Loaches Online Forum

Diana wrote:Marine salt is not pure salt. It has many minerals in it, and is intended to replicate ocean water.
I have use Sodium Chloride for medical treatments, but not marine salt.
Table salt (sodium chloride with anticaking ingredents and iodide) seems to work well, Kosher, Pickling, Aquarium, water softener (NaCl) and other salts without the anticaking stuff or Iodide work, too.
Note that water softeners do not all use sodium chloride.

Yes, right. By saltwater I didn't mean saltwater, but rather water with kosher salt in it (1 tsp. per cup). I'd stay away from the stuff with anti-caking agents in it.

You know, even after keeping loaches for years and writing the Loach Book, I think there will always be something new to learn. Unfortunately the catalyst for some of these discoveries is desperation.

On the way home from work I went looking for Ich-X. The closest thing I could find was Kordon's Rid Ich Plus.

The little fella is still alive, but he's getting weak. Some of the cysts have begun to drop off, though it's clearly in his gills and his breathing is pretty labored. When I got home I changed most of the water in the Q-tank and dosed it with the Rid Ich Plus. I also gave him a 10 minute salt dip for the 3rd consecutive night. I've never taken such an aggressive dipping approach like this with any loach, much less a baby clown. But when it was clear he was getting a lot worse even while running the usual levels of salt and ParaGuard in his tank water, it was time for more drastic measures. I'm still not sure if he will survive this, but I'll keep fighting as long as he does.

Meanwhile the other fish in the Q-tank with him are faring a bit better. The baby kubotai clearly has ich, though not as bad as the clown, and the bumble bee gobies show no signs of the parasite at all.

To be continued.....


Robin

Good luck Robin. Hope he makes it. You are doing all you can.

One other thing to note that was new to me since I rarely use the malachite green or formalin based meds......one should not use a sulfinate-, or sulfoxylate-based dechlorinator (like Prime, Safe, AmQuel etc.) when treating with active, therapeutic dosages of chemical dyes such as methylene blue, acriflavine, potassium permanganate or malachite green. Or other oxidizing mediations likeformalin. It interferes with their proper performance and effectiveness of these medications.

There are only a couple of name brand dechlorinators out there that aren't sulfinate-, or sulfoxylate-based. The two that come to mind are "Ultimate" by Hikari and "Aqua Plus" by Hagen (though the latter is not terribly forthcoming re: the ingredients).