Sick Loaches

[BecSi]

We’ve had a happy healthy tank for a couple years now but last Wednesday we lost a Neon Tetra and a Rummynose in the same afternoon. A couple days later the rest of our Neon’s scales looked really rough and their tails looked nipped. We went to the pet store and they suggested we needed Pimafix eventhough we have scaleless fish. We very carefully dosed the tank and one by one the Neon’s died. One of our beautiful clown loaches instantly started swimming crazily around the tank but settled. Since then we’ve lost a glass catfish, one of our Danios are looking sick (hanging out at the top of the water not moving much) but the most upsetting thing is that the loach that went crazy developed a red looking rash and stopped moving and has since died. This afternoon our baby loach has developed the same rash.

I’m so worried we are going to lose him and the two others we have.

We did a water change as soon as we noticed the rash on the first loach.

Can anyone tell me what is happening and how we can save our remaining loaches?

 

[finnipper59]

We’ve had a happy healthy tank for a couple years now but last Wednesday we lost a Neon Tetra and a Rummynose in the same afternoon. A couple days later the rest of our Neon’s scales looked really rough and their tails looked nipped. We went to the pet store and they suggested we needed Pimafix eventhough we have scaleless fish. We very carefully dosed the tank and one by one the Neon’s died. One of our beautiful clown loaches instantly started swimming crazily around the tank but settled. Since then we’ve lost a glass catfish, one of our Danios are looking sick (hanging out at the top of the water not moving much) but the most upsetting thing is that the loach that went crazy developed a red looking rash and stopped moving and has since died. This afternoon our baby loach has developed the same rash.View attachment 458697View attachment 458698

I’m so worried we are going to lose him and the two others we have.

We did a water change as soon as we noticed the rash on the first loach.

Can anyone tell me what is happening and how we can save our remaining loaches?

You've done some water changes, but never mentioned any testing perameters. The redness in the pic is mostly around the hill area. This could be a reaction to ammonia burn, but also from pathogens such as Gill flukes or even bacterial diseases can show symptoms of red areas and/or red streaks. When asking for advice on fish problems in the future, pictures are always helpful, but so are water perameters.

 

[BecSi]

You've done some water changes, but never mentioned any testing perameters. The redness in the pic is mostly around the hill area. This could be a reaction to ammonia burn, but also from pathogens such as Gill flukes or even bacterial diseases can show symptoms of red areas and/or red streaks. When asking for advice on fish problems in the future, pictures are always helpful, but so are water perameters.

We test with Tetra Easy Strips at the moment. Nitrates showing 40, Nitrites 3.0, water hardness is always an issue here but have never bothered loaches before, 0 chlorine, 80 alkalinity, ph 7.2.




I should also mention that we have just changed the filter wool and activated carbon tonight as well.

 

[finnipper59]

We test with Tetra Easy Strips at the moment. Nitrates showing 40, Nitrites 3.0, water hardness is always an issue here but have never bothered loaches before, 0 chlorine, 80 alkalinity, ph 7.2.
View attachment 458701

Your nitrites are too high... which has me curious why a test wouldn't show ammonia. If your nitrites are high, you ammonia may be at dangerous levels and could be the reason your fish are dying. High concentration of ammonia causes burning of the gill tissue. You need to get a test for ammonia right away.

 

[buttertart]

Hi! I had an ich breakout in a tank with my golden dojo loach. He developed a rash similar to the one on your loach. The bottle never said don't use on scaleless fish but that was the issue. His ich was gone and when I put him in a different tank without any medication his rash went away in a couple of days. There is probably another illness in your tank that is causing your fish to die/look sick. For me I had camallanus worms. The ich and ratty fins and tails were side effects from their weak immune systems. Also tetras need half doses of medication. I lost all my 17 neon tetras to the ich medication. I hope you can find something wrong with your fish that is treatable and that your loach gets better.

 

[BecSi]

Thanks everyone. We lost 3 of our 4 clown loaches but finally managed to get the nitrate levels down in time to keep our last big loach healthy. All our other fish are back to being happy and not sick looking. We replaced all the biological stuff in the filter as well.

No clue what caused the illness and deaths or what caused the nitrate spike but I’m glad we turned it around before we lost the entire tank.

 

[Lacey D]

Glad that you have it turned around! But so very sorry for all your losses Something I recently learned is that the tap water can be contaminated with ammonia or nitrites, especially when they're flushing the system or switching water sources. Treating it with a declorinator isn't enough in those cases, and so I always use Seachem Prime to neutralize any ammonia coming in. Once one fish gets stressed or dies, they also start to release ammonia, which can basically cause a snowball effect

Changing everything in your filter might also have been in error, because you may have lost your cycle at the same time. I learned that one the hard way too. (So very, very sorry Sebastian and Bob. You deserved better :/)

Definitely pick up an ammonia test--your tetra's pineconing and "nipped" fins were probably ammonia burn/finrot. And as buttertart said, the medication could have also played a roll in some of the symptoms, especially for the more sensitive fish. I have never used , but in looking it up it is an mild anti-fungal...they would have served you better selling you an antibiotic in case it was a bacterial infection (another cause of pineconing), because fungal infections are usually pretty obvious (white, "cottony" growths). At best it would have done nothing, and at worst... So sorry that you got poor advice from your fish store