CLOWN LOACHES in fish tank w/PLECO with COLUMNARIS & FIN

[Nancy clown loach lover]

i'm concerned because i have 4 juvenile clown loaches in the same tank... i've had my high fin pleco about a year in my heated, fresh water community tank. several months ago i observed my first batch of platy fry 'grooming' him/her. it was so cute, i paid it no mind.

about three weeks ago, i was enjoying the fry 'groomers' seemingly taking care of him, and that's when i noticed tiny patches of white fuzz. now his fins are wasting away.

because of high fin's health, i decided (big mistake) to completely take my tank apart. of course, my pH, amonia, and nitrite readings spiked to dangerous levels. afterwards, i did not replace the 4 bio-wheels; however, i chose to replace the 8 filters. it took me 10 days of many, many 50% water changes with reverse-osmosis water for my readings to return to normal, and my water is once again crystal clear.

my pleco seems to no longer have his normal appetite, and he zooms to the surface to gulp air. his tank mates are 4 juvenile clown loaches, a rubber mouth pleco, 2 algae eaters, small schools of platy, scissor tail rasbora, white cloud, zebra danio, and pristella tetra.

everybody in the tank is no worse for the wear, even my clowns, but high fin's fins are disintegrating and his fuzzy patches seem to have grown larger. when on the walls of the tank, he slips down, and when he is on his belly, his front end appears to float up off the gravel. he has an injury on each side of his head, but i think that is from the new flat rock i added to the tank.

my tank is a 3 year old 58 gallon freshwater tank with two penguin 350 bio-wheel filters, current readings are pH 7, amonia 0, nitrite 0, temp is 77*, heavily planted, with lots of maylasian trumpet snails & feeder snails for my clown loaches. incidentally, calcium is not high, because my larger snails' shells are receding.

what do you recommend i use to take care of my high fin?

based upon my online searches, it appears that i need to administer melafix & kenaplex.

shall i use both simultaneously, at full dosage strength, and are both products safe with all members of my community tank?

i really need your input, before i take further action. thank you ~

[Diana]

Move the Pleco to a hospital tank and treat there. You have such a mix of fish that are NOT showing symptoms that it is better not to treat them.

Melafix has caused problems for Loaches, per members observations here at Loaches. Seems OK for cats, though.

Fin rot may be caused by Flavobacteria columnaris, the same bacteria that is likely causing the white patches. Fin rot can also be caused by other bacteria. An antibiotic that is specific for Gram-negative bacteria is optimum. One that has some wider action is good, too, because often there will be more than one type of bacteria attempting to infect the fish.

Do not mix meds unless BOTH are labeled as safe for use with the other.

Hospital tank:
Bare bottom.
Cave of some sort so the sick fish can hide. PVC pipe might work.
Temperature not over 76*F. Flavobacteria columnaris is more active at higher temperatures.
High turnover of water assuring great oxygenation.
Many meds are deactivated in light. Keep the tank light off except to monitor the fish.
Dose according to whichever medicine you chose. If water changes are needed then check how to re-dose the medicine.
Keep the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate as low as possible.
Cover the tank incase the fish tries to jump out.
Feed a good variety of food. For the herbivorous Plecos I would concentrate of fresh and lightly cooked vegetables. If yours is more carnivorous or wood eating then feed that sort of diet.

[chefkeith]

You did many 50% water changes with RO water? Did you add minerals to the RO water before changing the water?

[Diana]

i did not replace the 4 bio-wheels; however, i chose to replace the 8 filters

You might clarify this:

Did you keep the cycled Bio Wheels, and put them back on the tank? Did you take steps to keep the nitrifying bacteria alive while you had these off the filters?

What do you mean you replaced 8 filters? Did you buy a new filter? Or did you do something with the media inside of 8 filters

There are large populations of nitrifying bacteria on the various filter media. These bacteria grow especially well in a wet/dry location such as a Bio Wheel, and grow well where there is good water movement such as on all the sponges and floss that are in the filters. These bacteria will even grow on old activated carbon, if it is in there long enough. SOme bacteria will grow on the upper layers of gravel or sand, where there is the most oxygen.

If you throw away any of this media you are also throwing away a lot of nitrifying bacteria. If you removed all of it at once then your tank must re-cycle. The beneficial bacteria that remain in the substrate are less than half as much as the tank needs to properly handle the fish waste. If you also disturb the population of bacteria growing on the substrate (cleaning with chlorinated water, or churning the gravel too much) then you will also weaken or kill this population.

While there may be reasons to 'nuke' a tank like this, part of the 'put it back together' needs to be to re-populate the tank with nitrifying bacteria. Tetra Safe Start and Dr. Tim's One and Only are the only two products that I know with the correct species of nitrifying bacteria. As you put the tank back together, use one or the other of these products, in a dose enough for the full tank as if there were no surviving bacteria.