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Clown Loach Wasting/Skinny disease


crazyzoo

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Hmmm.. I just rang the LFS inquiring about whether they had aviverm. They asked what kind of bird it was so then I told them it wasn't for a bird but a fish.. the girl goes... ...oooook.. why? So I told her that I had been recommended this product and she went and got the manager lady who told me to certainly NOT use levamisole. She advised to get droncit instead??

AArrgh I hate getting confliciting advice.

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I have done a bit more checking. This Chronic Wasting Syndrome is usually caused by poor water quailty and is easlily transfered to humans. Perhaps I should try and catch it? might be a good diet apart from the death part.

Most recomended treatment is Metronidazole so you may need to sweet talk your vet.

Fresh as in freshly dug out of the ground or freshly purchased from the supermarket

It doesnt matter to much if the garlic is freshly dug up or store bought.

Fresh garlic doesn’t smell much at all. When it is crushed or juiced a chemical reaction happens, that is why the smell gets so powerful so quickly after cutting it.

It takes about 5 minutes for the reaction to peak and lasts around an hour before slowly fading. After this the garlic looses it potency as a de-wormer.

The smell stays for a while and it still useful as an attractant to entice fish to feed.

Tablets, crushed, pre processed and mixed into frozen food mix garlic will still work to fix internal problems but only at a small % of how good it is when fresh.

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I have done a bit more checking. This Chronic Wasting Syndrome is usually caused by poor water quailty and is easlily transfered to humans. Perhaps I should try and catch it? might be a good diet apart from the death part.

Most recomended treatment is Metronidazole so you may need to sweet talk your vet.

It doesnt matter to much if the garlic is freshly dug up or store bought.

Fresh garlic doesn’t smell much at all. When it is crushed or juiced a chemical reaction happens, that is why the smell gets so powerful so quickly after cutting it.

It takes about 5 minutes for the reaction to peak and lasts around an hour before slowly fading. After this the garlic looses it potency as a de-wormer.

The smell stays for a while and it still useful as an attractant to entice fish to feed.

Tablets, crushed, pre processed and mixed into frozen food mix garlic will still work to fix internal problems but only at a small % of how good it is when fresh.

Thanks for that Bilbo! Good to know about the garlic. Is metronidazole not easy to obtain?.. wait.. my vet sends me dog & cat worming tablets every 3-4 months, I wonder what they are...

I don't understand the poor water quality bit. I have vastly improved my tank maintenance this year, I've gone from one water change every 1-2 weeks to doing 1 bucket (approx 20 litres) every couple of days. I gravel vac everytime although not very deeply as I don't want to disturb the plant roots too much. I don't have any issues with pH, ammonia, nitrates or nitrites.

I am looking at getting a canister filter though so might this improve this if poor water quality is infact the issue?

Why does not not affect the other fish though? Is this something exclusive to loaches? Perhaps they are just more susceptible?

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Grrrrrr! Just got home and checked on here to see what dosage I should be doing for the drontal - according to a few posts I've read on here I shouldn't be using it. Anyone need some drontal? cost me $18.90! Could use it on my dogs but both dogs are over 10kgs and this is only for 10kg or under dogs.

Can anyone tell me why we shouldn't use drontal for worming fish? I understand it has extra ingredients (my packet says pyrantel embonate & febantel). Are these extra ingredients going to harm my fish?

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The medication should be droncit. Drontal has that other guff in it that I dont think is safe. Sorry that your vet gave you poor advice and sold you the wrong stuff. Chalk it up to experience perhaps.

PM me if you cant get metro locally and still want some.

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The medication should be droncit. Drontal has that other guff in it that I dont think is safe. Sorry that your vet gave you poor advice and sold you the wrong stuff. Chalk it up to experience perhaps.

PM me if you cant get metro locally and still want some.

She's not a vet. just the owner of a pet shop. I dislike her very much, and wish I didn't have to shop there but have little option when it comes to buying fish supplies locally. I'm totally taking the drontal back to the store and asking for a refund.

I did end up ringing the vet yesterday and discussed the metro, she was a bit confused but said she would do some research and see what she could find out about the disease and possible treatements.

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if you can separate him & throw food at him. it worked for me.

I have managed to separate him! Sneaky lil bugger wasn't too happy to be caught though. He's had a big feed of bloodworm and is checking out his new lil tank. The current created by the filter in the AR380 might be a bit much for him though.. any idea how to slow that down?

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There is no outlet pipe as such on the AR380. The spray bar is the same as the larger versions, but instead of trickling along to an outlet pipe at the opposite end of the powerhead, it trickles out a series of small holes directly below where the spray bar is located. I posted another topic about it and Zev has offered a solution so hopefully I've got it sorted.

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having a higher water level should also help.

I have an AR380 as well but my fish seem to be ok in it as there are lots of hidey places out of the way of direct turbulance.

Even my female betta copes well and is not bothered at all.. except she has had to learn to dive for her bloodworms before the guppys get them! I usually hand feed her first though.

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Ok so now I have my hands on a Droncit tablet (50mg Praziquantel).

I searched for the dosage and found 2mg per litre to be the most recommended dosage rate. The instructions I found were as follows:

Dissolve tablet in tank water then add to tank. Wait 4 days then dose again. Wait another 4 days then do a 50% water change.

Does that sound right?

I've only got one tablet at this stage and the tank I'm intending to treat is an AR380 which is about 34 litres but I don't know the actual volume of water when taking in to account the gravel and two small bits of driftwood that are in there.

Will one tablet be ok for now?

I've noticed now one of my other Zebra Loaches that is still in the main tank is showing signs of becoming skinny. It has these "white protrusions" on both sides of the body that I can only describe as what looks like the skin being stretched over a bone and the bone is protruding, sort of like if you tightly clench your fist and look at your knuckles so I may have to catch and treat him too.

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So I chucked the tablet in last night and crossed my fingers. Fishy was still alive this morning so thats a good sign.

He's been in isolation for what..about 5 days now and I've been feeding like a small shrimp pellet in the mornings and some bloodworms at night. He seems to be getting fatter so I think things are looking good so far. :bounce:

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  • 2 weeks later...

:cry: Zebra Loach had to be euthanised on Saturday morning. I found him hanging out on top of the suction cup for the heater and thought he was just hanging out. His eye looked kinda funny, but I didn't think too much of it. I poked him out to get a better look and he swam under the driftwood so couldn't get a better look at him. Went away and came back later and found him lying on his side with his underside visible against the glass. One of his gills looked a bit red and swollen, he was breathing rapidly and there was white stuff around his gills. I tested the water for ammonia and nitrates but nil ammonia and acceptable nitrates.

He was fine the night before I went to bed. He had filled out all nice & fat and swimming about happily. I thought I had saved his life... I guess not.

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  • 3 weeks later...

not really going to make much of a difference I'd say.

I feed mine hikari chchlid gold, aro pellets, spirulina flakes, colourbits, and other cichlid food.. etc... they don't really eat the pleco food but they have fun trying to break the tablets.

they do like cucumber though. especially the seeds.

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  • 5 weeks later...

looking at a clown loach the mouth is downward facing with little barbels

this would suggest they sift through the substrate looking for live foods to eat

which would make them primarily a carnivore with some vege content

are most wild caught still?

if so there is a possibility that some will not settle well to eating commercial foods

just some thoughts

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