Retiring my old river tank and New River tank plans.

[loachmom]

He has great color in spite of his wounds. I think he could have a good chance, if infection doesn't set in.

Good luck!

[ckk125]

been there...seen it...and lost it.

it happened to 2 clowns...during a blackout, the pump was switched off and 2 small ones thought they have a new cave...ended up very bad and died instantly.never bought small clowns ever since.

[chefkeith]

The clown is still alive. I went to the LFS earlier and got some Melafix and added some of that to water just right now. I hope this helps. I've heard good things about Melafix. This is the 1st time I've ever got any.

Thanks all for the best wishes. I hope this clown pulls through.

[chefkeith]

I just got done lowering the island. Not an easy task. I had to remove most of the sand, then try not to crush a clown loach while lowering it. It was almost like a 3 stooges episode trying to get the clowns out from underneath it. Glad that's over with. Things are back to normal now. Thank goodness.

The injured clown loach is about the same.

[chefkeith]

update on injured clown-
It's been 1 week since the injury.
The wound looks to be healing well. Problem is when the clown tries to swim, it swims radically. The clown usually just sits in one spot. It's lost it's cordination or has some blindness or maybe it's brain damaged.

I'll keep up with the daily treatments of melafix and stress coat.

[Tinman]

Probably/possibly infection in head cavity or loss of used for coordination/balance, a sinus if you will...???

[chefkeith]

More bad news. Most of my clowns were faded out and acting skittish Today. So I poked around in the tanks and found a dead 4" clown loach in the corner of the 85g tank. It was near some pvc pipe and lightly covered in the sand.
A few days ago, I feed them some freeze dried tubifex worms. I already tossed the rest of the can into the garbage. I'll never feed them that stuff again. Hopefully this isn't an epidemic.

I also checked all the water parameters.

The River Tank and 85g Tank-
Free Ammonia = 0
Total Ammonia = .2
Nitrates = 15 -20
Nitrites = 0
Tds = 160
pH = 7.38

Treated Tap Water in Sump for water changes-
Free Ammonia = 0
Total Ammonia = 2.0 !!!

Untreated Tap Water
Free Ammonia = 0
Total Ammonia = 6.0!!

I then double checked the untreated tap-
Total Ammonia= 0? huh what?

Then I checked again-
Total Ammonia = 6.0!! WTF.

Then I tested 4 more samples for the same thing at the same time-
Total Ammonia s1= 6.0
Total Ammonia s2= 0.2
Total Ammonia s3= 0
Total Ammonia s4= 2

This Seachem test kit can kiss my tailfin. I though the Seachem Ammonia Test Kits were the best, but something is seriously screwed up with this one. Atleast the Free Ammonia was 0 in all the tests.
I'll try testing again in a few hours to give the sensors some time to regenerate.

All the Neon Tetras look fine. If there was something wrong with the water quality, I would think they'd be the 1st fish to show signs.

I put some Prime in the tank water just to be safe.

[Tinman]

Hang in there. I feed Freeze dried only if re-constituted to saturated then fed if still appropriate and appetizing. I have the same feelings towards algea tabs in a highly condensed form ,saturate first also but most would disagree with that.......

[chefkeith]

I got more mixed results with the testing Today-
Tank and Tap water with the SeachemTest kit-
Free Ammonia = 0
Total Ammonia = 6

Tank and Tap water With the AP Test Kit
Ammonia= 0

Treated Tap water in sump with AP Test Kit
Ammonia= .5 ( this is probably a false positive because of the Prime I added )

I'll get a new Ammonia Test kit Tomorrow.

[Tinman]

When you moved your loaches did you leave a cannister on the tank they used to use most of the time,I am insinuating you re-located your fish load but the filter carrying it previously has died on your old tank and the new one is not up yet. You added filtration right?,...ie you could put the old filter on the new tank after cleaning it out, but ....clean the one where they used to hang out the most either way as if I read this right most of your loaches moved uptown a few weeks ago and that filter in the old tank may have crashed,I know your sumped like me with additional cannisters located around your system right?......if this fits your situation, did I make my point errrrrramblin...... ??.....Just an idea .Hoping things turn for the better for you

[chefkeith]

Things are better. I think. I didn't find any more dead fish, but found some rainbowfish fry though.

I'm now sure that there wasn't an ammonia problem. There is a problem with the Seachem Test Kit though. I just tested again and got a high total ammonia reading from pure bottled water (Aquafina). That proves that this test kit went foul.

[Blue]

CK, that's a great tank. Man! I certainly wish this thread should be made a sticky.

[chefkeith]

thanks Blue. This thread doesn't deserve to be a sticky. It would be nice to have a sticky for river tanks in general though. A thread where everyone could post a profile their rivertank would be very cool.

[chefkeith]

Yesterday I purchased one of those Ammonia Alert meters. Ammonia is 0. I have peace of mind now.

[chefkeith]

The wound on the injured clown is almost completely healed. He's swimming better now too. He's still somewhat lethargic though, so he won't be going back to the river tank until I see more activity from him.