treat with antibiotics
-can cause secondary infections in weakened hosts (ich, etc.)

 

[WILDER]

http/edis.ifas.ufl.edu/VM055