My loaches are in critical state. Please advise!

[riverscityfish]

My two 10-year old clown loaches were in excellent shape ten days ago, when I purchase two new Dalmation Mollies and two new Orange Platys and introduced them into my 48-gal aquarium, which was problem free.

Six days ago, one or two of the new fish dies, the other two went south about 5 days ago days ago. And then one of my loaches started lying its side in daytime (as distinct from their enjoying this mode at night) and he started gasping frequently, with gill flaps going back and forth. I went through an extensive "treat the water" effort -- changing about 15% of the water, same the following day, adding nitrate-fixer, aquarium salts, etc. but nothing helped. Then I Googled and found your site, read the excellent article/blog on worms and anti-worm agents, and checked all the fish more closely. I sam that one (older orange platy had a thin white ribbon, rather than feces, come out the vent and suspected that the four fish I had introduced to the tank the week before might well have been infested, despite the standing policy of the national chain that sold them to me to first quarantine new lots before setting them into the for-sale tanks.

In any event, my sick loach responded somewhat to my TLC, but last night passed away. I then went back to the store where I had purchased the Mollies and Platys, asked where their aquatic vet was, was told that I'd find him in another branch store, went there, found no vet or capability to test my dead loach to determine infestation, drove to an AquaTec store, found they didn't have the wherewithal either and was advised the only lab they knew of was not here in Austin but 150 miles away at TA&M in College Station, and gave up my pursuit of the truth and options for saving my other loach - and other fish.

Now, barely 20 minutes ago, my second 10-year old loach is lying on his side and going through the same hyperventilation.

His yellow flanks are, actually have been quite gray since his buddy got into trouble a few days ago. Until now I had attributed this to the stress of experiencing his mate in critical condition, but now I'm worried that whatever caused the first one's death is eating away at the second.

If anyone out there can advise how to deal with this, and possibly save the second loach, I;d be indebted to you.

The first loach's name was Papillon, the guy now critical is Sauvignon - not that this matters, but, what the hell. FYI, when Papillon was abot3 years old, I saved his life with a bit of artificial respiration. He had, for some reason rammed hard into the aquarium glass wall, knocking himself out. Happened to be watching, pulled himout, and seeing his gills were not working, I squeezed him gently between thumb and palm. He stirred a bit, I placed him in a bucket with some aquarium water, tended to him, and overnight he was back in the pink of health. He and his mate never battled with each other, were always concerned with each othe's well-being, dis the usual loach dance stuff, and were always a delight to be with. They were/are about 6.5 inches long. My 16-inch plecostomus also grew quite friendly with them, to the extent a plecostomus can be "friendly". He brushed my dying loach from time to time with his tail (gently/slowly) or lateral fins yesterday and the day before.

We all tried.

Thanks.

riverscityfish, here.

[redshark1]

That's very unfortunate, to say the least.

It sounds to me that you have inadvertently introduced a disease organism with your new fish.

But I wonder why has the fishes natural immunity not enabled them to fight it off?

I do hope that the tanks capacity to deal with ammonia and to remain oxygenated has not been exceeded with the addition of more fish.

I should say that my only experience with disease was 18 years ago when I bought my loaches and they developed whitespot, from which they all recovered, so I have little understanding of your predicament.

I would be inclined to pay attention to water quality in order to maximise the fishes ability to maintain health. This for me would mean measuring ammonia/nitrate and reducing the former to zero and the latter to below 30ppm by minimising feeding and maximising filtration capacity not turnover/current.

I hope you are able to recover from this and enjoy the hobby once more. Best wishes.

I also hope that people more familiar with this scenario will come forward with helpful comments.

[Diana]

10 days is very fast for internal parasites to be responsible for this. They just do not reproduce and grow that fast. It does sound like the fish you purchased do have parasites (white stringy feces is typical of internal parsites) so I would remove them from the main tank and treat them in a separate, bare bottom tank. Also, treat the fish in the main tank, perhaps with medicated food.

The new fish may have introduced something else, though. Bacterial diseases do move that fast.

Always quarantine new fish for at least a month. Observe, treat... then restart the clock so the new fish are in quarantine for a month past the date that medications were removed from the tank.

[chefkeith]

I went through an extensive "treat the water" effort -- changing about 15% of the water, same the following day, adding nitrate-fixer, aquarium salts, etc. but nothing helped.

Ditto with what Diana and redShark1 said. Sounds like it may have been a bacterial problem, especially if there were water quality issues like high nitrates to contend with also.

Why were you adding nitrate-fixer?

What is the tanks normal water change routine?

Do you normally add aquarium salts?

Do you know the Nitrates, KH, GH, TDS, and pH of the tap water and aquarium water (before you added aquarium salts)?