Loaches Online Forum

Hi all,

I was hoping I could get away with just lurking on this forum, but I've hit a situation where I need to draw on your experience. First I have to admit to the extent of my fish dorkiness. Almost a decade ago I found an earlier incarnation of this site, and it helped get me through my senior year in college. I was thoroughly sick of school, and spent most of the year reading fish sites and newsgroups, planning the aquarium I could have after graduation (which of course included loaches).

9 years later, still a little fish obsessed, and I have recently aquired my second batch of zebra loaches (Botia striata). Sadly I had to give up the first batch during a move and have had only 10 gallon tanks from then until now. I went looking for this site when I got a larger tank this past Christmas, and lo and behold the site is still here!

I managed to get through my first ever ich outbreak (I think it came with the loaches) without posting, but now I have another first. I think one of my loaches has "skinny disease" of some sort. I have been thinking he (or she I guess) was just a different shape than the others, but now he just seems too skinny.

So I was thinking about using levamisole in the tank. I think I can get levasol locally. I am very wary of chemicals/drugs in general, but this one doesn't seem too bad. I got really scared of some of the carcinogenic ich meds. My concern is whether I might harm any of my other tank inhabitants by using this, particularly the malaysian trumpet snails and my Amano shrimp (Caridina japonica). I have seen a lot of comments that this medication is safe for shrimp and snails, but I would like some firsthand experiences. If you have used this in a tank with these invertebrates, could you please let me know your results?

Also in the tank are rainbowfish, guppies, one geriatric white cloud minnow and a bristlenose plecostomus. I assume none of them should have any issues with this medication?

I am going to get some frozen bloodworms to try to fatten him up as well. I have dried bloodworms, but they never sink enough for the loaches. I saw one account of someone curing skinny disease just by feeding bloodworms, but maybe their loach was just skinny, I don't know. My other loaches are fat and sassy, so they are getting enough food. This guy doesn't seem to get chased off, in fact yesterday he took off with a whole shrimp pellet.

Thanks for any help you can give regarding using this medication with invertebrates.

Jessica

Hi Jessica, welcome back.

Yes, it's safe to use with invertebrates, shrimp, snails etc...

Here's an article on Levamisole that may help answer some questions about it. I'd like to tweak the dosage section a bit more, but am waiting on a math guru who does have a life outside of fish.

As for 'skinny disease' it seems that it is not a simple matter at all. Chronic Wasting Syndrome (CWS) can be caused my multiple factors. Some thin fish respond completely to levamisole treatment alone, others don't and require the use of antibiotics concurrently. Depends on the fish.

If yours is behaving otherwise normally, and is just getting thinner while still eating, the levamisole should help if it is caused by a parasite that is affected by levamisole. Because of the nature of the medication, I'd say that would be my first line of offense against the problem.

Where would you buy Levamisole?

Thanks for the link, and for confirming it's safe for my snails and shrimp. I am attached to my invertebrates.

I thought I could get the levamisole locally, as we are in a rural enough area that it wouldn't be that odd to find pig dewormer. Unfortunately no luck. I had the husband call all the local Agways today (I sit in the middle of a bunch of cubicles and didn't want the odd looks as I called around looking for pig dewormer). Nobody has it, so I guess I will have to order it. Hopefully it will be here in time to do some good. I don't know how quickly my little striped friend is losing weight.

I did get some frozen bloodworms, and fed those tonight. The loaches are only about 1-1.5 inches right now, and they were so cute. They would grab a mouthful of worms and swim away with long red "whiskers."

Jessica

Where to buy it?

Online works best. You can also try calling any farm/feed stores in your area and ask if they carry it and what type it is.
The article linked above has some links to online suppliers.

Ok, an update on my skinny little guy. I did the second dose of levamisole on Tuesday. The loach is still very skinny. I tried to take a picture last night, but it didn't work so well, so I will try again tonight. I'm not sure whether I should be trying a different approach, or if I need to wait longer before hitting the panic button.

He is still active and social. Maybe slightly less so than the others, but not enough that it couldn't just be a personality difference. I thought he was bulking up a little when I started feeding a lot of frozen bloodworms, but it didn't seem to stick, and I don't want to overdo the bloodworms. I fed some last night, and he seemed very excited about them, but I'm not sure he actually ate any.

If I need to, I can try to put together another tank to treat with antibiotics. My husband has the former quarantine tank full of baby guppies rescued from the rainbowfish that we bought to eat the baby guppies, so I'm trying to avoid setting up another tank.

Any thoughts?

Jessica