I just noticed a hint of ich in my clown loaches last night. I immediately increased the heat up to 86F. This morning I noticed more lesions. I just read the article on ich that is in the articles section of this site. I'm afraid that medications will create a lot of problems with my tank as I really do not want to lose my bacteria. I'm going to go with a combination of salt and high temperature, immediately. I have a 29 gallon tank with plastic plants. My filtration is through a Whisper 30, an Aquaclear 200, and an undergravel filter. I have some small barbs (5 tiger and 5 black ruby), 3 corydoras cats, 2 Yo Yo loaches, and 2 clown loaches. The clowns are the only ones showing a problem. Will the salt water treatment combined with the high water temp be enough? Will the salt treatment hurt the corys? Can some medication be added without having to go through the whole bacteria killing, carbon dumping, and water changing process?
ich on my clown loaches
- Thread starter dax29
- Start date
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RogerMcAllen
Aquarium Advice Addict
NO SALT. That will be very bad for the loaches, and I think the cories too.
no salt for ich
If salt is bad for loaches and corys, what about malachite green? The LFS just sold some to me and they said they us it in all their tanks as a preventive and they have seen no problems with toxicity to any fish. They said they also use it at home. Will malachite green really do number on my bacteria?
If salt is bad for loaches and corys, what about malachite green? The LFS just sold some to me and they said they us it in all their tanks as a preventive and they have seen no problems with toxicity to any fish. They said they also use it at home. Will malachite green really do number on my bacteria?
tetrin
Aquarium Advice FINatic
as many other members will tell u, heat and salt is the best way to successfully treat ich...
but as RogerMcAllen said, u better stay away from the salt part...i lost a clown trying to add salt during the heat treatment...
malachite green is toxic to living organisms, but the effect varies from fish to fish...clowns are notorious for being weak to it...i also lost a clown in the beginning trying to treat it with 'ridich'...even though i used half the recommended dose, it just kinda faded and died....but ymmv...the lfs will always try to sell stuff to u...
i think u may have stressed the fish by suddenly increasing the temp to 86F...do it at a slower pace the next time...1-2F every 12 hrs...
...but don't worry, if they have made it through the night, they'll probably be ok...
but as RogerMcAllen said, u better stay away from the salt part...i lost a clown trying to add salt during the heat treatment...
malachite green is toxic to living organisms, but the effect varies from fish to fish...clowns are notorious for being weak to it...i also lost a clown in the beginning trying to treat it with 'ridich'...even though i used half the recommended dose, it just kinda faded and died....but ymmv...the lfs will always try to sell stuff to u...
i think u may have stressed the fish by suddenly increasing the temp to 86F...do it at a slower pace the next time...1-2F every 12 hrs...
...but don't worry, if they have made it through the night, they'll probably be ok...clowns may be more fragile than dojos & kuhlis, but i have always kept my loaches in a salted environment----however, not the recommended ich treatment dosage....once the ich is gone, you should be able to add aquarium salt to your tank without doing harm to any of the fish at 1 Tablespoon/10 gals. not sure if that's enough to keep ich from recurring, but i've not had any problems with ich since i introduced salt into my tank. also, if the fish are really, really sensitive to the treatment, you might try adding it at half-dose every 48 hours, instead of every 24 hours. it will take a lot longer, but it should work without harming the clowns. just remember to continue the treatments for twice as long, since you're halving the doseage (14 days instead of 7, for example).
good luck!
fireclown
good luck!
fireclown
mushroomfarie
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
More then you need to know about ich. http://www.thekrib.com/Diseases/ich.html#0
