Several of my larger clowns are from African Rift lake tanks. They were kept in the sub-standard conditions of a high pH to get rid of snails. They all are very light in color, and all have patches on the skin. I am thinking this could be some sort of mineral deposit, as none of the loaches other than the African rescues exhibit this type of patchy skin disorder. Any thoughts?
Loaches kept in African Cichlid tanks
- Thread starter ewurm
- Start date
Ewurm, those clown loaches are producing too much slime coat due to possible irritants and one of these irritants is their lack of ability to tolerate the conditions of the Rift Valley setups in comparison to what they should be in. In short, there is something wrong with their osmoregulatory system. The electrolytes in that particular tank must have been too high for the osmoregulatory system to function well. I'd rehome the clown loaches somewhere else. This is just one of the few reasons why mixing loaches with African cichlids is not one of the best ideas.
I didn't get Clown Loaches for a long long time because everyone told me they'd 'die' in my kh 14 water. A certain marine biologist (who's opinion I trust) said water quality was a lot more important than water hardness. The 150 gal Clown Loach tank never gets above 6 or 7 ppm nitrates (ever) and the Loaches all have good color and black stripes.
Is a kh of 14 considered African hardness? Don't they add some sort of salt to African tanks sometimes? Maybe that irritated them.
Mine seem ultra healthy, I've had most of them almost a year now. But this is a little concerning.
Is a kh of 14 considered African hardness? Don't they add some sort of salt to African tanks sometimes? Maybe that irritated them.
Mine seem ultra healthy, I've had most of them almost a year now. But this is a little concerning.
Lupin;2112974; said:
The loaches have been rehomed from African Cichlid tanks to my tanks, which are all at the proper pH and alkalinity. I have seen several cases of the appearance of what looks like deposits on loaches kept in African tanks. The purpose of the thread is to make people aware of the fact that it isn't a good idea to keep loaches in this high pH environment. My three largest specimens were rescued from an African Cichlid display tank at the store that I work at.
