clown loach death

I have 4 clowns in my 250l tank I had 4 in october and then lost 2 to an outbreak of ich over christmas I then replaced the 2 dead ones in feb since then eveyrthing has been great they eat like horses and are always together out and about yesterday morning one of the loach was dead and the body was greyed out and the skin looked as if it was flaking off I have tested the water and everything is normal but I did do a water change anyway .today I decided to feed them early and only one came out to feed but just now one of the bigger clowns came out and was hanging about under the spray bar and he looked like his body had scrapes or marks on it he moved very slowly around when usually they are turbo charged I have just treated the tank with melafix has anybody got any ideas

no idea alison sorry, hope they pickup soon

had nightmare of a night oh spotted dead fish under bogwood when I moved it it was one of my bigger clowns I then did another water change and saw my goldnugget plec on his back I just netted him and dupped him in my 54l tank and after 30 mins he has moved and stuck himself on the front of the tank I then tested the water and the nitrite was up not quite 0,25 but not 0.0 so I did another water change 5 mins ago I have also lost 6 harlies I dont have a clue what is going on with this ****** tank my oh has just shouted that the 2 clowns that are left are out what a night

Oh alison, thats bad news. I suppose you have done a full water test - ph etc? How about hardness too?

Have you added anything to the tank lately that might have caused it - new fish, ornaments etc.

Really sorry you are having this trouble, hope it settles soon.

if the nitrite is up, it sounds like somehow the filters have been hit ie bug are dead or at least reduced

D0 50% water changes daily (ive goteen away with 50% every 12hours in the past) Also King British Safe water is brilliant at dealing with Nitrite and ammonia, not too expensive, pets at home stock it.

Is there a chance the filters are clogged a little, perhaps youll find a loach in an intake, ive lst zebra this way, still dont know how they managed it, i guees they are like khuli loaches for that

I think youre best bet is to do the water changes and pray... sorry i cant help more than that, but its worth stripping the tank looking for more bodies as these will only add to the polution

I cleaned some if my sponges last night the only thing I added was the melafix the 2 clowns have been out this morning and everything seems to have calmed down will be testing water later on again today clowns are out now sharing a prawn we found dead big loach last night also I was doing water change last night at 11 oclock I was waiting for other half to bring bucket back when I heard a splash one of the odessa barbs had jumped out of the tank and landed behind the tank screamed for husband and he managed to reach it and get it out it was full of fur pulled off fur and dumped back in tank was swimming around fine when I went to bed

, sorry, but that just made me chuckle!! :lol:

yeah! suicidal fish.

yes Rich I use King British safe water always have ,so far today everything seems fine , mind you when I saw the state on that barb it looked like a hairy fish I could not believe it was still alive this morning I did a head count and they were all there .
The goldnugget is happy enough in the smaller tank as it is only about 2 inches he is fine for the moment. I would have been devastated if I had lost him, he cost me £26

Just keep a close eye on your plec, GN are not the toughest. That said mine survived and fought off a nasty bacterial infection that killed 4 bigger older plecs.

just tested the water amm0 nitrite0 nitrate 20 so far so good

good to hear alison

Sorry to hear about your loach troubles, alison. Hopefully, the tank will be sorted soon. Out of interest, what is your tank maintenance regime? Apart from weekly water changes, how often do you rinse out the filter sponges or clean out the filter/impeller?

water change once a week sometimes twice depending how much plec poo is around rinse out filter sponges once a month

how are things now Alison?

Things seem to have settled down MC, did a water test on sat and everything as it should be, the clowns are out and about and are feeding well. The goldnugget is still in the smaller tank and I am seeing more of him now than I ever did before, there are only 8 tetras in the tank and one giant otto so theres no one to annoy him

Ahhh that's good Alison

Glad to hear it, alison.