Loaches Online Forum

I recently had a battle with Ick in my tank. Yestrday I declared victory and today I noticed one of my Loaches breathing very fast and he's not swimming around with his pards anymore. So I gave another dose of Quick Cure to the tank. This Loach isn't the one which I saw the Ick on originally.
I've already gone through four water changes(all 50%)bi-daily and one drop per 2 gal. every day of Quick Cure. My fish seemed to be healed until this. They are in a 100 gal with two of the large style Penguin Emperor Bio-Wheel set ups and a power head that's set up to add tons of air bubbles.
Does anyone have any suggestions or comments?
Did I do the right thing by continuing the meds?

Please advise,
jk

What temperature are you keeping the tank at, jk?

Emma

My water temp. has been at 84*F. for about a week . That's as high as I can get it wth the heater I'm using. I usually run it at 82*.

Just because he was breathing rapidly does not necessarily mean you're still dealing with ich. It could be from ich in the gills, but that is unlikely if you have been treating for two weeks or more. How long did you treat?

Or it could be something totally different. Sometimes treating one thing causes another to surface. The ich could have come along as a symptom from an underlying problem that is still there. Threes really no way I could guess what that might be, though.

With the amount of airation you have in there it seems unlikely that you're having trouble with oxygen but thats still a possibility with that medication since it lowers oxygen saturation. Is there a lot of surface agitation or is it mainly bubbles?

EDIT: I just saw your reply to Emmas question. The higher temperature will also increase their need for oxygen.

TammyLiz, I have been treating the tank for about 7 or 8 days.
There is some surface agitation , my power head runs under one of bio wheels and helps disperse those bubbles as well as its own.
My Clown whos breathing fast is down in a cave . I can see him with a flashlight and he's stll breathing fast. Should I point the Power Head down at the cave to help get bubbles in there.

Actually it is the movement on the surface that increases oxygen exchange more than anything else. Point your powerhead at the surface so that it ripples as much as possible.

If it was only for a week then you should continue treatment for ich. Since the medication can't kill it at all stages you can't be sure after only a week that all of it had yet entered into that stage while medication was in the tank. Two weeks is the amount of time I keep hearing by those who have had an unfortunate amount of experience with ich.

Thanks TammyLiz,
In that case I will continue to treat them.
Thanks again

jk wrote:I recently had a battle with Ick in my tank. Yestrday I declared victory and today I noticed one of my Loaches breathing very fast and he's not swimming around with his pards anymore. So I gave another dose of Quick Cure to the tank. This Loach isn't the one which I saw the Ick on originally.
I've already gone through four water changes(all 50%)bi-daily and one drop per 2 gal. every day of Quick Cure. My fish seemed to be healed until this. They are in a 100 gal with two of the large style Penguin Emperor Bio-Wheel set ups and a power head that's set up to add tons of air bubbles.
Does anyone have any suggestions or comments?
Did I do the right thing by continuing the meds?

Please advise,
jk

Hi there, sorry to hear about your ick troubles. I can relate. I dealt with it a little over a month ago. I treated my tank for close to a month with Ick Guard II and it did the trick.

First of all, I am by no means an expert, however, I have heard of strains of ich being resistant. I would continue to medicate but switch to another med. If it were me I would use the regular Ick Guard at half dose.

The key to beating ick is understanding the cycle. I don't know how to post the link or I would, so sorry, but if you google it you should find it. From what I understand you need to catch it in its free swimming phase. There is a sticky on the subject here on lol that explaines it.

Good luck and I would deffinantly consider switching meds to avoid a resistant strain which you may or may not have.

Best of luck to you. Ick is Icky, hehe!

Hang in there,
Krista

Thanks for the reply Krista,
I did read the sticky about ick and thats pretty much what I've been going by. I've already done everything the sticky says to do and it specifically mentions use of the Quick Cure med that I'm using too. So, I don't know, I'm just going to keep on medicating and doing water changes 'til they all look healthy again.

jk wrote:Thanks for the reply Krista,
I did read the sticky about ick and thats pretty much what I've been going by. I've already done everything the sticky says to do and it specifically mentions use of the Quick Cure med that I'm using too. So, I don't know, I'm just going to keep on medicating and doing water changes 'til they all look healthy again.

Thats all you can do. Best of luck to ya, I am sure you will beat it in the end! hehe!

Kirs