Loaches Online Forum

I have recently lost 2 of the longest clowns I've had (since I started keeping them 3 years ago) and they both suffered mysterious deaths...

The water parameters a day before their deaths were as per normal;

6x2x2 tank
- pH 6.6
- Nitrite 0
- Ammonia 0
- Nitrate 15

Filtration - 1 Eheim 2217, 1 AquaOne 1200 (both canisters)

16 yoyos
16 clowns
8 rummies

I had changed the water (once a week) and fed (once a day) as per my normal routine.

I woke up to find 2 of them floating at the very top of the tank, with their body mouldy and rotting away. Tested the water and got the same parameters as above, except Ammona was 0.5.

Both the clowns (one was 5", the other 3") had a very very puffy, bloated body. As if they had eaten too much but I find it strange as I fed very moderately during that week, and don't remember overfeeding. I am still trying to figure what caused them to die.

Yesterday I came home and saw a rack of fish bones with the bone of the clowns head still there, but everything else was gone (assuming the yoyo and clown loaches ate it all). I did a stock count and it was the 5" clown that was missing, hard to imagine how the loaches could completely devour the poor thing after it had died......has anyone experienced something like this before? I did not take a photo as I was too shocked and instead threw it out.

I checked the water parameters and there were actually normal:

- pH 6.6
- Nitrite 0
- Ammonia 0
- Nitrate 15

Either the testing kit is out of date or something else is wrong as I can't have so many clown loaches dying on me. I suspect the Yoyos could be causing some of the deaths, but I have no evidence of this, just a thought. If that is the case, I may be forced to give them all away as clowns come first, always.

The water is not that dirty when I clean it once a week, so I'm not sure if the deaths are caused by under-filtration of the tank...but at the moment, I cannot afford to get an Eheim2250/2260 which is what is recommended, but at the same time I do not want to see any more clown loach casualties. I was absolutely gutted to see the 3 year old clown go, it was my favourite clown by far.

ey, there are fish that start rotting as soon as they die and are better removed from the tank asap, loricarids will smell horrific after just an hour after death and loaches are'nt far behind them.
thats why your ammonia has shot up mate.

mick

It might be a filtration problem if the Ammonia is spiking. You might want to check it in the early morning a few hours before any lights turn on to see if there is a trend of the ammonia spiking.

I'm guessing that the tank is low in oxygen. It's an easy problem to have in tanks that are 2+ ft high. Oxygen is known to get low especially at night if there isn't adequate surface agitation. Plants, algae, nitrifying bacteria, and fish for that matter can be big consumers of Oxygen. Low oxygen could be a reason for ammonia spikes also.

If it's a planted tank, in particular, you might need aeration at night, since the plants respire (use up oxygen) then, rather than photosynthesize.

I would add a power head such as a Koralia 4 to increase the water movement in this tank. As the Loaches grow, their need for oxygen increases.
At this point I would suggest the spike in ammonia is because of the dead bodies, not what killed the fish, since the water tested fine the day before, and the rise in ammonia was noted only after the dead fish had been discovered, with evidence (swelling) that they had been dead a while.

Keep up the water changes to clear the ammonia and other toxins from the tank. Loaches seem to have a toxic slime that may affect the other fish. (and it may not be toxic all the time, if the other fish ate the last one that died). Still, water changes!