ich in clowns, what to do about meds
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:59 pm
* 3 clown loaches, 4-6 inches
* How long has the tank been set up for? 18 months in a 35, but just moved to 55 1 month ago
* Size of tank (dimensions and volume). 55 gal
* How is the tank being filtered? 2 powerheads on undergravel filter, plus 9 watt UV steralizer
* Water temperature. 86 for 4 days
* Your maintenance regime (e.g. how often water changes are carried out, what percentage of the water is changed each time, how often you clean your filter/s and how do you do this?) removed carbon as part of med treatment, water changes usually 20% every two weeks or so
* Has anything new been added to the tank recently? (fish, plants, live food, decor etc). yes, unfortunately I added 3 new cats without quarentining
* What other fish are in the tank? 2 large angels, 2 tetras, betta, and the new SA bumblebee cats which I think are dead
* As detailed a description as possible of the symptoms the fish are exhibiting (remember a photograph can speak a thousand words). ich
* How long ago the affected fish were added to the tank, and how long the fish have been displaying symptoms.
* Your current water parameters - ammonia 0, nitrate 20 ppm, pH 7.6, nitrite the tests strip is screwed up - reading green instead of pink, but we think this might be part of the problem
Thinking back, the clowns were probably sick before we moved into the new tank. Had a well established 35 gal., but it got a leak, so we moved everyone into a 20 that we had in the garage. Crowded but we were keeping the water clean while getting a 55 cycling. The clowns were hiding so much we thought that one or more might be trapped in a decoration. Finally got them out by blowing bubbles into the decoration, but this stunt probably stressed them pretty bad. Then we moved them into the 55. Went and bought some new fish to fill up the bigger tank. Didn't know loaches were so susceptible to ich, and didn't quarantine the new guys. The new ones started flashing after a few days. Sort of ignored it until the biggest clown started flashing on April 23. At that point, we raised the temperature first to 84 then to 86. We bought Ich Attach the same day and add a full dose twice a day, per the instructions, with the most recent dose this morning - the 14th treatment. Tonight one of the clowns looks almost dead - he has a very thick coat of white spots and was on his side not is the usually clown way but looking ill. We checked the powerheads to find that one was barely flowing. Added a bubbler and now we have alot of flow now across the top and the clown looks a little better.
We bought Coppersafe and added 1/2 strength dose tonight. Then we got on here and started reading more to see several people post not to mix meds. We are starting a large water change - the sticky suggests 50%.
Assuming we still have clowns in the morning, here are my questions:
1. How much water change, how often, for how many days
2. keep using Coppersafe? If not, then what - temperature and Ich Attach haven't worked. If yes, how much, how often?
3. Should we do gravel vac? (yes, I'm pretty sure) The tank is heavily decorated with rocks and plastic plants -should we move the stuff around to vac, or pull it all out until we solve the ich problem? Will lack of hiding places stress them worse?
We love our clowns and sure hope we can help them!
* How long has the tank been set up for? 18 months in a 35, but just moved to 55 1 month ago
* Size of tank (dimensions and volume). 55 gal
* How is the tank being filtered? 2 powerheads on undergravel filter, plus 9 watt UV steralizer
* Water temperature. 86 for 4 days
* Your maintenance regime (e.g. how often water changes are carried out, what percentage of the water is changed each time, how often you clean your filter/s and how do you do this?) removed carbon as part of med treatment, water changes usually 20% every two weeks or so
* Has anything new been added to the tank recently? (fish, plants, live food, decor etc). yes, unfortunately I added 3 new cats without quarentining
* What other fish are in the tank? 2 large angels, 2 tetras, betta, and the new SA bumblebee cats which I think are dead
* As detailed a description as possible of the symptoms the fish are exhibiting (remember a photograph can speak a thousand words). ich
* How long ago the affected fish were added to the tank, and how long the fish have been displaying symptoms.
* Your current water parameters - ammonia 0, nitrate 20 ppm, pH 7.6, nitrite the tests strip is screwed up - reading green instead of pink, but we think this might be part of the problem
Thinking back, the clowns were probably sick before we moved into the new tank. Had a well established 35 gal., but it got a leak, so we moved everyone into a 20 that we had in the garage. Crowded but we were keeping the water clean while getting a 55 cycling. The clowns were hiding so much we thought that one or more might be trapped in a decoration. Finally got them out by blowing bubbles into the decoration, but this stunt probably stressed them pretty bad. Then we moved them into the 55. Went and bought some new fish to fill up the bigger tank. Didn't know loaches were so susceptible to ich, and didn't quarantine the new guys. The new ones started flashing after a few days. Sort of ignored it until the biggest clown started flashing on April 23. At that point, we raised the temperature first to 84 then to 86. We bought Ich Attach the same day and add a full dose twice a day, per the instructions, with the most recent dose this morning - the 14th treatment. Tonight one of the clowns looks almost dead - he has a very thick coat of white spots and was on his side not is the usually clown way but looking ill. We checked the powerheads to find that one was barely flowing. Added a bubbler and now we have alot of flow now across the top and the clown looks a little better.
We bought Coppersafe and added 1/2 strength dose tonight. Then we got on here and started reading more to see several people post not to mix meds. We are starting a large water change - the sticky suggests 50%.
Assuming we still have clowns in the morning, here are my questions:
1. How much water change, how often, for how many days
2. keep using Coppersafe? If not, then what - temperature and Ich Attach haven't worked. If yes, how much, how often?
3. Should we do gravel vac? (yes, I'm pretty sure) The tank is heavily decorated with rocks and plastic plants -should we move the stuff around to vac, or pull it all out until we solve the ich problem? Will lack of hiding places stress them worse?
We love our clowns and sure hope we can help them!