Loaches Online Forum

As this is my first post, a little background on my tank. Its a completely cycled 90 gallon, with the current stocklist (fairly final list, with the exception of another probably two Clowns):

1 3" Green Terror
1 2.5" Green Severum
1 4.5" African Featherfin Catfish
5 3" Silver Dollars
1 4" Clown Loach

Filtered by two Emperor 350s and an Eheim 1227 canister.

The Clown Loach will be getting friends - I had a bit of bad luck (I started the tank with the Severum, added 5 small Clowns several weeks later. They were great, but I bought a plant at Petsmart, and unfortunately did not quarantine this plant (didn't know plants could bring it in)- it was in a tank with fish and it brought ick into the tank. I treated with raised heat (85 degrees) and some salt (1 tablespoon per 10 gallons to help with respiration) along with API ick treatment. This treatment was terrible - my fish were getting new white spots several days after treatment started - so it wasn't killing the spores in my water. I tried RidIck, and this prevented new spores, but the poor guys were covered with them too much and they died). My Severum got ick and recovered - my Featherfin never contracted it.

I bought a new larger Clown (a week after stopping ick treatment when it was all gone (treatment continued 4 days after last sign of the disease)) and introduced him, he seemed quite happy. Two days later now, I noticed abrasions on his side, and also his barbels on the end of his nose seemed irritated (white and puffy, maybe a dot of redness). I thought perhaps he worked himself into a log too tight as Clowns usually do.

My fiance said this morning that it was much worse, he apparently has a large cut down his side, which has been whited over (healing?). His nose was apparently more inflamed. My Featherfin had been fine with the smaller Loaches, but I saw him chase this new Clown yesterday - only for a few seconds, perhaps a territorial dispute over a large piece of driftwood.

My question is, do you think this is the Catfish's fault? She didn't describe as a puncture (those guys have nasty back spines, it made me bleed through the bag he was bought in when it poked through) but more of a cut. I know they can be aggressive to other bottom fish, but the Loach still goes in the log. There is plenty of room in there - the catfish and five loaches all stayed in there whilst they were alive. I would think if he was getting injured that badly by the catfish he would stay away.

If this is a Loach being a Loach and hurting himself by squeezing somewhere he shouldn't, should I leave him be? I can't see him, he was in the log on my lunch break (once again, with the Featherfin). I don't want to force him out into a hospital tank if he doesn't want to go, and when Loaches don't want to leave a piece of wood they are a pain to get out and I wouldn't want to stress him. But in the same respect, the Loaches that I had die before with ick squeezed themselves into a spot and died there, and I would want to help him if I could.

Should I treat the entire tank with some sort of anti-infection medicine, and what harm would this cause to fish that are not hurt, if any?

Sometimes a first population of fish will get along OK, even when every experience suggests that one will bully, harass or eat the other. For whatever reason they do not see each other as predator and prey or whatever is normal.

Then something happens to the original population and you add a new fish, same species, to the tank.
The original predator does not see this new fish as a replacement for his buddy, but as an intruder.

The aggression might be from any of the other fish. Cichlids are very territorial, and might be aggressive. The Synodontis can vary from pretty easy going to more aggressive, especially if the new fish moves into the cat's favorite cave.

If you suspect that the Clown is getting injured by jamming himself into a tight spot then take apart that structure, turn the branch around or cut it open. This sort of problem will only get worse and will result in the death of the fish.

Scrapes or scratches will heal pretty easily. A shallow wound will look like a clean white line. No puffiness, no red, no fuzziness. Any of these might suggest that bacteria or fungi are moving in on the wound.
Keep the nitrates as low as possible. (under 10 ppm if at all possible)

Monitor the social behavior in the tank. Perhaps one or more of the fish are actually attacking the Loach. Perhaps they are chasing it so much that the Loach jams himself into impossible places trying to get away. If there are social issues now, while the fish are only half grown, they will not get better. Separate the fish.

The damaged barbels may be from rubbing into rough substrate searching for food, or from some other issue, perhaps some minor irritation from a water quality problem.
It might help to do a few extra water changes to remove organic waste in the tank, and to make sure the nitrates are really as low as possible.

Little Update:

My fiance made the injury to seem much worse than what it actually was -it, to me, just seems like a marking from rubbing something a little too hard. The top layer of skin is missing - its white along the edges and seems a little pink (much like if you rubbed some skin off your finger, you would see a lilttle pinkish tone to the skin underneath). Its deep enough that you can't see the normal striped loach pattern in that area, but not enough to seem to really discourage him from his normal behavior. I will keep an eye on this, but to me it just seems like a small abrasion.

His nose is much better, I think it was from nosing around in the gravel a little too hard. My prior experience with Clowns is that it takes them a while to get used to feeding with other fish at feeding time - I plopped a piece of zuchini in there last night and a few extra algae wafers so hopefully it gave him an easier time of finding food. As I look over at him now, hes currently engaged in destroying one of my Amazon Sword's root syste that he dug up.

As for the cichlids, they get along well. As he is quite lonely without a school of loaches at the moment, he has tried to rub against and hang out with my Green Terror fairly often - while annoyed at this behavior I feel, the Green Terror simply swims away and doesn't even nip at him.

I changed 60% of the water two days ago, I'll make another small one today to help out nitrate wise.

Sounds like you are on top of things. The white or pale pink color of a minor scrape is fine.

I just found him a 6" Clown Loach friend for $30, so they are now enjoying each other's company as he recovers.