Loaches Online Forum

Hello,
I would like to ask you for help how identify illness which ocured in my loach tank. I check all condition as NO2, NO3 and NH3. Everything seems to be OK.

1. The first symtoms occured approx. 10 months ago. I bought 6 SAE (Crossocheilus siamensis), after several weeks I observed red spots and veins on their abdomen. All 6 SAE started to be flatulent (bloated bellies). They lost pigmentation and their scales were horrent. When they started to be listless I net them and take them out of tank.
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2. After several weeks I observed similar symptoms by Dwarf Loaches (Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki). 5 of them died and 5 survive. Till now they are OK. Even one of them looks little bit strange (pigmentation is not OK).

3. 2 month ago it looks that all fishes are OK, but unfortunately 2 of 4 Zebra Loaches (Botia striata) again started to be flatulent.
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Problem is that I am not able catch any fisches before they started to be listless (final stage). All fishes with symtoms are OK for many weeks. They behave normaly and they are eating without any problems. I thought it should be dropsy. But I am not sure. I would like to treat all fishes in tank because I am not sure if and how many fishes are infected. Do you recommend me antibiotics or something like Baktotabs from Sera based on nifurpirinol??? I am realy helpless.

Thank you, Ondrej

I'm not 100% about this, but I suspect a bacterial infection.

Edit: Just saw the last part you wrote. I'd treat with some sort of antibiotic. Need another opinion on this one though

Nobody can help me?

I would keep up the water changes to keep removing whatever is causing the problem, and start treating with something. Bacteria sounds likely (red streaks) so start there.

If the medicine you are using is OK with an ultraviolet sterilizer, I would also run that. Many medicines are deactivated by light, though, so do some research before adding UV and medicine.