Terrible Dire State, I Don't Think There Is Anything Else I Can Do

[Tokis-Phoenix]

thanks tokis, since the remainder fish are still alive i will keep on medicating. I have read about the free swimming/post cyst stage, and hope the meds will do their work.
I guess it was just too virilant too quickly? my local LFS said that there are some virilant versions of ich around at the mo (??) I will keep on changing water and dechlorinate (is stresscoat good?)
Cheers, dean

Yeah there are supposed to be some nasty strains of whitespot going around, its a highly infectious desease by nature either way though and one of the most common plus lengthy to treat. The chances are that most of the fish were infected with the parasite a week after you bought the new fish, unfortunatly clown loaches can't deal with whitespot very well as they have very little defence against it in their imune systems.
In the future though, if you get paranoid about picking up whitespot again, it may be worth setting up a quarentine tank ? I know its expensive setting up spare tanks, but all it needs to be is 10gals unless you plan on buying some rather big fish in the future, and you can cycle it instantly if you run its filter alongside your cycled one in your main tank for a couple of days and then transfer it to the quarentine tank the day you get new fish . A quarentine tank can also be used as a hospital tank as well when you need it .

 

[DEANO72]

quarantine tank good idea...but if i run it alongside my cycled one, won't there be cross contamination of the water?

oops misread, setup quarantine BEFORE adding fish....cheers