DEAD LOACH!

[poeticpyro]

so yes i'm opening another thread just to say that the one with the "odd behaviour" died this morning. now the other three remaining clowns don't want to eat. they just nibble, what should i do? if it's internal parasites i'd need to treat the entire tank, considering it would probably affect the loaches, right? what would be the best method and what could i use? i'm so pissed off right now, so please tammy, don't say anything rude.

[mikev]

Sorry to hear this.

Unless you do an autopsy quickly, you would not know if parasites are responsible. Autopsy is a good idea since it helps to know what kind of parasite may be involved and if your other fish are in immediate danger or not; and in general it is always helpful to know why any fish died -- perhaps the next time you will have a way to prevent it.

Regardless of the reasons for your loach' death, treating every loach for internal parasites is a very good idea.

[DarrenMnaples]

hey i just lost a loach to an unknown death also she was swimming all out of control and had extremly rappid breathing and then she diead ....i also noticed some rappid breathing with another so i treated my tank for parisities and also dosed with antibiotics for a week so far evrything seems back to normal

[poeticpyro]

thank you so so much!! both of you! how long do i treat for parasites? i have a treatment in now... it treats both internal and external parasites, do i want to 1/2 the dose? or no? there's a 1/2 dose in now.

btw...
the clown that died this morning showed no signs of ich or anything and it lost some weight... unfortunately i did an "autopsy" and the intestines had little wormy like things in them. i later found out that it's from the brine shrimp, contaminated pack... so yeah it's all my fault and i feel horrible, especially since i cut the baby open...

also the gourami in the tank (opaline one, not sparkling) has had white-ish fecal matter which is also a sign, or so i was told.

any other information would be much appreciated, thanks so much for everything so far.

[fusQer]

im very curious as to how you performed the necropsy and what equipment you need for this? how big was the fish? you used a microscope right? how much magnification?

[poeticpyro]

i took the fishie to the vet not far from where i work since it showed NO signs of external illness.
the vet did it there and yes you could see damage to the poor little guy before we put samples under a microscope. he/she was almost 6"long.

[nick208]

hey guys i also lost all my loaches withing a few weeks, had them for over 2 years . i know how frustrating it is. where do the parasites come from??. and is it possible to have contaminated or spoiled dry food?