Clown Loach - can anybody confirm Ich?

[Tim Wheatley]

Hey folks,

I am already treating with salt, I started adding it last night and finished this afternoon. Already have good oxygen in the tank. I haven't raised the temp though as my home is about 82 already and I'm fine doing it a bit longer.

Any of you who can recognize it, am I seeing Ich? The fish with the most is the one which was recently stuck inside an ornament and is my biggest Clown Loach. He was obviously stressed and I'm thinking that was my trigger for this.

I've never treated this early before, usually I want to confirm it... And right now I only see it on the one fish.

Anyway, please take a look:
DSC_8333 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
DSC_8409 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Sorry, not the best pics... He's good at hiding...

You can see it's just a few white spots, but enough to get me salting my tanks.

[dkpate]

I would say yes to ich, looks like it to me. One of my bettas had ich when I brought him home, but he only had about 3 spots. Started treating and the next day they were wayyy worse. Remember they will get worse before they get better. Glad you caught it before it was REALLY bad.

[Tim Wheatley]

Thanks

[McLumpy]

Oh, so this is the "little" guy that got stuck!

I can't really tell from the pics if it's Ich or not, but there is definitely 'something' on him. Has he been flashing? I've only had 3 Ich outbreaks, but the flashing was a giveaway that they had it, (even when only a few of them showed signs - 'white spots').

I've had pretty good success by treating w/ Ich Attack and increasing the temp to 86F for 2 weeks. I never tried the salt method because I was always worried that it would burn some of my fish, (especially my CL). From what I've read, they're extremely sensitive to salt. Granted, I do occasionally add a small amount of salt to my conditioned water during pwc's, (but that's to help w/ my Mollies and it's not enough to harm the others).

Anyway, I hope your CL is doing better! That poor li'l guy has been through a lot! Definitely post an update regarding his progress.

[Tim Wheatley]

Got a better photo of him today. I'm yet to sort them out so haven't got around to uploading them to flickr yet, so here it is attached...

Colors are still vibrant but there's a lot of white spots on this fish now. I also noticed a white spot on another CL now, so I'm glad I started treatment. Thanks guys.

[Tim Wheatley]

...and I haven't really noticed much flashing. He sits still most of the time and then darts under the driftwood pile in the middle of the tank when I scare him with the camera.

[cazybug]

Looks like ich to me. I've had more than one outbreak and tried several meds. Not much success with any of them and lost some very nice fish. Then I tried the salt and it worked perfect every time. Very minimal losses, especially when caught early. Even with my weather loaches which are supposed to be sensitive to salt. Keep it up! I believe you're on the right track.

[McLumpy]

Originally Posted by Tim Wheatley

...and I haven't really noticed much flashing. He sits still most of the time and then darts under the driftwood pile in the middle of the tank when I scare him with the camera.

LOL Mine 'take cover' too when they see the camera.

The white spots don't look that bad... good deal on catching it early! He has a really nice color to him! How big is he?

[dkpate]

Hey! I think I have that rams shell brother in my tank!

[Tim Wheatley]

Originally Posted by McLumpy

LOL Mine 'take cover' too when they see the camera.

The white spots don't look that bad... good deal on catching it early! He has a really nice color to him! How big is he?

About 5 inches now. I've had him a year and the others I bought at the same time (who were tiny) haven't got to the size I bought him at yet. I would estimate his age at about 3-4 years due to that... I'm going to be so proud to have huge Clown Loaches in my future enormous tank.

[Tim Wheatley]

Originally Posted by dkpate

Hey! I think I have that rams shell brother in my tank!

heheh!

Do you take them out? I leave the empty shells in there because I figured when they break down it should be good for the shells of the other snails... This is the only tank I do that in though as it's the only tank with dead snails (thanks to the CLs). Wondered if I was doing the right thing there...

[dkpate]

I leave mine in there until they get unsightly. Shells for shells! MGamer, a member on here told me I could leave them, and he has tons of snails and such. I also figured they would break down and make goodies for the other snails shells (calcium).

[Tim Wheatley]

Yeah that's what I figured. I used to purposely overfeed them in a 10 gallon and sell them on eBay. I ground up egg shells for calcium in that tank so I assumed it would work to let them break down in the tank.

[dkpate]

I used cuttle bone in my tanks.

[Tim Wheatley]

Originally Posted by Tim Wheatley

Got a better photo of him today. I'm yet to sort them out so haven't got around to uploading them to flickr yet, so here it is attached...

Updated photo. I now raised the temp too as I don't want to subject them to salt for too long.

This is the same fish as photographed in the previous one. Overall there looks to be about the same amount of spots... Possibly less though.

[McLumpy]

Sadly, yeah, it doesn't look there has been much change. The higher temp will definitely help, (as I'm sure you know... increases Ich lifecycle, blah, blah, blah. lol). Are you using any meds or plan on treating w/ heat only?

[Tim Wheatley]

Heat and salt at the moment. Right now I am seeing really good behavior from them even though they are supposed to have issues with salt.

[Tim Wheatley]

Just got a good look at him and he has far fewer spots than he had yesterday. Very pleased...

[McLumpy]

That's great news! The salt/heat combo is working well then!

[Tim Wheatley]

There's a bit of debris floating by which looks like spots on this small photo, but on the full size you can tell the difference. I can now only count 7-8 spots on this one side now. Same fish obviously.