Clown loach emergency

hI there I have big problems with my clown loaches,all of a sudden 1 of them has developed black spots all over his body and face.he was fine when I left thismorning,3 hours later when I came home he is covered with them.... I recently started a course of medication for paracites and worms,this seemed to help and they were eating again and starting to get better.. sterizen is what I used and followed the instructions to a tee..its the 8th day of treatment today and I put some in before I left and to be on the safe side I only used half recomended dosage this time...treatment was on the 1st 3rd 6th 8th (today) and 10th days.today was the only time I used half the dosage other days were full dosage...he dosent seem sick he is still eating and swimming normally just covered in spots..I'm worried..please help.. here is a pic of him don't know if you can make out the spots properly but that was the best pic I could get with him moving around constantly..I called the manufacturers of sterazin and they said that it was fine for use with clown loaches and is a good cure for black spot...I'm thinking it was the cause... > any help would be apreciated..ohh yeah I done a 25 % water change that's all I could think of...my harlequins also have black marks on there gills they arnt spots though they seem to run the full length of the gills where they open and close like a stripe..anyone with any information on this please help I don't know what else to do.. :-\ :-\

 

Never heard of "black spots" but it sounds serious. Don't know anything about clown loaches, but know that harlequins should NOT have any dark spots on their bodies. Something is definitely wrong. Anybody?

 

Black spot( diplopstomiasis) is a parasitic disease. Usually noticed after adding new fish. It is not life threatening. If what your using doesn't help there are meds out there for it. Didn't you just add a fish?
Carol

 

yes butterfly I added the red tail black shark about 2 weeks ago...theres no spots on him though,and I started the treatment after I had him for a while...the spots didnt appear until the 8th day of treatment.I was useing the treatment for internal parisites in my loaches because they were not eating and getting very skinny...this is working but the spots came from nowere and is only affecting 1 of my clowns...are u sure its not a build up of medication in there system and it might be a side affect of the medication..so should I finish the course of treatment??? ? just one more dose to go,that's tommorow.. I was thinking of stoping because I thoght it was the medication that has caused this black spot...the medication is a dark dark blue colour and you can see it clearly in the water when added to the tank for a few seconds..like I said the harlequins don't have spots just a stripe next to there gills and its only 4 out of the 6 that have the stripe not all of them..also will the medication still be affective after I have done the water change...I just paniced and wanted to get some fresh water in there...thanx again

 

Sorry to here about your loach David ,I think it was Carol that gave me this forum for loaches maybe ,you could try there ,some body might have had the same thing ,I hope the link works all the best boff.

 

cheers boff,that link was great....there was a few people there that had the same problem..aparently its not a fatal disease and can be cured quit easily,that's what butterfly said.. that's a relief.so I put the last dose of medicine in this morning,full dose..just seen him briefly when I got in tonight,the spots haven't spread any more but there still there..other than the spots he is still getting better so is my other loach (silver).he dosnt have spots but he is looking like a healthy happy active fish once again..

 

Glad to hear their doing better. Yes the people at loaches online are wonderful people and very knowledgeable about loaches.
Glad you both liked the link.
Carol

 

hI again everyone...looks like my clowns are getting better still..the spots are disapearing ;D slowly but surely...one of my other loaches got just a few spots they are totaly gone now ;D the clown that had heaps of spots has still got a few,but most of them are gone or fadeing away hopefully this is the last time I need to deal with fish diseases.. :-\ don't like to put any medicines in the tank..I'm planing on moving all of my fish into a bigger tank.should I wait until all sighns of spots are gone before I do this?? ??? just in case I transfer the disease into the new tank.. ??? heres a pic of my new shark because my clowns are sleeping at the moment as you can probably see in the pic..but he is eating well also and getting big quick.... that stripe on his fin is not a tear its the way his fin is coulored,he has white tips on most of his fins too..cool shark I think I'm gona name him stripe..all is looking good thanx for your help peoples.. ;D