Clown Loaches ich treatment

[vwman]

Hi,
I have 6 clown loaches.I have them for about a week now. I love these fish already. I think that I have ich on one of the loaches. I have turned the temp. 83 deg. I have done some research on the topic,and still continue.
I decided to go with the salt method with high temp.
My first question is do have to take out the carbon filter with the salt method?

My second question how high should I go with the temp.(I have barbs and a pelco).

Last guestion I was thinking of flushing the clown down the can. I bought these fish for a good deal.A lot more are at the LFS. Right now I have him foating in a fish bag. If I flushed him and treat the talk would that be a good option.


Thanks people

[mikev]

Hi,

Carbon filter can stay, it has nothing to do with salt.

I went to 85F when faced the same problem (some people suggest higher). If it is a common pleco he will be fine. In all cases, adding a second airstone when treating would not hurt (higher temp-->low oxigen). Barbs may get ich too, so you need to treat them anyway.

On Meds: different people have different strategie and favorite meds.

My own (which worked perfectly so far) is
1. High temp.
2. 1/4 dosage of salt
3. 1/2 dosage of Ich Guard
(observe that Ich Guard is NOT recommended for Loaches, but in 1/2 dosage it is fine and more effective than their weakened formula, Ich Guard II).

If this is what you do, then carbon filter must be out.

Two main things: no full dosage of salt & no experimentation with other Ich meds unless someone confirms that they are safe --- some of them kill faster than ich.

HTH

PS. I don't understand what you meant by "flushing", hopefully you don't mean to kill the clown with ich. Not only it is really immoral, it also would not help you much -- you have infection in the tank and unless cured, it will probably spread to the rest in 1-2 ich repro cycles.

[vwman]

Thank you for the suggestions. Thank you also for setting me straight. I was not thinking right. Yes I did me flush him down the toilet. That is very immoral!! I will treat him with the rest of the fish.My problem is that I do not have a second some tank to treat the fish.(SOME DAY). My tank is a 65 gal.
I do have a power head pointing at the top the water level.Also I have a HOB filter with the water level down a little.

[mikev]

You are very welcome.

Remember that with ich it is not just a fish that is infected, but the entire tank; so having another tank would not change the things much.

Yes I did me flush him down the toilet. That is very immoral!! I will treat him with the rest of the fish.

If it is absolutely necessary to put down a fish, there are kinder ways.

And I really wish I had a toilet like this....one you can recover a fish from.

One time with a gourami...(I guess some would know the rest of the story already).

[vwman]

I thought I do a follow up on my sick ich clown loaches. It has been a 6 days since I increase the temp. to 86 deg and added salt to the tank.
The first loach that I believe to have ich I notice has one spot on his fin this morning. I have had 4 out 6 loaches got ich. Last night one died on me. This
morning I had a second
My water is Ok-nitrates less then 15ppm.
I guess my planes are to wait tell the end of the week before a maybe try something else, like meds.

I wonder if it's not ich at all?
Does anybody have any imput?
Thanks

[mikev]

Salt as the sole medicine *may* work, especially if you start the treatment very early (when you got the loaches, not when you saw ich).

If you still see symptomes now, I'd assume it is not working, and it is the med time.

I, personally, would go with Ich Guard at half the recommended dosage, but if you look around this forum you will see others recommending other meds. There is no way to know which one is really better, this is happening because there are too many Ich meds and everyone would stick to whichever worked for him before.

The only possible use of salt now is this: if you have a very heavily infested loach, giving him a short-term salt bath (30 mins in a separate container) may help.

I wonder if it's not ich at all?

Based on your description, it is. If you are really in doubt, post some photos.

hth

[vwman]

Thanks mikev for the help. I think I will start using the meds after bringing the temp down slowly.
I also read that it may be a good idea to also treat for secondary infection at the same time. I have melafix. I'm going to check to see if it is ok to mix with super ich.
I should also add that my barbs at this point have not got ich yet
Thanks again!

[mikev]

You are very welcome.

BUT: with most (all?) meds higher temp should be maintained.

[vwman]

Second following up,
My clown loaches are doing well. The sign of visible ich was Fri night.
I used Super Ick Cure. I'm following the instuctons on the bottle and it says to now do a 25% water change then install new carbon filter.
I quess my concern is that for what I have read the Swarmers or Thermonts should be trying to find a host at this stage. I also read that you not to stop treatment 2-3 days after the last signs of ich.
Will the meds still be affected to kill the swarmers at this stage?
Should I just go ahead to what the bottle suggest I do?
Or, should I maybe add some more meds?
FYI my temp. is at 82 deg.,Nitrates 10ppm and no other fish has got the ich yet
THanks

[mikev]

Sounds pretty good for the first time, congradulations!

I have not used SuperIckCure, so no exact advice is possible.

But one thing that is certain is that you don't install the carbon filter right now, you want the meds to continue their work.

It actually may be best to simply do nothing for a couple of days: the remaining meds will take care of the remaining ich. If everything goes ok, as more likely it will, you'll do you water change; if ich reappears, you go for another round of treatment.

hth

[shari]

I would continue treatment for as long as 5 days after ALL signs of ich are gone, flashing, and spots since you're right, it's the free swimming stage that will re-infect your fish if they aren't all killed of by the meds.

Hope it all clears up for you

[vwman]

Shari
Are you or anybody else ware if you can safely treat again with super ich cure?
I wonder if I try a 1/4 or 1/3 dosage?
I suppose I can keep an eye on the loaches to see how they do.
Thanks again for the input.That's what I love about this fourm everybody has had differnet past experience.

[shari]

I've never used super ich cure. Have used both rid ich and quick cure, at half strength and split the dose to give 1/2 in the am and 1/2 in the pm. I also did water changes with a gravel vac almost every day before dosing in the pm to suck out what I could from the gravel/sand.

Setting up a list of meds...hmmm...when the book comes out...