Loaches Online Forum

About a week ago I purchased yet another two clown loaches to join the crew. Basically these lil guys were well on the skinny side, but pity gave in so I bought them. Since being here, they have put in no weight what so ever, although very active and constantly eating. Anyway, I did a bit of research last night to see what could be the cause and have come to the conclusion that they may have skinny disease. The only thing is, the treatments that I have been recommended to try are not available in the UK, anyone here have any ideas to help my little loaches? Anymore info on this disease would also be appreciated as I can't find much on the net.

Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-15

In a tank with a betta, daino, rainbow shark and yo yo loach.

Heres some pix-



The one nearest

The one infront

Hi there,

I would say it is quite likely that your new Clowns have skinny disease. They look a little 'pinched in' behind the gills and along the lateral line in some of those photos. The most effective treatment for this is Levamisole hydrochloride, which you can obtain from any fish-friendly (or just plain helpful) vetinary surgeon in the UK. Try phoning around some local vets explaining the problem and the treatment you need (they will probably recognise the name of the treatment as it is more commonly used for worming cattle) - hopefully you will be able to get a positive response from one of them.

Emma

Thanks very much, will try and get hold of some tomorrow. How long does it take to clear up? Do you have any more info on this disease, also how bad do you think they look, I mean I have never seen this before...

cant help ya too much on the skinny disease, but from lookin at your tank pic it looks like they could use some hiding places/cover. It seems clowns without some hiding places will get more stressed out.

thinking maybe the clowns being new combined with no cover could be stressin em out some also. just a thought, my clowns have 2 or 3 different hiding spots and use them all alot, seem to be more relaxed if they know they have somewhere safe to run if they get spooked.

They do, they are in a planted aquarium with plenty of caves etc, it was just hard to get close enough/good enough pictures of them to post to get feedback from so they had to be moved into a different tank. Clearly that would be common sense.

Hi ashie,

Sadly, many Botia species suffer from 'Skinny Disease', which is better known these days as 'Chronic Wasting Syndrome'.

This is thought to be where internal parasites affect the fish and cause it to lose horrendous amounts of weight. If left for any significant period of time, the fish will appear painfully bony-looking, faded in colour, listless and with clamped fins – eventually if left it will die. Even if the fish is feeding, it will not be able to gain weight.

Treating with Levamisole hydrochloride is the best way forward. The liquid form is easiest to use, so make sure you inform your vet that the liquid stuff is what you are after. Others on here will hopefully chip in with dosage rates, as I cannot remember offhand what we use at the shop for all new loaches that we import. I believe it is best to treat, then carry out a large water change after 24 hours. This cycle of treatment/water change can be carried out up to five times, each treatment bath 48 hours after the previous one. After this treatment, your fish will have a significantly improved chance of gradually gaining weight and returning to full health.

As I say, hopefully some of the others here (Shari? Martin?) will also post here with regards to the actual dosing.

Emma

ashie0902 wrote: Clearly that would be common sense.

clearly? excuse me for replying.

my ESP ability on deciphering tank pictures is clearly off.