loaches flashing

[ninjaman]

hi im new to this forum and hope someone can help, ive had tropical fish now for about 4 years and had no problems till now, within 3 weeks ive lost six clown loach i think it may have been a water problem i have been working away for 2 weeks and could not do a water change when i came home my wife said 2 of my clowns had died and the others were gasping for air and one had been swimming upside down but seemed ok now so i did a water test my amonia was 2 , nitrate 40, nitrite .50 and ph 6.6 so i did a fifty percent water change and twenty percent the next day and then i noticed my 3 loach were not eating and my oldest loach tom had died i had him for three years but no sighns of any disease and another one had finrot on his tail so i started using melifix i carried on doing water changes for seven days till water quality was perfect my amonia is 0, nitrate.0, nitrite 0, ph 7.2 the clown with finrot looked like he was going to die he had no energy eyes went white and started going skinny after 8 days of melifix he seems like hes getting better and there eating again but my 3 loaches are all flashing against ornaments all the time but the 1 with finrot is rubbing himself that much his black strypes are going white through rubbing himself all my other fish are ok i have 1 large plec, 1 catfish, 4 gouramis, 1 redtail shark, 4 mollys, 2 albino corys and my 3 remaining clown loach , there are no visible sighns of any disease and i have not added any new fish for 4 months now it seems like all the so called experts in my local fish shops dont know what there talking about as there giving me different advice as to what medicine to add also how long does it take for a loaches tale to grow back ! any help would be great many thanks jimmy.

[Diana]

Welcome to Loaches

I think your fish are suffering the long term effects of poisoning from ammonia, nitrite and low oxygen.

Ammonia burns the gills and the tender tissue in the fins, looking exactly like fin rot. Fungus or bacteria can invade the damaged tissue (both gills and fins) further complicating the problem.

Nitrite crosses the gills and enters the blood, causing a problem called Brown Blood Disease. The hemoglobin is affected, and cannot carry oxygen very well.

Fish gasping at the surface suggests that there was a lack of oxygen in the tank. Fish can die from that.

Combine these three issues, and it is great that the fish are alive at all. No wonder they are in bad shape.

What I would do now:
Stop the medicine. After a week, it has done all it can to reduce the chance of infection.

Keep up the water changes. Keep the nitrate as low as possible. Gravel vac to reduce the amount of organic waste in the tank. This can encourage the wrong sorts of bacteria. This may mean something like 25% water changes every few days. Make sure the temperature and all the tests you have show that the new water matches the old water. GH, TDS, KH are the best tests for this.

Add fresh activated carbon to the filter. Whatever toxins built up might still linger, and the AC might help to remove them.

Feed a good rotation of food for best nutrition. include fresh vegetables, and frozen or freeze dried foods like brine shrimp, blood worms and whatever else is available. High quality flakes and pellets, too. Read the ingredients and avoid grains and fish meal. You want whole fish and shellfish, algae and other good things in their flake and pellet foods.

Figure out what went wrong, and take steps to prevent it in the future.