Loaches Online Forum

thanks for 2 days I've added salt slowly, salt content in tank is now 1 tablespoon per 5 gallon, the temperature is also at 30 Deg.
They seem to be doing fine, i will monitor closely
I've bought a bottle of malachite green, but haven't used it.
thanks for the link

Went ahead with the salt treatment , my tanks salt content currently is at 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons, temp is at 90 Deg.
my clown loaches seem to be better already, the spots are not as many as before. but my adult severums look terrible , will observe and try to maintain temp and salt content for now. will try to update here.

In Chef's link I found a contraddiction.

ICH can remain dormant and hidden in your tank:
Very clearly not true. Ich does not have a dormant stage, and cannot go dormant. This myth was essentially created by the fact that people could not explain the existence of ich in a tank. The fact is that whether or not they had a visible outbreak, they did have ich actively going through the stages of life in their tank.

ICH can live on plants:
I would call this a half truth. Plants can be a vector for introducing ich in a tank. Ich will settle on many surfaces during the tomite stage. If you buy a plant from a tank with ich, and bring it home and plop it in your tank, you could very easily add ich to your tank. Then the ich hides for a year until you heater breaks your fish get covered with white spots, and you start to believe the spontaneous generation myth. Dip your plants in Potassium permanganate, or better yet quarantine them for a minimum of 3 days. I’d do the same with snails or anything else from another tank. Tank water from the LFS has a good likelihood of having free swimmers in it. Thus the advice of never dumping their water in your tank.

If it's true that: Ich does not have a dormant stage, and cannot go dormant. it is not possible that Then the ich hides for a year until you heater breaks your fish get covered with white spots, and you start to believe the spontaneous generation myth.

Or am I missing something?

I think by using the term"hides", he's saying that it may not be visible, but that doesn't mean that it's not there. It can be in the gills and sinuses etc. and still active, but not visible. possibly fought off by a healthy fish with a strong immune system so as not to multiply to the point of epidemic.

It's meant that generations of ich can hide on the host, like in the gills, and go unnoticed for an insurmountable amount of time. I guess he should of made that clearer.

About 3 years ago, I had a terrible ich experience that wiped out about 30 clown loaches. It happened after I quarantined some new tetras for a few weeks, where the ich went unnoticed. A few months after I added the tetras to the main tanks, my clowns had a severe ich infestation that caught me completely off guard.

Mad Duff, Mark, had a similar bad experience like that, where the ich hid for for about 6 months and ended up wiping out his loach tank.

Ich is like that at many LFS tanks also. Many fish at the LFS will show no signs of ich when you purchase them, but after you take them home they probably will have an ich outbreak if they had a hidden infection. If the fish weren't stressed much during the transport and acclimation period, then it's likely the ich will say hidden until there is a full blown outbreak or unless it was eradicated with prophylatic treatments.

2 of my loaches seem to be healthy again, though i haven't seen the 3 others for a while i added some pvc pipes for them to hide.
but my adult severums are also in bad shape really tempted to add a little malachite.
just checked, lost 1 of my loaches, 3 others seem to be fine now.

Thank you guys for making it clear for me

just my two cents:

i had a bad ich outbreak when i brought in 15 baby histies that i failed to notice had a few ich spots. they were put into a crowed tank as i got their own tank ready. because the tank was so heavily stocked ich spread like wild fire. i was raised the temp to 84, added a second airstone and was doing twice daily 25%+ water changes and rid ich treatments.

after 2 weeks of minimal success i added a pump and a UV clarifier and went to once a day water changes because i was worn out. i also stopped using the meds at this time. i saw an immediate improvement and all visibile signs of ich were gone in about 8 days and i continued to run it for another week to be safe. i didnt loose one fish and now the histies are in their own tank with a few yoyos and are happy and healthy.

good luck.

kimura wrote:just my two cents:

i had a bad ich outbreak when i brought in 15 baby histies that i failed to notice had a few ich spots. they were put into a crowed tank as i got their own tank ready. because the tank was so heavily stocked ich spread like wild fire. i was raised the temp to 84, added a second airstone and was doing twice daily 25%+ water changes and rid ich treatments.

after 2 weeks of minimal success i added a pump and a UV clarifier and went to once a day water changes because i was worn out. i also stopped using the meds at this time. i saw an immediate improvement and all visibile signs of ich were gone in about 8 days and i continued to run it for another week to be safe. i didnt loose one fish and now the histies are in their own tank with a few yoyos and are happy and healthy.

good luck.

thanks will try to add a UV filter for my loach tank