Am I taking the right procedure...

[MissClaire]

Hello...
Just curious, I noticed my clown loach with two white spots, ive turned the temp up to 28 and turned all lights off.
Should I administer my white spot rememdy at half dose?
Or is it at a stage that I dont have to treat it yet and see how I go with the above procedure....

 

[Angry_Platy]

add the medication at 1/2 dose....

what is the purpose of turning the lights out? is it to reduce stress?

 

[MissClaire]

I thought I read somewhere to turn the lights off.....

 

[Bignose]

The parasite that is Ich doesn't have an eyespot, so the lights dont help there. The lights off may help your fish if he appears stressed. You have to add something to kill the parasite when it is in its free swimming stage, in its other phases it is not vulnerable. If the infestation is not bad (two spots probably isn't terrible) you can attempt to kill it with just heat, but you have to watch that method very carefully -- it used to be old knowledge that at 86 deg F Ich would we stressed enough to die, but there have been several reports about Ich strains that survive about 90 deg F nowadays -- higher than most tropical fish can stand for as long as it takes for ich to get through all its life cycles. So, if you choose not to medicate and only use heat, you have to watch closely.

My understanding is that clown loaches are very intolerant of salt, so be sure to advoid that route.

If you dont know about the stages of Ich, do a Google search, or Skeptical Aquarist's site has very detailed information about Ich and its lifecycle.

 

[shrimpster97]

everyone calls it Ich but its really Ick.

 

[Jen]

everyone calls it Ich but its really Ick.

the scientific name is Ichthyophthirius - hense Ich