Clown Loach died! Y?

[Ianab]

Ph 8?

Might be too high for clown loaches?

I think they like slightly acid water conditions. You may be able to acclimitise one to your water, but to suddenly move them from pH 6 to pH 8 could be fatal

Ian

 

[Lupin]

Ph 8?

Might be too high for clown loaches?

I think they like slightly acid water conditions. You may be able to acclimitise one to your water, but to suddenly move them from pH 6 to pH 8 could be fatal

Ian

True that. Too big a difference in pH.

 

[toehead11183]

i keep CLs with my african cichlids. my ph is 8.2 and most lfs around here keep their ph a 7.0. i acclimate my CLs with drip method for hours before adding them.

When i set the tank up i added the CLs first with a ph of 7.0. i when slowly raised the pH to 8.2 before getting my african cichlids

 

[West1]

Nice

 

[TheKeyToArson]

What do you think it was that killed the little guy?

Your clown probably died of osmotic shock.... because your Gh is so high. Clowns would not normally be kept in that high of gh so make sure you take every precaution to acclimate any loach into your water. but IMO no loach will thrive in those water parameters.

 

[killerfish]

proubably ph change or stress or both they like being in groups so if you had one it was proubably stressed from that and then a change in ph or salinity proubably did it

 

[bmxer4ever]

My tank and room temp is at a still 80 degrees. Knifeback... never heard of this. He looked like he had some meat on him. Didnt look like he was starving. I did notice that he had one stripe on each of his sides, like if he took a deep breath and the skin molded on of his bones (just an example of the line), and it started from just behind the gill and went back about 3/4 of an inch. Dont know if this is knifeback

That could be knifeback..... one symptom is bones showing under/through the skin, but without seeing the fish, it's hard to tell.
Guppy has a great point about the ph. My loaches come from an lfs that shares very similar water to me, so I havn't encountered that problem. Scottish water is quite soft as well, which definetly helps my Clowns.

 

[DeLgAdO]

I bought a 3" clown 2 days ago because I have a small snail prob. Last night I noticed my loach was tipping over. He was breathing very fast and all my other fish were acting normal. My water parameters are right on. Water has been constant numbers since I got my tank running. In my canister I have carbon and sponges. Do you think it was the media that I have that killed him. I want to know because I am planning on getting another but want to have the correct set up for him.

was the fish a recent arival to the lfs you got it from?

 

[DeLgAdO]

Your clown probably died of osmotic shock.... because your Gh is so high. Clowns would not normally be kept in that high of gh so make sure you take every precaution to acclimate any loach into your water. but IMO no loach will thrive in those water parameters.

your opinion is flawed

because i have two loaches (had 3) that thrive in water with a ph of 8.4 and water almost as hard as lake tanganyika

 

[squint]

I think you just nailed the prob. I didnt check the ph of the fish store, but I do remember angel fish and skeleton guppies (? you can see right threw them) on the side of the loaches (dif tanks but could have been the same water ph), and I did the drip method for just and HR.

It's not the sudden change in pH but the difference in dissolved ions that injures fish. Low pH water is usually soft and high pH water is usually hard. The difference can be expressed in TDS (total dissolved solids). Moving a fish from water with different TDS will damage or destroy the cells in the gills leading to respiratory distress and death within a short time.