clown loach discoloration- no greying or chem. burn stuff please.

one of my clown loaches has a reddish discoloration from its canthus to its eye area. to me, this resembles a bruising or force trauma... or a type of subdermal collection of blood, not raised like a hematoma, but visible. the loach shows no sign of stress in any way and continues to lead the school. I am in the third day of using aquarisol ich treatment at half dose, have excellent surface water disturbance for O2 and have "end cycle" water chemistry that is right on for the period of the cycle. I have not had enough time to thouroughly scour the postings so I apologize ahead of time if the answer is near. has anyone ever seen this or know where I can go to find out what is going on with my sweet loaches?
thank you for your time to view my post.

 

How big is the tank? Is it fully cycled?
Welcome to Fishlore (again you have a PM)!!!!!

 

20 gallons. my tank is at the end of its cycle and as a precaution I have been doing 20- 25% water changes daily.

 

Do you have a test kit? If so what are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings?

 

Also what other fish are in the tank?

 

nitrite is high, but rapidly dropping, nitrate is low and ammonia which, can be concluded because I have lots of plants... not too many though, is lower than the nitrite. none of my fish show any signs of stress... even the gourami, which always looks kinda "stressed out".

 

It is probably sick because your tank is not cycled if there is nitrite and ammonia. There should onl be nitrates, and not too much of those.

 

do you have any resources that you can direct me to to conirm you conclusion?

 

Sorry to say your tank is way over stocked. The Clowns will get to over twelve inches at maturity and six inches in the first year with good conditions.
Clown Loaches are very sensitive to water quality and seeing your readings I can say that is probably your problem. I would up the size of your water changes, it may slow your cycle down some but may save your fish. check out as a good resource for your Clown Loaches.
Carol

 

I would agree with Butterfly. You are dangerously overstocked and your fish are without a doubt feeling the effects of the nitrites and ammonia in the water....I too would increase the water changes to 30% daily in order to get those readings down and to give some comfort to the fish. The redness is probably toxic poisoning. The ammonia will subside as the nitrites climb. Now it's about keeping those nitrites, which are even more toxic than ammonia, in check and getting them to 0 and convert that stuff to nitrates.

Signs of stress would include: little or no motion. Rapid or increased gill activity, redness at the gill area, rapid swimming in one corner of the tank vertically up and down the pane or rapidly swimming from left to right, clamped or limp fins, sitting in one place on the bottom or at one place near the surface, gasping or gulping air at the surface (though this would be considered normal behavior for a gourami, it shouldn't be excessive), continually hiding.

Good luck and keep us all posted....

 

good advice. I just got home from the lfs with another tank and am going to use two tanks. I am going to use one 20gal. for the loaches only until I can significantly go up in tank size. I will be sure to keep you all posted. thank you for you concern and helpful information.... but I always do wonder how the lfs can keep so many loaches in a tank that's usually only 10gal... mine are barely two inches.

 

Glad your seperating them, but they will still have to go through the cycling process and the Clowns may not live through that. Keep a daily watch on your ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate water tests.
Will the fish store give you a little gravel out of one of their tanks? that could jump start your cycle.
Carol

 

yeah, they gave me a cycled filter cartridge with my purchase because this is an emergency. very nice of them.

 

The reason they can keep the loaches in such a small tank is because it's only temporary. They move and rotate their stock on a regular basis which is why their tanks are minimally decorated if at all. Their 10 gallon are not meant as permanent homes.

Very misleading to someone looking to stock their tanks. It's very important to take the adult size of the fish into consideration when doing research for a new fish to add to your tank.

Sounds like you might be headed in the right direction.

Good luck!

 

good news.. after some toiling and a lot of stress. I have achieved perfect water chemistry.... costing me a loach.... everything is finally okay and I am enjoying my aquarium hobby.

 

once again, thanks to everyone who had offered their advice. it was both informing and reassuring.