I've recently got a clown loach, but its not looking too good, its not mooving much, but its gills and mouth are going 10 to the dozen, its seems quite listless, but every now and then gets a wee spurt of life then settles back down to the bottom...its gills are lookin slightly red... but all the other fish from the seller have been very well, just the wee loach.. its in a 4ft tankand all the other fish are looking very good, anyone got any ideas?

cheers

Bob

Haven't got any advice as such, but you will get help quicker if you post your water readings. GH KH PH Ammonia Nitrite and Nitrate. That may be where the problem lies.

I'm sure someone will be along to help you soon.

Good luck

Also stocking levels and types of fish

Hi

As jojox says please post readings for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate pH and gh, a list of all other tankmates (species and numbers of each) and the volume of the tank in litres or gallons (or dimensions). Also post how long the tank has been setup, whether it was cycled before adding fish and details of any recent additions (plants, fish, decor etc).

its a 48x12x18, tank has been running for about 4 months, just put in 11 new fish 6x golden barb (looking very good and active, 2 bloodfin tetra's again looking good to go with the 4 that were in already 1 18inch plec been in 4 4 months, 1 bristlenose plec 3 inches long been in 4 4 months 6(3 new) black spot tetras been in for 4 months ad 4 zebra danio's and 2 red crabs (new and blimey arnt they little houdini's), all the fish are looking well coloured and active, just the loach thats lookin a bit peely-wally, there is plenty of cove (plastic plants) and 2 long slates that the plecs hide under, a ornimental bridge and a terracotta pot I've not done a water test as I've not got any testing kits, and shops are shut till wed's, the new fish are in for about a week...

Bob

OK Bob, you need to get yourself a test kit as soon as the shops open. Get a good liquid based master test kit including tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

I'm almost certain that what's ailing the Clown Loach is an ammonia and/or nitrite spike and possibly high nitrates as well. The tank is very overstocked, and adding 11 new fish all at once will have overwhelmed the filter. Basically you don't have enough "good" bacteria to cope with the additional waste from that many fish at once.

Clown Loaches are very sensitive to poor water quality which is why he's the one showing obvious problems at the moment. You also need to find out what your pH and gH are as they are very sensitive to incorrect water parameters too, so we need to know if the water suits him. However, long term, he needs 5 more Clown Loach pals as they are very social fish who wane without a shoal of their own kind, which your tank won't support so I think he would be better of being returned.

In the meantime, start changing 25% of the water in the tank daily to try and remove ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and post your test results as soon as you have the kit.

Bear in mind though that you do have too much stock in the tank and should think about rehoming some other fish. The tank is really too small for an 18 inch plec for instance

just realised that I said 18inch...I ment 18cm, I'll pop over to the petshop 1st thimg for the kits, we have a pets at home 20 miles away, as our local one dosnt have much for fish...

Thanks everyone for the responses

Bob

Bit confused now (not that it takes much, truthfully, but can you confirm?). In 2011 you had a 70 litre tank with paling, poorly fish from a fish-in cycle I think? Your post on 2nd Dec 2011 read, when asked about water quality:

Quote:

But you didn't give any feedback after that What happened to the readings? This would give you an indication as to adding new stock/how happy existing stock are?

New tank comes in at around 151 litres, did you do an immediate cycle? Far too small for some of that new stock I'm afraid and you have stocked too quickly with too much, hence the problems with the fish.

Please post ammonnia, nitrite, nitrate and pH readings for full advice. This has been asked many times, but ignored to date

If FK is to help, and you have posted again so assume so, we need keepers to be honest at least. Clowns need 500 min and softer water of course.

Clown Loach linky here:
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/modules/ ... sheet.php?caresheetID=101

Hi, not long after the post mentioned before I had upgraded to a 48x18x12 tank, using existing water from previous tank and filter so it had the existing biology in the water, I got a test strip from a friend and all the tests were in 'safe' zones marked on the strip bottle, cant remember exactly what they were now, but there are areas marked on the tube as 'safe' it was a tetra 6in1 kit.

I have bought a kit now for myself again a 6in1 kit the readings are-:
NO3 - 10
NO2 - 0
GH - 4'd
KH - 3'd
PH - 7.2
CL2 - 0

I have run the filter continiously now for 2 days and the loach is alot happier, I' am running an undergravel filter continiously and have a side mounted fluval filter that I had brought in from my old tank, I dont run this one continiously as the undergravel one does, I usually run it for a couple of hours during the day to aireate the water (using the pipe attachment)as the zebras and tetras like the faster moving water at the surface it seems... they all seem fairly happy @ the min tho, the loach isnt doing its I'M dying' impression now and is awimming away quite the thing.

Thanks for all the responses

Bob

Couple of points Bob. Firstly 6 in 1 test strips are not very accurate, an they don't inclue the most important test for ammonia. It really would be better to get a liquid based test kit such as the API Master Test Kit as previously advised. That will be far more accurate and includes all the essential tests.

If the results from the strips you have are anywhere near accurate then the pH at 7.2 is too high for Clown Loaches and for most Tetras. Danios aren't really compoatible with your other stock as they are temperate, not tropical and need a lower temperature (less than 24C). It's usually not recommende to house crabs with fish either, but most importantly, have you read the information on Clown Loaches that V linked to? If you have you'll be aware that they need a lower pH, a much bigger tank and they need to be in shoals to thrive. He really isn't going to thrive in current conditions. These are highly social fish who need a group of their own kind to be happy, and unfortunately grow too big for that to be practical in your tank. It would be far better for him to be rehomed I'm afraid.