Loaches Online Forum

Good morning folks,

A while back we posted on a pair of sick clowns, one which had stopped eating and another who seemed to have the wasting disease. We quarantined them to a hospital tank a little while ago, and treated the tank with Levamisole thanks to the dosing schedule from this site. The water was treated two nights ago, and although the larger clown that wasn't eating still hasn't regained his appetite, the smaller one is looking ok, and we're confident he'll make a full recovery. He's been eating all along, and should regain weight nicely if the Levamisole does the trick.

We're concerned about the larger clown, however. From reading the writeup on Levamisole on this site we think he might have a nematode infestation since he has a bulge along his vent, although no worms have been seen protruding from it so far. The article also stated that without an intake of food, the fish would be unlikely to pass the paralyzed worms. We've tried feeding bloodworms to both fish in the hospital tank, and although the smaller skinny clown loves them we can't get the larger clown to eat them either.

Do you have any suggestions for foods we might be able to try? We're running out of ideas, and are concerned that we'll lose our largest clown if he doesn't start eating.

thanks,

Kelly and Cody

Many fish like the flavor of garlic. You can flavor any food you are trying to feed him with garlic:
Frozen foods can be defrosted in as little water as possible, with some mashed garlic in there, too. Feed both the garlic and the food.
Dry foods (pellets are easiest) can be mixed with mashed garlic and will soak up the juice.
If you are making your own fish food, be sure to include plenty of garlic in it.
Try rotating foods, there may be something that he likes.

You can also buy a liquid garlic product made for aquarium use. Might want to try chopped up shrimp as my laoches love it. Hope this helps.

Tammy