Some unpleasant news.....The other day I found a rasbora dried up on the floor. I have no idea when it jumped but it must have been a few days, the fish was very dry. I was so absorbed by the clown loaches I hadn't counted the harlequins in a good while. I do have a tank cover because fish have jumped out from this small tank before but because of the external filter, it doesn't fully close and there are big gaps all around. I was thinking of keeping the rasboras in this tank for good but after that I changed my mind. They're only 6 of them now but they'll do better in the bigger tank.
I've been more concerned about the pale loach. He is still not an orange colour and yesterday I noticed he's visibly smaller now than the second loach, obviously not growing as he should. The colour difference is also still very visible with the healthy loach being dark orange now and the pale being yellow. Both have dark black stripes though so I am not talking greying out here. I did take pictures and video but my front glass is still covered in algae so its hard to really see.
Besides that, both loaches are active and lively and are out all the time. They are also not hiding during water changes either but get excited and start searching for food as I feed them at this time and they've figured it out. In fact the rasboras start "imitating" a feeding behaviour the moment I turn off the filters and shoot to the surface thinking there's food. I feed the rasboras flakes so I guess that's why.
The pale loach has improved a bit colour wise since the video a few posts back but he's still yellow, just a more solid and not so "whitish" sort of yellow. On Wednesday a couple of days ago I decided to treat with praziquantel(fluke solve). This morning it dawned at me I never removed the carbon pads that I put after the kanamycin sulfate a few weeks ago but I am hoping its not active anymore....or so people say about carbon because I was never a user of it....
I am still doing a water change every second day as I see it as being a major contributor to actually keep get this loach to where he is now and keep it alive, and hopefully get him to a normal health one day. Shape wise he is not rounded but he's not skinny either. I don't see either a sunken stomach or it being pinched around the head, not yet..He's just visibly smaller and not growing. The other loach is wider in girth also besides now being a bit longer too and they were both the same small skinny size. .I just won't be certain of anything until at least the colour improves to orange. But he's been acting pretty normally otherwise.
Poor thing definitely wants to live because he was in that poor pale condition in the fish shop for weeks too before I bought him. And it was the reason why I didn't buy him when I saw him the first time but since he stayed alive till the next time I visited....I now have trouble on my hands
The praziquantel is just very safe to try on loaches, having tons of shrimp too in the tank, and loaches are known to carry trematodes from the wild so the cycle needs breaking. It may not help but its worth a try at this stage. Fingers crossed for a lively and seemingly sick loach to pull through.