skinny disease

Question
It's me again...I can't seem to catch a break.  I have had a 36 gallon tank set up for about 8 months. My pH is 7.2 and my ammonia and nitrite levels are good.  I just lost 3 angels about 3 weeks ago to Discus Plague and now I am beginning to see signs of skinny disease in my clown loaches.  I have 2 clown loaches that were both doing very well up until a couple of days ago.  I came home the other day and I found one on its side about to die and very skinny.  Sure enough later that evening he died.  When I looked at the other clown loach he seemed very thin up top to where it looked like his bone was sticking out of his back.  He is also rubbing himself up against the driftwood in the tank like he is itchy.  A few questions.  Does this sound like he has skinny disease?  How can I cure it?  Why do my fish keep getting sick if I am doing my proper water changes and water quality is good?

Answer
Hi Derek;

Clown Loaches are very sensitive. If there is anything at all going on they usually feel it first. They are also quite prone to internal parasites. This will cause them to become emaciated. Feeling uncomfortable could cause them to scratch too. Go to; http://www.loaches.com/faq_parasites.html for more info. Clown loaches also sometimes require live food or at least frozen foods like bloodworms, brine shrimp or others. If they were imported they may not like dried diets if that's what you feed now.

Sometimes in spite of our efforts of good maintenance our fish become sick. If they are already infected before we get them there is really nothing more we can do. Especially if physical damage has occurred that we cannot see. The angel deaths and clown loach illness are probably totally separate problems. Just bad luck I guess. I'm so sorry this is happening to your fish.

I hope he feels better soon......

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins