My biggest CL just died and i don't know why.

[classic-chassis]

Like the title says. 5 or 6 inches. Th biggest of 6 CLs and the only odd ball. It just died. It was about 3 or 4 years old in my tank.
It's mouth looked kind of wired, all it's feelers had dried up and its lips looked swollen. It also looked very red in the face area, like it was bleeding or something.
The other 5 are all fine, they just ate.
Tank mates are baby aro, 3 NTTs and a fire eel.
The NTTs and the CLs have lived together for years.
The fire eel is new, i am worried about parasites form the fire eel, but all the other fish are fine.
I'm guessing it just died of natural causes. If there is one thing that's been bugging me is it's very hard to get them to eat alga wafers nowadays. The ignore them and wait for the meaty pellets to go in for my NTTs.

 

[Mr Pleco]

w/o seeing a pic, could have been a bacterial infection.... any sharp gravel or edges on the bottom...

algae wafers are ok ? however

if you want your loaches to grow use prawns, mussels , spinach leaves and green peas..

 

[classic-chassis]

No gravel, just soft sand is all. Yesterday it seemed fine, a least not showing any symptoms which made me look at it more than any other day.
Good about the food because they eat a lot of massivor and shrimp.
Water is clean, I change 50% weekly, same as I've always done.
I just did a WC after I fished it out, like i said all the other occupants are fine and eating.
How old do CLs get?

 

[F1 VET]

Like the title says. 5 or 6 inches. Th biggest of 6 CLs and the only odd ball. It just died. It was about 3 or 4 years old in my tank.
It's mouth looked kind of wired, all it's feelers had dried up and its lips looked swollen. It also looked very red in the face area, like it was bleeding or something.
The other 5 are all fine, they just ate.
Tank mates are baby aro, 3 NTTs and a fire eel.
The NTTs and the CLs have lived together for years.
The fire eel is new, i am worried about parasites form the fire eel, but all the other fish are fine.
I'm guessing it just died of natural causes. If there is one thing that's been bugging me is it's very hard to get them to eat alga wafers nowadays. The ignore them and wait for the meaty pellets to go in for my NTTs.

Water params asap!

#1 S. Vettel

 

[classic-chassis]

Did that, everything is as it always is with my set up. I don't have the test kits which give the exact figures, but i mix the chemicals in with the fish water then compare to a colour chart.
As i said every thing's normal.
P.H 7.5 to 8
total ammonia 0mg/l to 0.25 mg/l
nitrite below 0.3 mg/l

 

[JayC74]

Sorry for your loss. Haven't lost any of my big clowns yet but i know it hurts when even a 2incher dies. Usually when they start stressing from water params, they will start shedding slimecoat throughout the body before any red ulcers start. Any sign of this with any of the loaches prior to last WC before he died? If no initial shedding of slimecoat, my guess would be from a parasite or bacterial infection of some kind.

 

[classic-chassis]

Nothing like that. Just started swimming up the side of the tank in distress, i noticed its mouth looked swollen. All the others are fine. I've had them all for 3 or 4 years. Guess i'll never know.
If any of the others come down with something the fire eel has parasites and i dose my tank.