new clown loach, one white spot-please help

[LK]

Hi, I'm very very new at fish-keeping, but learning. I have a 20 gallon tall with 2 juvenile dwarf honey red gouramis (ammonia 0, ph between 7.0 and 7.4). I am planning to upgrade to a 55 gallon early next year. I also have a hospital tank that currently houses an old, old gourami who was getting picked on by the young ones. So, seeing as my hospital tank is unavailable, I did something really dumb--I bought 3 clown loaches for the 20 gal. It was classic bad advice from the pet store guy. Granted the loaches are still very small (about 1.5 inches each), and like I said I will upgrade to a larger tank--now that I have the loaches this will be sooner rather than later. But everyone seems very happy for now. Except--and I know, I should have known this would happen--one loach had a single white spot on its tail fin the next morning after I bought it. I researched online and decided to be proactive. I bought Rid-Ich+, did a 25% water change, and dosed the tank a half dose. The next morning (this morning), there was no white spot. And none of the other fish have any white spots at all, and no one seems to be scratching on anything. But I did another 25% change and dosed again (about 3/4 of a full dose). My question is, how long should I keep up using Rid-Ich+ if the fish remain with no visible signs of ich? I don't like using the chemicals, but so far no one in the tank seems stressed out. Yet, it was just one and only one spot--maybe it was never ich in the first place? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[shari2]

If it was ick you should treat for several days, if not a week, after all spots are gone. Depending on the temp of your tank, the parasite can remain in the gravel and water in stages you can't see. To stop treating before you eradicate the free-swimming form risks the parasite becoming resistant to the med.

What temp is the tank? At cooler temps ich reproduces and navigates its life cycle more slowly than at warmer temps.

[LK]

Hi, thank you for the advice. The temperature is about 81 F. I'm in Hawaii, where we don't need heaters for tropical tanks, as long as our homes aren't air-conditioned, so I don't have a heater. Would you suggest buying one for the purposes of treating the ich? I just examined the all the fish again, and still no visible spots on anyone, making me wonder whether the original single spot was really ich. If it wasn't, do you think it'd still be safe to keep changing water and dosing Rid-Ich+ at half doses for another week? As a preventative? The Rid-Ich+ says it won't harm biological filters when used as directed, but I'm still worried.

[Diana]

I would continue treating as if it was Ich.
You are right, it might not have been, but if it was then it fell to the bottom of the tank, it is now releasing hundreds of baby Ichs into the water. By keeping the medicine properly dosed you are killing as many of these babies as possible, not letting them live long enough to get to your fish.
By doing as many water changes as you can you are removing the Ich from the tank, again, before it can infest the fish. Keep it up!

As for how long... at 81* Ich can reproduce rather fast, but just to be safe, do as Shari says: keep it up for a week.

While you are doing the water changes you will not likely see any ammonia or nitrites.
When the medication is finished continue the increased water changes to remove the medicine, and add fresh activated carbon to the filter.
I have used Rid Ich, and indeed it did not seem to affect the nitrifying bacteria. Test, anyway, just to be sure.

[LK]

Thanks so much for all the advice--I'll do as you've both suggested, and treat for a week. I really like my new loaches, and I want to see them pull through--they're worth the eventual upgrade to a larger tank!

[LK]

Hi, I'm the original poster of this question. Today is day 5 of doing a 25% water change and dosing my tank a half dose of Rid Ich+ (5 ml per 20 gal, as opposed to the 5 ml per 10 gal recommended on the bottle). The original white spot was gone on day 2, and no other white spots have appeared, and still no one is scratching or looking uncomfortable. However I just read this article http://www.aquamaniacs.net/forum/cms_vi ... php?aid=27 which says not to use Rid Ich+ at half doses. It says that Rid Ich+ is already of lesser strength than other similar meds and is ineffective at half doses. So, I wonder, should I go to full dose for the next 2 days (my intention being to continue treating through day 7)? Or should I maybe follow the "if it's not broken don't fix it" advice, and leave things as they are, finishing up through day 7 at half doses? Considering the lack of any other symptoms besides one white spot that disappeared in 24 hours, I have begun to doubt it was ich in the first place. After several days of obsessively observing the loaches, I see now that they have slightly iridescent tails--maybe it was just the way the light reflected that tricked my eye....

[LK]

Although, I should add that my husband saw the spot, too. So I guess there definitely was something on that fish's tail, but maybe not ich.