Hello all. I posted a couple months ago regarding fin rot with one of my Clown Loaches. (see post below) Since then he got worse and wasn't eating and was very inactive. I treated the whole tank with Maracyn 2 and after the prescribed treatment, he started growing his fins back and acting much more active. A week or two later and his fins started getting ragged again with his tail fin splitting down the middle. I again treated with Maracyn 2 and it worked again.....until a few weeks later and the whole thing starts over again. I talked to a local pro and he recommended to try Furan 2. I followed the directions and he did seem to get better but I don't think it was a effective as the Maracyn 2. And yet again....he is starting to get the ragged look again. It was also suggested to me to get a more loaches. (originally had 2) got 2 more, as the two original loaches were fighting alot. The aggressor is the one beating up on the fin rot loach. Now the alpha loach is picking on all 3 of the others, however I don't notice any fin damage on any of the others. Please help. I don't know what to do for this little guy. Thanks in advance!

If you can try seperating him and treating him...Stressed caused by alpha loaches constant fighting can cause the reoccurance. Are tank parameters good as far as pH ammonia nitrites ect....Try turning the temp up if possible and add some aquarium salt helps with most ailments.

No salt with the loaches.

It really sounds more like battle wounds than anything, can you take the aggressor in to boardroom? I bet Rich will swap him out if you explain whats going on.

p.s. long time no see man!! How you been?

ya it sound lik the wounds are getting infected so i would move the one thats getting beat up or take out the mean one, i would use wound ease. the 2 new discus i got had that too and i put wound ease and it cleared up within 2 hrs, very pleased with wound ease.(thanks fern)

Good catch on the salt Fern....was tossing out the common cure recipe did not know loaches are effected by the salt.

I have to 2nd the motion for wound ease.

Good general rule of thumb is no salt for bottom dwellers, nearly all of the salt intolerant fish are bottom dwellers so you always want to look them up before you use salt.

Clown loaches are very sensitive little guys. Make sure your water parameters are near pristine. 0 ammonia and nitrite, nitrates below 10. Do you have any live plants? They can go a long way towards keeping trates in check between water changes. Just make sure whatever plants you use are going to do well with the available lighting. Also, make sure there are plenty of hiding places. In my prior experience, alpha problems seem to have always been worse when there were too few hiding places. My guess is that it wasn't so much aggression as it was resource guarding. Don't make the mistake I did in my early days of letting them forage for leftovers, either. I'd feed shrimp pellets at least twice a week to make sure they're getting enough. They have voracious appetites and if food is scarce you'll have issues. Lastly, I wouldn't keep throwing antibiotics at them. Just as in humans and animals they can and will build up antibiotic resistance. If you're treating in your main tank you may find that the reason it's coming back over and over is that the tank is going through repeated mini-cycles after the treatments. Honestly, I wouldn't put him through the stress of a move or give up on the "aggressive" fish without first checking all of the above and rectifying anything you can. At most, maybe drop in a tank divider to seperate the offending loach for a time while increasing the hiding places in the rest of the tank. You'll most likely find him on a lower peg once the other loaches have had a chance to destress and establish themselves. Lastly, how old/big are they? Loaches, unfortunately, don't have the best survival rates no matter what you do. If they're under two inches it's entirely possible that he's just a weaker loach and may never be very hardy. One of the stores I use to work at never ordered them at 2 inches or under because they only had about a 50% survival rate into adulthood causing lots of dissatisfied customers and people leaving the hobby out of frustration. Hope this helps and keep us posted!

Thanks for all the replies...you all are great! Still not sure what I am going to do. I thought of separating the sick loach and treating with wound ease ( I have a one gallon tank but it doesn't have any filtration, just an air stone. Is this a bad idea? I am hesitant because I have read that water must be super clean. I am going to talk to Rich at Boardroom Aquatics tommorow to see if trading Mr. Mean in for another clown is an option...thanks again!

I'm PMing you my number, I can lend you a ready to go sponge filter so you can get him all healed up!

Thanks again to everyone. I decided to treat in the main tank with Woundease and after 3 days he is looking much better! How long do you treat with Woundease and do I need to do a partial water change after so many days? The directions from the manufacturer were not clear on this.

Thanks!

Call Fern she's an expert with wound ease. Check your msg box (PM) you should have her #

The thing about wound ease is it isn't a true med, its more like fishy neosporin.
Do a 25% water change now. hit the tank with it once more and he should be good to go.