okdodd
New Member
Hello,
I've got ich problem with my clown loaches. And I was wondering if there any way to treat ich without using medication like malachite green or anything that will dye the tank and kill the fish anyway?
I know loaches are the easiest target for ich and unfortunately I had to put them through the stress recently. I was doing cycling, vacuuming the gravel and adding some more décor to the tank, such as plastic plant and bog wood for my bn pleco. I think it caused the stress.
I lost the my first loach couple months before (just had tank for a month or so at that point), he was small little fish (1.5inch) and all by himself. Even with the ich he seemed fine in the community tank, but after reading lot's of information in internet, I QT him, thinking that's the best way to cure the poor guy and treated with RidIch+ (which was recommended for scale less fish)for 10 days. He didn't get better, but worse, I increased the cycle 12 hours instead of 24 and I think that killed it.
In a few months when my tank matured some more I finally decided to get clown loaches again (I love them for the personality) and this time to play safe I made sure that they didn't have signs of ich in the store and were much bigger, about 3". I've got 3 of them ( I call them 3 stooges
). They were fine, little shy at times, but very playful at night time. Then I did the cycling and after that I noticed the smallest has ich spots. I've read before that there is a way to do it only by raising temp (up to 96F) and adding salt, which I did. And 2 days after the spots fell off and loaches were happy as usual, swimming around digging gravel. Happy loaches I would say. I started slowly lower the temp towards 80, thinking that it will be still deadly for fallen ich, but have read that need to keep it up for a few days so got it up again. Came home from work and didn't see the loaches out, they usually hide inside one of the ornaments all togheter like we say in Russia "herring in the jar". So they were, but I noticed that their sticking out tails has ich again. Guess the temp and salt didn't really kill it. I do have RidIch+ left from the previous case of ich, but don't really want to use in my tank, I have 3 happy crabs and I know for inverts malachite green is not a healthy thing. My tank is really deep and to get the crabs out of the tank now would be a major pain. They are hard to catch.
I also not so much happy about green dye on tank décor and silicone, but this is secondary and not big of the issue if that's the only case to save my fish.
I would really appreciate the specialist advise in details as much as possible. Thanks and here are water stats:
Tank size: 65 Gal hexagon
pH: 6.5-7
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 80
kH: 80
gH: 120
tank temp: 96F at this moment
Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): white spots on the tails (can't see the rest of the body since they are hiding in the mouth of the Dragon decoration). Just lay inside the "cave", which is usually normal
Volume and Frequency of water changes: every 2-3 weeks
Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: no chemicals, I run bio filter and 1 undergrvel (used to be 2, but one broke)
Tank inhabitants: 6 Angels, 4 Danio (Zebras, Blue, Leopard), 1Bn Pleco, 2 red crabs, 1 fiddler crab and, of course, 3 clown loaches. No live plants except 1 moss ball.
Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): 1 plastic plant and a small piess of drift(bog) wood.
Here is the picture of the loaches right now:
Exposure to chemicals: nothing except aquarium salt
I've got ich problem with my clown loaches. And I was wondering if there any way to treat ich without using medication like malachite green or anything that will dye the tank and kill the fish anyway?
I know loaches are the easiest target for ich and unfortunately I had to put them through the stress recently. I was doing cycling, vacuuming the gravel and adding some more décor to the tank, such as plastic plant and bog wood for my bn pleco. I think it caused the stress.
I lost the my first loach couple months before (just had tank for a month or so at that point), he was small little fish (1.5inch) and all by himself. Even with the ich he seemed fine in the community tank, but after reading lot's of information in internet, I QT him, thinking that's the best way to cure the poor guy and treated with RidIch+ (which was recommended for scale less fish)for 10 days. He didn't get better, but worse, I increased the cycle 12 hours instead of 24 and I think that killed it.
In a few months when my tank matured some more I finally decided to get clown loaches again (I love them for the personality) and this time to play safe I made sure that they didn't have signs of ich in the store and were much bigger, about 3". I've got 3 of them ( I call them 3 stooges
). They were fine, little shy at times, but very playful at night time. Then I did the cycling and after that I noticed the smallest has ich spots. I've read before that there is a way to do it only by raising temp (up to 96F) and adding salt, which I did. And 2 days after the spots fell off and loaches were happy as usual, swimming around digging gravel. Happy loaches I would say. I started slowly lower the temp towards 80, thinking that it will be still deadly for fallen ich, but have read that need to keep it up for a few days so got it up again. Came home from work and didn't see the loaches out, they usually hide inside one of the ornaments all togheter like we say in Russia "herring in the jar". So they were, but I noticed that their sticking out tails has ich again. Guess the temp and salt didn't really kill it. I do have RidIch+ left from the previous case of ich, but don't really want to use in my tank, I have 3 happy crabs and I know for inverts malachite green is not a healthy thing. My tank is really deep and to get the crabs out of the tank now would be a major pain. They are hard to catch.I also not so much happy about green dye on tank décor and silicone, but this is secondary and not big of the issue if that's the only case to save my fish.
I would really appreciate the specialist advise in details as much as possible. Thanks and here are water stats:
Tank size: 65 Gal hexagon
pH: 6.5-7
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 80
kH: 80
gH: 120
tank temp: 96F at this moment
Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): white spots on the tails (can't see the rest of the body since they are hiding in the mouth of the Dragon decoration). Just lay inside the "cave", which is usually normal
Volume and Frequency of water changes: every 2-3 weeks
Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: no chemicals, I run bio filter and 1 undergrvel (used to be 2, but one broke)
Tank inhabitants: 6 Angels, 4 Danio (Zebras, Blue, Leopard), 1Bn Pleco, 2 red crabs, 1 fiddler crab and, of course, 3 clown loaches. No live plants except 1 moss ball.
Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): 1 plastic plant and a small piess of drift(bog) wood.
Here is the picture of the loaches right now:
Exposure to chemicals: nothing except aquarium salt
