Loaches Online Forum

I have a group 7 clown loaches in a 75G tank with a jack dempsey. I noticed the other day that the largest of my clowns has a white nose, and did not used to. She is eating well, just under 7 inches long and interacting with the other loaches as normal, is this something to worry about? The white part is maybe a quarter inch long and covers just her nose. I have 3M colorquartz (black) as substrate and nothing in the tank that is very rough that she might just be rubbing on. I will try to get a picture for more clarity. I use prime to treat water and do 90% change once a week.

cloud you post a picture?

One 90% water change is too much at one time. That could cause osmotic shock to the fish if the source water chemistry is different or changes too quickly. It could also trigger a glandular imbalance, which is probably the cause for the erratic pigmentation that your fish has.


Where does the source water come from? city water or well water?
Do you have hard water or soft water?
What kind of water testing equipment do you have?
Where are you from? If you're in the US, and on city water, there is probably a water report online.

My advice is not to do more than a 30% water change at a time. Perhaps you can do smaller more frequent water changes instead of what you are doing now.

I have a couple fish, specifically a Cory and a Dojo, that have white noses from injuries and this is scar tissue. But I can't say if that is the problem with your fish.

I agree with Chefkeith that you need to make smaller water changes more often to reduce the stress on your fish. I am all for water changes. I do them every week, usually 25-30%.

I've seen that plenty of times before. That just looks like an injury. It should be all healed in a few weeks.

My two latest additions had this for approximately a week, I think it was from fighting with the already established alpha male as I saw them locking jaws a number of times. It has cleared up now they have given up trying to usurp him.