Loaches Online Forum

Hey everyone,

We posted awhile back regarding a clown loach that had developed black spots and stopped eating and a second clown that appeared to have skinny disease. After doing some research and discussing with the forum, we separated the loach and treated with levamisole, general cure and finally nalidin (naladixic acid) when neither of the first two treatments had any effect. We've tried feeding him bloodworms with garlic drops as well as garlic drops on his usual wafers to no avail. The other clown fish treated with levamisole has made a full recovery, but he only appeared to have skinny disease. He is back in the main tank with his buddies.

At this point, we're out of ideas. He still isn't eating, and haven't seen him in eat in well over a month. Does anyone have any ideas of anything else we could try?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give us,

Cody & Kelly

Try soaking it's food with fresh cut up garlic. This might entice the fish to eat. Most of the stuff you would buy in the store would be mainly made of garlic extrac and cost you way more. Plus real garlic is much more affective

Good luck I hope he/she eats soon

Just an update and a question...

We've tried feeding him bloodworms and wafers both soaked in minced garlic with no luck. We have gravel in our main tank, and the loaches tend to dig around in it. He's a pretty good sized loach, and we're wondering if it's possible he could have swallowed a piece of the gravel. Has anybody heard of this happening? And if so, what did they do to rectify the situation?

We're moving in about a month or so, and are planning on taking the gravel out, and adding sand for the substrate.

Cody and Kelly

If the problem is flatworms, then Prazipro (praziquantel) would help.
Levamisol only treats roundworms.