Quarentined Loaches sick and dying

raecarrow · Post by **raecarrow** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:11 am

Hey everyone,

I am currently quarentining 3 Stripped Kuhli loaches and 5 yoyos in the same tank. I originally had 4 kuhlis but apparently they are infected with something. One has died and one more is sick and will probably be dead soon. The first sign of illness is that the kuhlies started having problems staying upright while swimming and end up listing to one side while swimming. The ill kuhlies gills also took on a pinkish-red color and they breathe faster then normal. I didn't notice this on the first kuhli that died but the one that is currently ill has a fuzzy growth over its entire tail. It kind of looks like a see through Q-tip. I have removed this fish from the main tank and have it in a small 2 gallon which I refresh the water in twice a day from the main tank.

What could this illness be? None of the yoyos are currently ill (thank God). I have started treating the tank with Maracyn plus because it treats both fungal and bacterial infections and is a great wide spectrum antibotic. Do you have any other advice for me? I got both batches of fish on Friday.

Thanks,

Diana · Post by **Diana** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 11:40 am

Was the water in the bag (and the fish store) the same as the water in your tank? Listing, not able to maintain position sounds a bit like an acclimation problem.

The fuzzy tail could be from bacteria or fungus.

raecarrow · Post by **raecarrow** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:19 pm

I noticed the listing to one side in the one that died before I started aclimating them to the Q-tank. So I don't think it is an acclimation problem

What I normally do to acclimate them is to put the fish in a container inside the main tank to acclimate the temperature. Then I slowly add the tank water to the container (I did this over 15 minutes because the levels in the bag and in the tank were almost exactly the same.

As far as it being fungus/bacteria, do you think that the Maracyn Plus treatment (basically a bottled mix of Maracyn 1 & 2) will be good enough?

Diana · Post by **Diana** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:52 pm

I have not used M+, but have good things about it. Keep the water in the best possible condition (lowest possible nitrates) too.

raecarrow · Post by **raecarrow** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:44 am

Update:

Both good and bad news. The kuhli with the fuzzy tail died yesterday as I suspected it would. However, the remaining two guys look to be alright and all the B.almorhae seem to be doing well. I did a 1/3 water change last night as the nitrates were around 20 and I did a good vacuuming as well (I only have a sprinkling of gravel in the bottom so the fish have a little bit of something to root around in). I will keep you updated.

Diana ~ Thanks for the advice!

Emma Turner · Post by **Emma Turner** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 10:37 am

Hi Rae,

Sorry to hear about your kuhli loach. For some reason, most of the striped ones (P. myersi, P. kuhlii, P. semicincta) are very problematic to import. I wonder how long the store had them in before selling to you? My bet is that they put them on sale straight away.

Emma

raecarrow · Post by **raecarrow** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:56 pm

I picked them up on friday so it is probable. I know one of my LFSs gets shipments in on Fridays and the other on Wednesdays. I picked the Yoyos up from the One store on friday but they got them in Wednesday but they wouldn't let me get them that day because they hold them for at least 2 days before selling them. The other sells even sick ones.

raecarrow · Post by **raecarrow** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 3:58 pm

More sad news, last night I found one of the two remaining kuhli loaches having, what I can only describe as "seizures". He was swimming sideways in a very tight circle while shaking. I noticed that the other was was beginning to list to one side. Seeing this, I removed both of them into a holding tank. This morning, the sicker one was barely alive and the other one had started spinning in "seizure circles". I suspect they will both be dead when I arrive home from work. Neither of these fish had any phsical appearance of their illness except slightly pinkish-red gills.

I just hope that the 5 Yoyos that I had in the tank with them don't become ill. I was just wondering, Does anyone know what could caused this to happen? I would like to know how to treat it so that my yoyos don't become infected. Keep in mind, I am currently treating them with Maracyn Plus. I have gone through one round and I am treating them with a second round now.

chefkeith · Post by **chefkeith** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 4:13 pm

The thing that causes this is transportation and poor acclimation.

When either the exporter, importer, distributor, fish store, or customer got the fish they probably didn't acclimate them properly.

What water parameters did you measure from the bag water?

raecarrow · Post by **raecarrow** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 4:49 pm

Besides water temp, the levels were only slightly off. One of them started listing before I started acclimating them to the tank. It may have been poor acclimating at the pet store, idk. I just want to make sure that this isn't symptomatic of a transmissible illness that will effect my yoyo's.

Thanks,

starsplitter7 · Post by **starsplitter7** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 5:34 pm

Do you have a TDS meter? It can help figure out if the parameters are very close. For example some fish store use salt. If you don't have the exact salt in your tank, it can make your fish very sick. Most people on this site, know salt can be bad for their loaches/Cories, but many LfS don't.

chefkeith · Post by **chefkeith** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:00 pm

raecarrow wrote: Besides water temp, the levels were only slightly off.

What levels? and what is slightly off? What I'm trying to understand is exactly what parameters you tested and what they were?

One of them started listing before I started acclimating them to the tank. It may have been poor acclimating at the pet store, idk. I just want to make sure that this isn't symptomatic of a transmissible illness that will effect my yoyo's.

There are no guarantee's when you cross contaminate. You might want to get into the habit of not mixing new fish in the same quarantine tank if you want to avoid this.

Disease prevention is perhaps the toughest thing to learn about fish keeping. Unfortunately, the best way to learn is through mistakes.

raecarrow · Post by **raecarrow** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:14 pm

I do not have a TDS meter, I should probably get one soon.

I don't remember the exact levels, but the levels for the yoyo's were almost spot on (I think that the bag KH was slightly higher then the KH of 40 in the quarentine). The difference between the Kuhlies bag water and the tank water was that the bag water had .5 nitrites, and 40 nitrates and the tank water had 0 nitrites and 10 nitrates.

chefkeith · Post by **chefkeith** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:41 pm

If the bag water had .5 nitrites, that there was enough to kill the fish.

Did you test the GH and pH also?

helen nightingale · Post by **helen nightingale** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:42 pm

sorry to hear your bad news

a tds meter makes it really easy to make sure the water in the bag and in the tank are the same. its worth the money.

i briefly worked in a fish shop, and the acclimatisation period was zero.the fish were litterallytaken out of the boxes and tipped straight into a tank. it was not surprising the fish were not in te best of condition.they were normally sold the next day, or sometimes the same day. not good! so please dont feel too bad on yourself. get a meter and use it to make sure you do right, and dont forget that you are doing a better job than some of the shops.

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