Loaches Online Forum

HI
I am new to loaches and this forum, i hope someone can help me.
I have a 4 foot tank with three hillstream loaches, 12 white clouds and 2 small goldfish. I think the goldfish have costia as they are flashing and have bloodspots under their chins one goldfish has died he had the bloodspotsunder his chin and very rapid gill movements . the minnows and loaches seem happy enough and unaffected , can i use salt to treat the costia ? Can loaches tolerate salt
i am worried about all the algae and my plants.
Many thanks

salt + loaches = lots of sadness...

Where is your location? US or UK..etc?

Water changes are in much order. Regularly you should change 30% weekly!

Graeme Robson wrote:

water changes are in much order. Regularly you should change 30% weekly!

i think the time has finally come to replace your little walky man (lovely as he is) with this:

I am in the UK ,
I have been taking the goldfish out and giving them a salt bath will the loaches be affected if it is costia ? and if so is there a treatment you could reccomend that will help them all , i also have 2 apple snails in the tank

teagie wrote:HI
I am new to loaches and this forum, i hope someone can help me.
I have a 4 foot tank with three hillstream loaches, 12 white clouds and 2 small goldfish. I think the goldfish have costia as they are flashing and have bloodspots under their chins one goldfish has died he had the bloodspotsunder his chin and very rapid gill movements . the minnows and loaches seem happy enough and unaffected , can i use salt to treat the costia ? Can loaches tolerate salt.
Many thanks

Hi teagie, welcome to Loaches Online.

Sorry to hear of the problem with your goldfish. You will probably not want to hear this, but your set-up really isn't ideal, as hillstream loaches require a very different environment to that of goldfish. They have evolved to live in highly oxygenated fast-flowing rivers and rapids, and therefore require a great deal of water movement within the tank. Goldfish do not always find it easy to cope with such fast flowing waters. Your minnows will also be eaten once the goldfish start to grow.

Onto the problem that you suspect to be Costia (Ichthyobodo). I would agree that the symptoms do seem to match the typical description for this problem. It often manifests because of poor water quality, so if you have not already done so, make sure you carry out some water quality tests ASAP - ammonia, nitrIte, nitrAte. This disease spreads quite easily from fish to fish, so you firstly treat the main aquarium. I would suggest you get hold of "Protozin" from Waterlife and treat at half dose because of the presence of the hillstream loaches, which can be quite sensitive. If this fails to bring about an improvement in the goldfish, you can try giving them a saltwater bath (dip) with some methylene blue also added to the bath water. The salt concentration can be as high as 2% (20g salt/litre water) for a short-term (10 minute) bath, but definitely do not use this in the main aquarium with the loaches.

i am worried about all the algae and my plants

Are you worried about the treatment harming the plants, or do you have algae on the plants? Whilst algae should be the least of your worries right now (get the fish sorted out first), the treatment should not actually harm the plants. If you have an algae problem, this may be being caused by a high nitrAte and phosphate level in the tank (nitrates can be removed by doing more frequent partial water changes), having the lights on for too long, or if the tank receives a lot of natural sunlight.

I hope this helps. When you get a spare few minutes, have a read of Martin Thoene's excellent article on the care of hillstream loaches here: http://www.loaches.com/hillstream_loaches.html

Emma

sophie wrote:

Graeme Robson wrote:

water changes are in much order. Regularly you should change 30% weekly!

i think the time has finally come to replace your little walky man (lovely as he is) with this:

Most often answers by Graeme short are being. Yet The Force is strong in this one and much truth does he speak. And Princess Emmadalla also, her wisdom is good.

Martin.

Hi Emma
Thank you for your reply, i know the goldfish should not be there i plan to move them as soon as i can
I have two fluval 4 filters going and the water is far too fast for the goldfish,ammonia is 0 nitrITE is 0 nitrATE is 10-20 i cycled the tank with ammonia before any fish went in ,
I have large rocks and bogwood covered in algae with live plants not a lot of algae on plants though mostly on back of tank and decor,i really want my tank to be like a stream as i have fallen for the loaches a lot so i suppose goldfish dont fit in
thank you for your advice i have given the goldfish a few salt bathes and they seem a lot better i was just worried that costia would be like ich and be in the water as well so the salt would not help them
again , Many thanks