Loaches Covered In White Stuff! What Is It?!?

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mike_nofx

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I noticed today that ALL my clown loaches are covered in this white stuff. No other types of fish seem to have it. I also have angels, BGK's, bristlenoses and khulis.

water parameters are all fine. I have no plants in the tank. i keep the water at 26degrees celicus. i dont turn the lights on for very long each day (as BGK's dont like it, and i have no plants).

I dont know if this could be whitespot, as i have never seen it before. But i dont think it is, as no other fish have it.

Here is a picture:
 

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Loaches are very prone to whitespot and yes this is what you have. The other fish will eventually start to show signs unless to treat the whole tank to kill the parasite.
 
You will need to treat the whole tank - and accordingly. Have a look at the pinned topic. Add as much extra aeration as possible - filters, venturi's airstones - anything that comes to hand. That is a very advanced stage and requires immediate action.

Good luck :good:

Ps: some fish appear not to be affected to it - I've seen this many a time. The fish are either immune and can fight it off, or are infected in a very low levels not visible to the eye. Sometimes you can lose fish that don't even appear to be infected.
 
Actually 2 of my tiny angels died this week. One today and one 2 days ago. possibly related.

I have started treatment for whitespot, by turning up the temperature to 30 Degrees Celcius (86f).
As it is night time here, i will have to wait till tomorrow to buy any medication/treatments. (probably have to be tomorrow afternoon). But from what i understand, the parasite is unable to be killed at this stage anyway, so it dont matter.

One thing i am not 100% sure on, is when exactly to medicate. Do i wait until NO whitespot is visible on ANY fish, then medicate? How long should i expect this to take? (yes i did read the pinned topic, i just want to be certain).

Also, when can i turn the temperature back down?

Thanks for all the help! i am so worried!

Hope there are no more deaths this week!
 
Actually 2 of my tiny angels died this week. One today and one 2 days ago. possibly related.
Without a doubt related and cause of death - even if they showed not a single spot.
Yes it matters - the sooner you take action the better. They don't all develop at the same rate - so it's crucial that you treat asap.
Treat exactly as prescribed (don't know what best meds in Oz are) and treat for full term. Sometimes 2 courses of treatment is needed - or longer even.
I also suggest a very good gravel vac and water changes before medicating.

Lower temperature when treatment is over and ICH is obviously gone..

Good luck :good:
 
When I said 'it dont matter' i was refering to the fact that i have no medication here right now, but i will have to buy it tomorrow as shops arent open right now. It dont matter because treatment would do nothing at this point, the only thing i can do is turn up the temp until the parasite enters the next stage of its life, then i can medicate. Or have i got it all wrong>

But i will get treatment asap.

Thanks
 
I understand you don't have the medication to treat right now - so from that point of view the only thing you can do is provide extra aeration and raise the temperature. But if you had the medication right now, and could have started treatment right away - it could possibly make a difference. There is a life cycle yes - but not all the parasites are exactly on the same level of the cycle. Make sense ? (so there would already be some you could "catch").

That aside, you are clearly doing the best you can right now and that's great.
 
Thank you, and yes now that does make sence!
Aeration is high, with a 4-5" stone disc. and the filter outlet makes quite a lot of water movement and bubbles.

When i buy the medication, i will buy enough for now, and enough for the future incase it happens again.

I have NO medications at all! maybe i should buy a few different medications incase anything else happens.

Thanks for the very helpful advice!
 
With loaches in the tank, you should only dose 1/2 of the reccomended dose, since loaches are scaleless and therefore more sensitive to medications. In their already weakend state, a full dose of meds could do them in. For ich on loaches, I have successfully used a medication with the ingredients malachite green and formalin, at half dose, added once a day for two weeks. With this med you have to turn the lights out while you're treating. I have been told the lights deactivate the malachite green. I hope they make it. That picture looks terrible. :-(
 
I would not advise half dosing - unless it says so. I have medicated at full strength with loaches and never lost one. Half dosing createst super strains of ICH.
 
This may help it is from
Loaches Online

From: Stuart Kahl

BEFORE TREATMENT, YOU NEED TO KNOW IF YOUR FISH CAN HANDLE THE ENVIRONMENTS. I HAVE PERSONALLY TRIED THESE WITH CLOWN LOACHES WITH NO PROBLEMS:

Increase the temperature slowly to 86 degrees F (try not to go more than 4 degrees F/day). Ich can not survive easily in temperature > 86 degrees F. Leave it at this temperature until you are sure that the fish are healthy (1-2 weeks?).

While you are increasing the temperature, add salt at a rate of 2.75 teaspoons of salt per gallon divided over a 3 day period. Make sure you use synthetic sea salt or non-iodized table salt (much cheaper). When doing water changes, make sure that you replace the salt at the same level. Keep the salt level at 2.75 tsp/gal for 2 weeks before reducing through water changes.

NOTE: Although Clown loaches did fine with this treatment, Corys do not necessarily do well as I have lost some with this treatment. I learned about this treatment in TFH magazine and was told that this treated 6 of 7 (?) known parasites (ich included). You should also be able to use many of the ich medications with the salt treatment, but be careful about your salt level since many times much of the ich medication is salt.
 
The key to half dosing is to do if for two weeks. Most ich medications say three days or something insanely short for their dosing levels. Like I said, I've done it and it worked, but I hadn't let it get that bad before treating. The longstanding members of the forum connected to the webpage quoted above by twotankamin, do advise half doses of medications for loaches, as well. Of course, it's your choice. Just trying to be informative. Malachite green and formalin do slightly suppress the bacterial colony, so thats another reason why I like half dosing with that med. I can't speak for other meds since I have not personally tried anything else on ich. I've only ever had it come up twice.

Have you done a big water change? You should really do that. Getting the nitrates down below 20 will probably help them out as well.
 
Well not sure about the USA, but one of the market leading most popular brands here in the UK is Interpet no. 6 Anti Whitespot + where you treat for a week (at full strength) and another week if need be. I once battled a 2 week war against ICH and treated my whole tank (with loaches) at full strength with no losses. It does not recommend half dosing either.

Waterlife Protozin is another leading brandname over here - similar thing.
 

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