Ich!

[Jefe]

One of my clown loach got ich I'm guessing it came front the fish store I got it from! I removed him but my red tail shark and the other loch I have seem to be rubbing them self on the sand but have no spots how can I treat the tank to prevent it!??

 

[Zimmanski]

One of my clown loach got ich I'm guessing it came front the fish store I got it from! I removed him but my red tail shark and the other loch I have seem to be rubbing them self on the sand but have no spots how can I treat the tank to prevent it!??

Don't treat until you know exactly what it is. You don't want to put your fish through the stress of treatment for no reason. Watch very carefully and wait, if you do see a white salt grain like spec then treat immediately. Either the temp method, salt and temp method or med method. Just be sure to pick one and stick with it, no flip flopping. I've used Kordons Rid Ich+ for ich before, it's safer for scale less fish and works great. I have clowns too, when I used this medicine the spots cleared up in about 2-3 days, just have to keep treating for a week or two after the last spot is seen.

 

[Jefe]

Thanks I just raised the temp to 88 degrees I read that that helps? Of is there another way first time getting the ich any help would be great!

 

[Zimmanski]

Thanks I just raised the temp to 88 degrees I read that that helps? Of is there another way first time getting the ich any help would be great!

You need to do that slowly. Like 2 degrees per day or so, your fish have to acclimate. Again I would have waited until you're sure it's ich, but if your temp is already that high then just leave it for a while, then when you're ready to bring it down do it slow again, drop it 2 degrees and wait 24hrs then do it again until you reach the desired temp. While you're waiting to make sure it's ich, do some research, there's hundreds of threads on this forum about ich and its treatments. Don't panic, it's not going to kill your fish as long as its treated properly and as long as your fish weren't already weak in the first place.

 

[Jefe]

Thanks and yea I looked it up the spots was all over the loch but just to be safe I removed him in put him in a 20 gallon for now and raised the main tanks heat to about 88 ill drop it down slowly in a couple of days just wanna make sure it don't turn intro a huge break out

 

[Dizzydea]

I just had an ich outbreak in my tank and I hummed and hawed about treating it with medication. My fish had very few visible spots and by the time I was absolutely sure it was ich half of them were dead over 200.00 dollars worth of children very sad. I'd treat now, trust your instincts. Use a gentle treatment like paragaurd. People say I won't kill your fish, it killed nearly everyone of my fish and my scaleless fish didn't even get spots but they most definitely had ich. If one fish In tank has ich chances are the whole tank is contaminated. Treat it with something that won't harm you biological filtration, again I like paraguard.

 

[Jefe]

Thanks! Ill look into that today!

 

[Dizzydea]

No prob, I wouldn't want to see the same thing happen to someone else.