skinny clown loaches

[devder1]

i have 3 clown loaches at about 3" right now and they always look skinny
i will give a big feeding and they will have a belly for like 12 hours and then go back to being skinny
is this normal? i read the sticky about skinny disease and that got me worried

 

[ewurm]

Feed often, especially frozen food

 

[JakeH]

Yup. Almost all CL's are wild-caught & loaded with bugs. I de-worm my Loach pack every few months (I'm always adding new fish). I use API "General Cure" for external parasites, but that's the easy part. This is not 100% & your fish may skip a step or two, but in my experience, the following issues will present for most new Loaches:
BE READY FOR THESE
Week 1) Ick (I treat with CopperSafe so mine skip this step)
Week 3) Velvet (you will think its Ick at first, but this is my biggest issue & the reason I use CopperSafe)
Week 4) External Parasites (easy to treat with General Cure)
Week 4 & ongoing) Skinny Disease (IP's)- Treat with Garlic Extract & Jungle "Anti-Parasite" Medicated Food (alternating between the 2)

 

[devder1]

Yup. Almost all CL's are wild-caught & loaded with bugs. I de-worm my Loach pack every few months (I'm always adding new fish). I use API "General Cure" for external parasites, but that's the easy part. This is not 100% & your fish may skip a step or two, but in my experience, the following issues will present for most new Loaches:
BE READY FOR THESE
Week 1) Ick (I treat with CopperSafe so mine skip this step)
Week 3) Velvet (you will think its Ick at first, but this is my biggest issue & the reason I use CopperSafe)
Week 4) External Parasites (easy to treat with General Cure)
Week 4 & ongoing) Skinny Disease (IP's)- Treat with Garlic Extract & Jungle "Anti-Parasite" Medicated Food (alternating between the 2)

i started them off with high temp and salt so i didnt have any ich and i havent noticed any signs of external disease just this skinnyness, maybe i just need to feed more. i will try some garlic food and see what anti parasite food my lfs has

 

[Chromobotia]

I would wait on throwing any more medications into the tank.

How long have you had the loaches? How often do you feed them? I believe that your loaches will begin to fatten up if given enough time. It could be premature to start medicating for skinny disease if you haven't had them that long.

I've read up on this skinny disease and internal parisites and I personally am not an expert on the subject. I guess I'm lucky that I have 10 CLs and only had to treat once for Ich (knock on wood) and never for internal parisites. My only complaint about my loaches is that they are getting too fat, so I've cut down on their feedings.

 

[JakeH]

Clowns do get pretty fat! If you think you're dealing with IP's, go with Garlic Extract. It works miracles. If you prefer science to nature, PraziPro or homemade medicated food works. External parasite meds dont work very well on IP's, but probably weaken them a bit so the garlic can take them out.

 

[devder1]

i have started feeding more and put in a divider so theres not as much competition, one is still really skinny but the other two are looking better

 

[devder1]

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