Ich help!

[pcr4blunttopo]

I have 7 clown loaches ranging from 2-4 inches in a 55 gallon fish tank. I have been keeping them in this tank for almost a year now.

After 20 days quarantine, I added another clown loach into this tank two weeks ago. Unfortunately, I found ich on some of my loaches last thursday. I don't know what happened but I test the water, the nitrate was a little bit high (40 ppm) but other parameters were fine. I did 50% water change that night and increase the Tem. to 86F (30oC) within 24 hours.

Without seeing any mend, I decided to treat the tank with quick cure from Sat. morning. I took out the carbon and added 1 drop per 2 gallon water every other day and changed water every two days. The water Tem is still 86F.

But now it has been almost a week but the it's getting worse and worse. Some of my loaches got white spots covered all over the body, and they are hiding in the logs and didn't come out even in the morning feeding time.

I am so worried about my loaches but I don't know what to do right now. So I post here hopefully I can get some advise or suggestion.

Should I change to other medication? Should I add aquarium salt? Should I stop feeding them?

Any input or suggestion would be highly appreciated!

Thanks!

[chefkeith]

Most important thing to do is to continue the treatment of medications. Light feeding. Gravel vacs help also. Ich swarmers find a host faster in low flow areas, like in logs or caves. So you may want to remove any tight fitting caves where there is little water movement. Increase surface agitation and water flow in the aquarium.

I wouldn't add salt, at least not yet. Salt treatments require lots of time and patience. Salinity changes need to be done very slowly, which is why I don't recommend it unless you have a TDS meter and some knowledge of the fishes osmoregulation system. Medications are usually the safer route, but there are some super strains of ich that have some resistance to medications and/or salt.

It can take weeks to months to completely eradicate ich. If you get to the 4th week of treatment without any improvement, then it is time to remove the medication with activated carbon, then slowly salt over the coarse of a few days. Drip it in with a solution of salt water. Do not use aquarium salt. Use food grade salt, like Kosher salt or Canning Salt.

[glenna]

I had a BIG struggle a few months ago with ich in my 29 gallon which lasted over a MONTH!!!
I used rid-ich. At first I did half strength, then 2/3's strength and finally full strength..... and it eventually worked, but it took:

-very regular water changes (30-50% every other day, and for a while 25-40%% daily)

-gravel vacuum regularly (like with every other water change) to pick up fallen off ich-cysts

-temp to 84F ( i have other fish that I felt could not tolerate the higher temp)

I was getting really hopeless because despite my efforts things just seemed to get worse and worse (lost a VERY lovely loach to bad ich).

Anyway, what finally REALLY got things turned around was a UV sterilizer.
I did not spend a fortune...just got a "green killing machine" from the local PEtsmart - runs about $40. Shortly after that, things got a lot better. I continued the rid-ich for one full week after no signs of ich. Stll no ich in the tank Today, and I was REALLY very happy to not have to add salt, or any other medication.

By the way, the loaches handled the rid-ich really without missing a beat. I felt horrible each time I put it in the tank, but now my remaining (only one survived) loach is lonely but alive and physically seems very healthy!

Getting his new buddies healthy in quaranteen and by December hopefully all will be in the big tank!!!!

All I can say is ich is a hard road, but being really persistent seems to be the only way out for your fish.

[pcr4blunttopo]

Thanks chefkeith and glenna! I really appreciated your help!

I'll stick to the quick cure treatment first to see how it goes before I change to other things...

thanks again!

[Diana]

Glenna, you used Rid Ich at the same time as a UV?

When you were using Rid Ich the results were not so great. Ich kept reproducing, and growing more and more on the fish until you hit 100% dosing?

When did you add the UV?

I am trying to fine tune just what worked here:

There is a delay is the reproduction of Ich and you seeing it on the fish. If the treatment stopped all reproduction of Ich (by killing 100% of the babies) then you would still see new Ich on the fish for a few days. These got onto the fish before the treatment reached them. They grew for a few days before they were big enough for you to see.

Under-dosing medicine did not work. (you kept seeing Ich, more and more on the fish).

At some point you began 100% dosing.

At some point you turned on the UV.

When did you do each of these, and at what point did you realize that there were no new Ich showing up on the fish?

Side issue: I suspect that UV neutralizes some medications. My thought is that any medicine labeled 'Turn off tank light' is probably also going to be deactivated by a UV sterilizer.

[pcr4blunttopo]

sad update:

within the last two weeks treatment, I lost 5 clowns (2 smallest ones, 2 med ones and the biggest one). I am really frustrated!

The other 3 are hiding all time, didn't come out for a min. There are still white spots on one of the loach. I know they are very stressed. I don't know what to do now. I just the tem. back to normal (78F).

Too sad.

[Diana]

It may be time to change treatment.
Do two water changes of about 50% back to back, and run activated carbon for 24 hours to remove the old medicine and switch to a different treatment.

Heat and salt is well written up here at Loaches, and Rid-Ich is well thought of. Seems to be gentle enough for our delicate fish.

Lots of gravel vacuuming is important. Ich falls to the floor of the tank to reproduce, and the more you can remove this way the less there are to reproduce.

Ultra Violet sterilizer can help, especially if the tank is relatively open, not densely planted.

Removing or at least altering caves so there is no standing water under them can make a big difference. Ich seems to get on the fish in greater numbers in such a setting.

[chengwang114]

You could try super ick cure powder at 2/3 or 1/2 dose. Ich should be gone within 4 days. goQucik cure and high temp didn't work for me at all until I found this.

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ct ... ackets10pk

[pcr4blunttopo]

Thanks chengwang114 and Diana !

I will switch to something else to save the loaches left in my tank!

Hope they can make it.

[bob d]

I hesitate to butt in here as I haven't had much experience with ich in my years of keeping loaches. After my recent total wipeout I restocked the tank and (too late) spotted ich spreading rapidly. My eyes aren't what they used to be and the clowns were all hiding most of the time anyway, having just been put in the tank. I lost one good sized clown and the others were looking terrible. I dosed the tank with Protazin by Waterlife Products and the turnaround was dramatic. Within I think 3 days they were coming out, eating, and looking much better. They were still flicking so I added some slime coat promoter which stopped it straight away. They are all now back to good health. Email advice from Waterlife was that it was not necessary to do water changes while running the treatment. I'm a convert.

[Diana]

What is the active ingredient(s) in the Waterlife product?

[bob d]

Sorrry I can't help there as they don't list them on the bottle or the website. It is spelt Protozin BTW. I only know about it through a friend of mine who has been in the retail fish game for many years and swears by it. I've read some stuff on the net where it didn't seem to work for some, but it worked well for me.

[crazychris]

Hi. My first post here! I swear by Protozin too as does my lfs owner. I can honestly say that I've never lost a loach or any other fish for that matter, from whitespot. As soon as you see the spots use Protozin. You dose on days 1,2,3 and then 6. It's always worked for me and I've never used half-dose for my clowns and not lost one due to it.

I saw two clowns in the lfs one week, absolutely covered in white spot. He dosed them when I was there and they looked so bad that I didn't expect them to survive. The following week I went in and they were fine and no sign of the whitespot. They were definitely the same ones!

One thing is that if you have a healthy tank with clowns free from whitespot, don't buy any more clowns to add to it as you're likely to get an outbreak from the new one then.