Loaches Online Forum

I had 6 Clown loaches, but I have lost the smallest.

I have 4 hefty, small (3-4") clown Loaches. When I bought my smallest clown loach (2") I bought two small (2") companions for him. The three hung out with my next smallest loach (3") and all was well. About 2 weeks ago I lost one of the small ones (never grew). I have noticed that one of the small ones is now 3" and looking chubby. The other tiny one hasn't grown is still 2".

Three weeks ago I started treating for parasites at half strength hoping to get these tiny ones to grow. The last one alive is still not growing. He's active and eats all the time, but I imagine he's got skinny (the one that died was the same -- swam, played and ate).

Could someone give me their medicine, brand name and the recipe you use to get a little one over skinny. My quarantine tank is use. If I need to, I can board him at my LFS to medicate him. Or I can treat the tank. I hate to seperate him from his friends and add additional stress.

Tanja.

Hi Tanja,

So sorry to hear about your loss and your sick little guy. Shari has an excellent article here which explains treatment and dosage for skinny disease very thoroughly:
http://www.loaches.com/Members/shari2/l ... chloride-1

I would PM her directly with specific questions. Good luck with the recovery

Kate

Thanks Kate,

I should have done a more thorough search. I will read very carefully. I don't even know they have skinny, but from all the reading it sounds like it. Thanks for taking the time to forward this to me. Tanja.

Also, if the fish don't seem to respond to treatment with the Levamisole hydrochloride, we've recently had excellent results on some shipments of very skinny B. kubotai using Flubendazole. This was recommended to us by Shari & Mad Duff and has really done the trick. Rather than several doses, it is a 'one off' and is not affected by UV sterilisers.

Emma

Emma Turner wrote:Also, if the fish don't seem to respond to treatment with the Levamisole hydrochloride, we've recently had excellent results on some shipments of very skinny B. kubotai using Flubendazole. This was recommended to us by Shari & Mad Duff and has really done the trick. Rather than several doses, it is a 'one off' and is not affected by UV sterilisers. Emma

Thanks Emma, I appreciate your help too.
I know the Levamisole hydrochloride I need to get from the vet. Where do I get Flubendazole from? Do I order it online? I check my stores (I checked two today), and I never see the products recommended. Are these both specifically for parasites, or do they have other applications? Can I treat my entire tank with it? I did read some about it, but I am so new to this site, that my head is so full.

Why don't all stores treat their fish for illness, the way yours does?

I told Tinman, that I think you should franchize MH Aquatics. Is it a national store, or is it specifically yours? All of us happy fish keepers could come to you in the UK, buy the franchize, get training from you including how to set up stores, treat our fish, order our fish and interact with our customers, and then return to our respective locations around the world and set up shop. We could set up MHA Tampa, MHA Kansas, MHA Australia, MHA Toronto: like Hard Rock Cafe. Then you could visit our stores and make sure we are up to snuff. Doesn't that sound great? And we wouldn't need to complain that there are no stores as good as yours in our location.
Tanja.

Do you know, we've had quite a few requests to start up abroad! Without going into too much detail here, each branch of Maidenhead Aquatics is run separately from the others. Steve has been with the company some time now - he used to manage the branch in Iver, Bucks where I used to work part-time - but we moved up here to Crowland (just north of Peterborough) as he now has actual part shares in the Peterborough and Lincoln stores. He has a meeting with some of the other partners tomorrow, I will mention this again so he can tell those it may concern. Here is the website where you can view all the stores if you are interested (I run the Fish Databank): http://www.fishkeeper.co.uk. There is still a lot more for me to add, and I try to do this weekly, but I'm going to be doing a lot of work on upgrading the marine part of the site over the next few months, so am going to be really really busy with all of it!

And to answer another question, I have no idea why most stores don't medicate certain species for internal parasites. It makes no sense to me. The Flubendazole we have to get from specialist discus suppliers or vets over here, I'm not sure how easily obtainable it is in the US.

Good luck anyway, I hope you manage to get hold of some for your clowns.

Emma

Tanja, in CA Levamisole is OTC, in feed stores. It is sold as a sheep wormer.

Tanja,

We bought our Levamisole Hydrochloride online from Valley Vet.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html ... b0d0204ae5

Free Shipping!!!

You can order Flubendazole directly from Charles Harrison Ph.D. by mailing a request to him here: sendmail:charles@inkmkr.com
And you can visit his website: http://inkmkr.com/Fish/#anchor1234
And read a very helpful article he wrote on Fluebendazole here: http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/FlubendazoleTreatment.pdf

Charles is a very nice guy. Mention you got his address from the Levamisole article and tell him I said, 'Hi'.

(this info is in the levamisole article, but sorta gets missed, I guess. I should do something about that...)

shari2 wrote:You can order Flubendazole directly from Charles Harrison Ph.D. by mailing a request to him here: sendmail:charles@inkmkr.com
And you can visit his website: http://inkmkr.com/Fish/#anchor1234
And read a very helpful article he wrote on Fluebendazole here: http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/FlubendazoleTreatment.pdf

Charles is a very nice guy. Mention you got his address from the Levamisole article and tell him I said, 'Hi'.

(this info is in the levamisole article, but sorta gets missed, I guess. I should do something about that...)

Thanks for all this info. I really appreciate it.

What is the easiest way for us to access articles, without someone being kind enough to send the links? I didn't see a stickie for articles. Are they in the actual website? I spend most of my time in the forum, use the species info, but don't spend a lot of time in the rest of the website. I read so much, I think I am a bit inundated. I will be reading everything suggested in this thread. Thanks to everyone. The little clown is still eating, playing and has lots of energy. I'll start treatment very soon. Tanja.

You're very welcome Tanja.

Up at the top of the page (any page) on the forum is this link:

(nifty little open book in a circle here) "Loaches Online - Learn all about these aquarium fish!"

Takes you to the main site. When you have the time, have a browse through the articles and art, and other links you'll find on the left side bar.

shari2 wrote:You're very welcome Tanja.

Up at the top of the page (any page) on the forum is this link:

(nifty little open book in a circle here) "Loaches Online - Learn all about these aquarium fish!"

Takes you to the main site. When you have the time, have a browse through the articles and art, and other links you'll find on the left side bar.

Thanks so much. We newbies must drive you all nuts. Believe it or not, I read the website completely before I found the forum. But the more I read the more I understand, and now I need to reread to make sense of everything. Eventually all this info will sink in.

starsplitter7 wrote: Thanks so much. We newbies must drive you all nuts. Believe it or not, I read the website completely before I found the forum. But the more I read the more I understand, and now I need to reread to make sense of everything. Eventually all this info will sink in.

We are all newbies with respect to something, or we were at some time. We have to start somewhere, and for loaches, this is the place (I know as a relative newbie!). I learned something important about treating skinny disease from your post, so I'm grateful! The people who are driven nuts by newbies wouldn't bother with a site like this, I'm sure.

BTW Where in Canada can one get Flubendazole?

BTW Where in Canada can one get Flubendazole?

According to the link Shari sent, Charles Harrison Ph.D. ships to Canada.

When I tried to access the articles today, it asked me for login information. I am already logged in, but I logged in again, and it doesn't recognize it. I had no problems following the links yesterday, but today I can not get in. I plan to reboot my computer to see if it is something I did wrong that is preventing me from accessing the articles. I want to get the Flubendazole and the "L" at the same time. So I wanted to finish reading. My little clown is still eating like a pig. I certainly want to get this done as quickly as possible. Tanja.

Tanja, I still feel like a newbie a lot of the time.