armie loaches dying 1 by 1.

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bomber

bomber

Piranha
MFK Member
Apr 16, 2007
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I can not figure this one out. My grow out tank is a 150g with 2x fluval 404 and a a few large sponge filters. This tank is fully cycled using sera siporax seeded from my larger tank and the water reads...

0 ammonia in yellow
0 nitrites in light blue
10-20 ppm nitrates just orange

...all the time with 50% water changes once a week.

I have introduced 58x 2.5-3" to this grow out tank 8-25-2010 and I have lost a total of 6 loaches. Each time I lose my loaches I get a water reading to see if there is an ammonia/nitrite spike but it reads 0???
I do the reading before a water change.

Currently I am treating them for ich with 2 teaspoons per gallon with temps @ 85-86 degrees.

For the last two days, I have been losing up to 6 loaches. Oh I have been feeding them everything from fresh market shrimp, FD mysis shrimp, Omega Veggie/super color/natural form with garlic, Cyclop-eeze wafers, Cyclop growth promoter whole freeze dried, Salmon flakes, small crushed pieces of Massivore, and FD krill. They no longer want to eat collard greens. I switch it up to see what their favorite food is but I only feed what they consume in a few minutes.

Any idea what my armie is dropping like flies?:nilly:
 
Where did you get the loaches from? I've gotten a few from pet-smart, that always magically pass away for no apparent reason. Also, I had a few pass away because my water wasn't oxygenated enough, you could try getting an air pump and see if that helps?
 
Agreed
Treating for ich and the higher temp decrease O2 in a big way.
Higher temp water holds less oxygen.
Turn up the aeration

What are you treating ich with?
 
jrpsaros;4436219; said:
Where did you get the loaches from? I've gotten a few from pet-smart, that always magically pass away for no apparent reason. Also, I had a few pass away because my water wasn't oxygenated enough, you could try getting an air pump and see if that helps?
Click to expand...
I got these loaches from a vendor near me. I have a maxjet 1200 power head along with two large air disks, and sponge filters for aeration.
Jayzao;4436228; said:
What are you treating ich with?
Click to expand...
Read my first post.
 
2 tsp of what per gallon?? Salt?? If so, I believe that salt is no bueno for loaches...
 
Salt treatment is safe for loaches if the salinity is increased gradually, but is not always effective. Just to throw out a number, I'd say it cures about half of the Ick cases I've read about with CL's... They just carry SOOOO much ick, that I think they are more likely than other species to carry the dreaded "super-ick". This is why I no longer use salt--too much time, effort, mortality rate & risk involved for such a low success rate. On the other hand, I've had great success using a combination of full-dose CopperSafe & a UV sterilizer in my QT tank, then half-dose CopperSafe & UV in my growout tank. Zero ick (or super ick) after the first week in the QT. After 2 weeks in QT, I do a drip acclimation to drop the copper level before introducing them to the growout, then repeat the drip treatment when they're ready to go into one of the main shoals. I've successfully grown-out well over 100 CL's in the last few years & I can estimate my dead-loss around 10 loaches MAX. Keep us updated!
 
Are the ones that die skinny? Your water seems fine, how bad is the ich? In my opinion, if you are treating for ich you should change the water every day or every other day, you'll get rid of the free-swimming form of ich much faster this way.
 
yes two of them were bone skinny. Rest that died seem pretty average.

I agree on water changes. I need to change the water more often.
 
Been doing 50 water changes daily with the ich remedy I mentioned ^. Seems like all the weak clown loaches are gone now. The others are growing and i can tell. Woooot Woot.!

Been feeding these guys like 3-4 times a day then a heavy water change hhehee.
 
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