My clown Loaches are sick again. Before I left for a trip last week, I noticed the Loaches had those black spots on their noses again (like a fungus) and tiny sores on the noses of some. My fish lady treated for ich while I was gone but when I got home they were even worse, so it was not ich. Some had ulsers and sores on their bodies upon my return as well. The biggest one was dark and lethargic. I QT'd them all and started a double dose of EM for the first three days with some salts and daily 95% water changes. Then cut back to the regular dose of EM. The bloody looking sores are healing well. There are still some white spots on the dark fins, not ich, but lack of color pigmentation....and the big guy is still dazed and confused. Last time when they had this same thing, I treated with EM and they recovered well. But it has returned, so maybe I did not get to the sourse of the problem. I think they will recover this time too, except maybe not the biggest one (6 inches). He may be too far gone. The rest are out playing, clicking, and swimming today. But they are not eating much if anything.
I thought I should probably treat with a fungicide this time, but I needed to treat the bloody looking sores and infection first. Anyone ever had this before with their loaches?? I am wondering if the silica sand is too sharp for them?? But they first got this when on Eco-Complete as substrate.
Thanks in advance for any insight you may have to share with me.
Sue
Temp 82
37 gallon QT tank
fully cycled rena xp3 canister filter
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 5 ppms (comes out of the tap this high)
PH 7.8
TDS 198
These 6 loaches came out of their 125 gallon community tank and had been in with Rainbowfish and bristlenose plecos.
I didn't take pictures Saturday when I first QT's them, but it looked similar to the pic of this persons clown in this thread.
http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php ... ight=sores
