hi everyone..

one of my clown loaches is acting real weird... he spends a lot more time hiding than usual (usually he's the most active out of my 3 clowns) and i also noticed fast breathing... very fast breathing.........

oh and because he hides all the time, he doesnt come out during feeding time..

water parameters are good.. other fish are healthy..

whats wrong with him? and how can i make him better?

any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.. thx.. :roll:

well i dunno wat happened but i found him stuck inside my tall grass plant 2 days after he disappeared (i thot he vanished or something)

i let him out.. he was very weak.. and lays on his side most of the time..

still breathing and occasionally he moves to a different area..

i use melafix in the tank and i think he's recovering..

is he eating morz?

If you can separate him from the other fish and feed him little and often .....he may eat frozen bloodworms if he's not interested in other things and let us know how he's doing

sue

Is something attacking him? Is he the smallest of the clowns? They are very prone to white spot when stressed.

i can't separate him because i dont have another tank..

he doesn't eat whenever i see him but i think he's scavanging in the gravel when he's hungry :-?

yeah he is the smallest clown i have... i really dont think anyone is attacking him and he doesnt have white spot..

i saw him in the front area of the tank this morning.. he's rather skinny but i can see he's getting stronger..

hardly ever on his side now, wobbling around upright..

i think the melafix is working :lol:

Sounds good, keep us posted on his progress. Clowns are pretty tough fish but difficult to treat. Good luck!!

oh no he's gone weak again.. i separated him into a small breeding trap thing... so the others wont rub against him so much...

i see what is wrong now...

his bone is sticking out from under his eye.. there is a shield type bone that is very thin starting from the mouth and extends to just under the eyes.. (go to the URL at the bottom of this msg, in the pic, the yellow part of the fish is the shield - this is just a pic of my other clown)

does anyone know how this can be healed?

its just the part that goes around under his eye that has come out of the skin......

to see the pic, COPY AND PASTE the following URL:

http://www.geocities.com/aduhkepepet/sheild.jpg

It's probably the protective spikes clown loaches have in that position. When a clown loach is being threatened or a larger fish tries to eat it, it sticks these spikes out as defence. They are razor sharp so don't get your fingers near them. Are the spikes sticking out all the time?

It's probably stressed out at being moved. I'd let it back into the tank. The other fish rubbing against him won't cause a problem as clown loaches are very social and do this all the time normally. Try releasing it and see if it pulls its spikes back in.

If a fish is showing signs of recovery, don't muck with it. They often stress out really easily and that on top of being weak isn't good.

no the spikes dont come out all the time.. only when i'm near.. i guess he feels threatened by me

ok i'll let him out in the morning.. gently... :roll: poor fishy..

thanks for the advice

my clown passed away by this morning..

sorry to hear that morz and sorry we could not be of more help.