pale body and white filaments off tail fin

[CityFish]

I have ten Clown Loaches in a 45 gallon planted tank. The loaches range from 1 to 2 inches and they're nice an plump and active.

One of the larger ones is acting a bit lethargic today. It's colors are rather pale and I noticed a few while filaments attached to the top of its rear fin. Otherwise, the fish is plump and healthy looking.

I feed them two types of pellet food every day: Hikari Sinking Wafers and Omega One Shrimp Pellets. They devour every last crumb.

I do a 25 percent water change every ten days or so and filter the tap water primarily to remove phosphate, but lots of other things are probably also removed. I add plant nutrients to the water.

Are the pale body and white filaments the sign of disease?

Any comments are welcome. Thank you.

[chefkeith]

A few potential problems I see.
You probably heard this before, but that tank will eventually be too small for clowns.
Also adding plant nutrients can be potentially dangerous. Over time the nutrients can accumilate. When a water change is done, the TDS drops and fishes osmolarity functions suffer. The most important thing about water chemisty is consistency. Be sure the TDS is the about the same between the tank water and the source water for the water changes. You'll need a TDS meter for this.

I'm not sure if I answered your question, but that's my take on this without knowing about anything else.

[Ded1]

Maybe this will help if you are talking about fish graying out ( try to read articles about Clown loaches on this site ):

" "Graying Out"

This is a term we've come to use here as a description of one particular color mode seen in our fish. New owners of Clowns are always posting panicked messages, assuming that there's something drastically wrong with their new fish. Usually, there is no problem at all.

Clowns are able to change their coloration within certain parameters. These changes can be based on mood, aggression, possibly stress and other factors. The illustration shows a fish sitting at a slight tail-down attitude with fins spread. This position will often be taken accompanied by "graying out", during mock fights between Clowns. These fights are often referred to as "Sparring", and are used to determine the natural pecking order within a group. People have theorized that "gray" fish are sub-dominant when they remain this color for prolonged periods, but I have noticed that my Dominant (Alpha) fish is often the one showing this color. They can change from regular coloration to "gray" quite quickly, particularly at feeding time, when many squabbles break out. Depending on one's tank lighting, this color change may show a kind of greenish, metallic sheen to the whole body, most noticeable over the stripes. The edges of the stripes tend to have a sort of paler area than the rest of the stripe."

Hope it helps

[mikev]

Hello, CityFish,

One of the larger ones is acting a bit lethargic today. It's colors are rather pale and I noticed a few while filaments attached to the top of its rear fin. Otherwise, the fish is plump and healthy looking.

I've had this problem with new loaches three times now. Kubs, never with clowns, but it seems to be the same as you describe. (You did not say how long you owned the fish, this would be relevant.)

In my cases, aggressive water changes to bring nitrates really low and remove them as a stress factor worked twice. (This is not really a treatment, this is just making sure that the conditions are the ideal, and the animal's immune system can do its work.) In the third case, water changes not being effective, I treated with Furan; this solved the problem in two days.

High TDS due to other chemicals may play the same role as nitrates in depressing the immune system and promoting opportunistic infections (see what Chefkeith said above).

Check the nitrates just in case. 10 small clowns in a 45g is probably not too much of an overload (depends on your feeding), but what else do you have in the tank?

The other possibility is that the filaments are actually dirt in the tank and not a disease. Sometimes this type of dirt accumulates on new pieces of driftwood and loaches can pick it up, either on the dorsal or the caudal fin.

I feed them two types of pellet food every day: Hikari Sinking Wafers and Omega One Shrimp Pellets. They devour every last crumb.

They will be much happier/healthier with some regular bloodworms added to the diet, as well as other foods.

I do a 25 percent water change every ten days or so and filter the tap water primarily to remove phosphate, but lots of other things are probably also removed. I add plant nutrients to the water.

How do you filter the water, if I may ask? Why?

(I'm in NY too, and would like to compare the experience with our tap contamination)

[CityFish]

Thanks for the reply.

Regarding the tap water filtering, I'm not sure what the specs are of the filtration device I use, but it has at least half a dozen filter media in it and it about 16 inches long and perhaps 3 in diameter. I use it to filter out phosphates which are added to NYC water to prevent corrosion. In a planted tank, the excess phosphate used to cause dark algae to grow on all the leaves. However, I later put to orange algae eaters in my tank (I don't know the correct name of this fish, but they are rather standard looking algae eaters but are bright orange rather than gray). I have two other fishtanks, one with African cichlids and one with tin foil barbs. I don't filter the tap water for these tanks because there are no live plants and thus no need for intense plant lighting. The fish are thriving in each.

I do have several large pieces of driftwood in the tank with my Clown Loaches on which thick mats of java fern are growing.

Aside from the ten Clown Loaches and algae eaters, I have 6 small glass fish (the kind with the stripes) and two red tail sharks.

Do the bloodworms sink to the bottom? Nutrition-wise, does it make a difference if the blood worms are alive, frozen, or dried?

Thanks for your advice.

[mikev]

Thanks for the reply.

Regarding the tap water filtering, I'm not sure what the specs are of the filtration device I use, but it has at least half a dozen filter media in it and it about 16 inches long and perhaps 3 in diameter.

Hmmm... does it have a name?

I use it to filter out phosphates which are added to NYC water to prevent corrosion. In a planted tank, the excess phosphate used to cause dark algae to grow on all the leaves. However, I later put to orange algae eaters in my tank (I don't know the correct name of this fish, but they are rather standard looking algae eaters but are bright orange rather than gray).

Albino CAE's? If yes, they will grow large and nasty.

I have two other fishtanks, one with African cichlids and one with tin foil barbs. I don't filter the tap water for these tanks because there are no live plants and thus no need for intense plant lighting. The fish are thriving in each.

I do have several large pieces of driftwood in the tank with my Clown Loaches on which thick mats of java fern are growing.

How old is the setup? if 4-6 months, it could be slime from the bottom of the driftwood.

Aside from the ten Clown Loaches and algae eaters, I have 6 small glass fish (the kind with the stripes) and two red tail sharks.

Do the bloodworms sink to the bottom? Nutrition-wise, does it make a difference if the blood worms are alive, frozen, or dried?

Bloodworms are either frozen or dried, I don't think you can get them alive (other worms -- yes). Nutrition-wise I'm actually not certain there is a difference, but do try both and you will see which kind is more appreciated by your animals.

[CityFish]

I don't have the box for the filter anymore, which is why I didn't give you a name. The only thing written on the filter itself is Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Tap Water Ion Exchange Chamber.

The driftwood/java fern set up in the Loach tank is a couple of years old. I've only had these loaches in there for a couple of months. The filamentous stuff on the loach's tail was white.

I don't think the algae eaters are Albino because they have black eyes.

Thanks.

[mikev]

Amelanistic/hypomelanistic forms. No or incomplete body pigmentation, some pigmentation in eyes. This happens with a number of species, incl. some loaches.

Making sure:

These guys?

[CityFish]

Yes, that's them! If they get too big or aggressive I can take them out and put them in the tank with the large tin foil barbs and big blue crayfish that will keep them in line.

[mikev]

Hmm..tin foil barbs may withstand them indeed, they probably will reach the size first....


In re the original question:

If you still see the problem, I'd recheck the water parameters. If nitrates are high, I'd see if intensified water changes solve this (they might). If water changes don't help and the symptoms get worse (fin splitting), I'd treat with either Furan2 or an anti-fungal med (something like API Anti-fungus).