Loaches Online Forum

Hi everyone. i bought 3 new small Clown Loaches a couple of weeks ago and unfortunately I lost one of them I noticed that its body had swelled up, as too had both his eyes, like pop-eye disease I guess. It was gasping, so I put it in a nursery tank close to the powerhead I have. This seemed to pick it up a bit. I also treated the tank with Myxazin. Unfortunately by the next morning it had died. One other loach did appear a bit bloated in its abdomen on the day I noticed the sick loach, but this one has now recovered.

Question - would this likely just be a bacterial infection? If not, are there any diseases that fit this description that come on quickly that could threaten my other loaches, and hence should be aware of??

hi midman
i can think of two things it could have been, the one that come to mind first was dropsy, the second is bloat.
a mate who keeps malawi's uses octozin for bloat, as to dropsy when it gets to the stage when the body swells, there's no cure that i know of and it's better to dispose of the fish before it dies.

mick

Thanks Mick,

It may be dropsy then. I have had a Platy with it previously and it swelled up and it's fins turned into a pine cone. I was reassured that this disease was not necessarily contagious ( and this Clown Loach was a new young fish) so hopefully the others won't be affected. I did a big water change and added the Myxazin. So hope all is well from now on. I even dosed with Protozin when I added them.

Another of the 3 new clown loaches has now died. Exact same symptoms as for the other. Became sluggish in the tank, body swelled a bit, then the eyes started to protrude. I now have my male Kribensis with the same problem. I have dosed again with Myxazin and put a little aquarium salt in and also turned the tank temp up to 82F ( which I know suits the loaches anyway). The kribensis was swimming round in circles and doing strange things. His eyes have now returned to normal and he seems to be recovering to some degree. I nearly gave him the chop, but persevered - have to see if he recovers.

I really don't want to lose any more fish, so if anyone has a better idea of what this may be or how I could treat it then it would be very much appreciated. I will stick with the bacterial treatment for now. By the way, should I do a water change if going to repeat a dose of Myxazin and should I leave it for a particular amount of days in between treatments.

It does sound like dropsy. One treatment for it that I've read is increase temp to 82-86F (increase aeration), add 1/8 tsp of epsom salt (Magnesium sulfate
heptahydrate) per 5 gallons of water. Treat for about 2 weeks! This may not work for you if you have acute dropsy, which is what it sounds like you are dealing with.

Another site that has some good info on Dropsy is HERE. Acute dropsy has rapid onset and is difficult to treat because it can be caused by a number of factors. Supposedly it is not contagious, and it may be that conditions in your tank are effecting all the fish the same way. However, if it is parasitic in origin, you need to treat all the fish for parasites first. The problem is which parasite are you dealing with? One study (1986) of dropsy in Catla catla (an India carp food fish) found it was a combination of myxosporidian parasite and a strain of Aeromonas hydrophila. Maracyn II is a possible treatment.
Another study I found iseems to say that formalin is an effective treatment. Both of these studies were done back in the late '80's.

There is also a high risk of dropsy occurring as a result of septicemia. Septicemia needs to be treated immediately or it is fatal. Did you notice any redness on the affected fish? Dark red near the caudal fins or abdominal or head areas?

Meanwhile, what's your current situation?

Rapid TDS drops from water changes can cause bloat and pop-eye also.
I mentioned this in your black spot thread.

I think I'd be inclined to get some antibiotics from a vet. Myxazin is a good product, but it doesn't sound like it's doing a lot for this situation.

Emma