I'm an idiot!! The orandas have Ich!!!

[2cvbloke]

Why am I an idiot? Because I didn't quarantine Choccy, in my haste to get him home I didn't think to use my spare tank (now housing my Betta) as a quarantine, and now Mop and Whitey have Ich!!!

Now then, treatment. I did have some Ich treatment from when I had the two Blue Orandas a year ago, but, that's gone missing and is most likely out of date. Also, I don't know if it's safe to use with the loaches or not (no sign of Ich on them yet). So, I think I best get a heater ASAP and start warming the tank up...

I just hope I've caught it intime before any of the fish pass on...

[jsoong]

I've always had great luck treating with salt <although loaches are salt sensitive, so you'd have to treat the golds in a hospital setup - any clean tub with a filter will do!>

This is a pretty good article on it: Goldfish and Aquarium Board Article-Treating Ich with Salt

If you are going to use the heat treatment, make sure you get the temp up to 88, and watch the fish closely. You will need to increase aeration. Since you have an internal filter, I don't know if you can increase water splashing with that by raising the filter, so you might want to add airstones or a HOB filter if you have one.

One thing you would want to check is the NH3/NO2 levels. With adding a new fish, it might be that your tank is going through a mini-cycle, and that is stressing the fish & bringing on ich. I'd be doing lots so water changes/gravel vacs in any case to decrease the number of ich cysts.

[2cvbloke]

The problem with the substrate is it's sand, so it's difficult to vacuum without losing most of it in a bucket, and with the two weather loaches stirring it up all the time, the Ich could be buried right down to the bottom...

I guess this is a case of taking it all out and boiling it, then returning it once the Ich has been eradicated...

The filters can be lifted to create more aeration, but lowering the water level a little would probably work better, and I also have an air pump spare somewhere, so I can also have an airstone in there too to keep the fish happy, and I do hope I get rid of that nasty little parasite soon!!!

The work I make for myself, typical!!!

[2cvbloke]

Rightyho, I've got everything in, 2x 100w heaters, an airstone that's made a nice bubblewall, I've took out most of the decorations and the sand & gravel mix, and I've done a 75% PWC. The heaters are set to room temperature, seeing how the fresh water was cold, and in the morning I'll start the 1.5 degree increases to 86f...

Fingers crossed...

[Zagz]

You have loaches in with goldfish? Don't use salt then for sure. What kind of loaches? I've never tried the heat treatment on goldfish. I wouldn't recommend boiling everything and starting over, you will suffer a full cycle then and you will end up doing more and more water changes.

[2cvbloke]

Originally Posted by Zagz

You have loaches in with goldfish? Don't use salt then for sure. What kind of loaches? I've never tried the heat treatment on goldfish. I wouldn't recommend boiling everything and starting over, you will suffer a full cycle then and you will end up doing more and more water changes.

We have 2 Weather loaches and 3 Hillstream loaches, and I am avoiding going down the salt route if I can...

I'm leaving the filters as they are (1x Fluval 2+ and 2x Fluval 3+), they're rather messy at the moment, so I guess are full to the brim of good bacteria, and as the heat should hopefully only kill the Ich, the filters I presume will be fine...

[Zagz]

I love weather loaches, they are such awesome loaches. The filters will be fine through the heat treatment.

[2cvbloke]

Originally Posted by Zagz

I love weather loaches, they are such awesome loaches. The filters will be fine through the heat treatment.

They're one of my favourites too, they just zip around like a bunch of loonies, then all of a sudden they become "twigs"...

I saw some Khulis yesterday though, they were pretty neat, and they were probably tired of the tank they were in as they were all going round in circles on one side of the tank, almost like a race!!!

[Zagz]

I have several kuhli's in my 135, 9-4" clown loaches and 6 yoyo loaches also in that tank. I have burmese border loaches in my discus tank and a horseface loach in my 29 gal. I had a dojo, but unfortunately he was in a tropical tank as I had gotten bad lfs info when I started in this hobby and his lifespan was dramatically reduced.

[2cvbloke]

Originally Posted by Zagz

I have several kuhli's in my 135, 9-4" clown loaches and 6 yoyo loaches also in that tank. I have burmese border loaches in my discus tank and a horseface loach in my 29 gal. I had a dojo, but unfortunately he was in a tropical tank as I had gotten bad lfs info when I started in this hobby and his lifespan was dramatically reduced.

Loaches are one of the best fish to keep in my opinion, I'd love to have Clown Loaches someday, they're pretty cool, aswell as nicely coloured...

The petshop I regularly visit has a terrible habit of mis-naming or mis-spelling fish names, for example, two of the three Hillstreams I got there were sold as "Freshwater Plecs", I knew otherwise of course and I told them that they were Hillstreams, but they continued to call them Plecs...

And they called the Khulis "Coolies", I do wonder about them sometimes!!!

[2cvbloke]

The heat's slowly getting there, at last check it was nearing 82f (about 2 hours ago), just 5 more degrees before the Ich dies a horrible Ichy death!!!

The fish seem ok with it all, Whitey loves the bubbles, but the loaches aren't happy about not having their logs to hide under or their sand to bury themselves in, but hopefully in 3 or 4 weeks it'll all be back to normal, I just need to clean the sand up (still), I'll dry it out for storing until I can pop it back in, aswell as add more new sand (I'm thinking a light sand for a bit of contrast!!! )...

[mike47517]

salt.

[2cvbloke]

Originally Posted by mike47517

salt.

...is very bad for the loaches...

[mike47517]

Originally Posted by 2cvbloke

...is very bad for the loaches...

oh i knew that i should have read everything that you wrote. i read the ich and the first thing i thought of was salt. my bad for not payin attention. im so sorry . thx for correctin me.

[2cvbloke]

Originally Posted by mike47517

oh i knew that i should have read everything that you wrote. i read the ich and the first thing i thought of was salt. my bad for not payin attention. im so sorry . thx for correctin me.

s'ok, I've done that myself several times...

[mike47517]

yeah thanks for not getting all PO'd at me i know alot of people that would thanks.

[Zagz]

Glad the heat is getting up there. Mike honest mistakes are generally taken very well here. This forum prides ourselves on our ability to be like family.

[mike47517]

oh ok thanks Zagz. see you around. Oh and for 2cvbloke raising the temp. is the only thing i can think for you to do sorry i cant help anymore.

[2cvbloke]

Everyone makes mistakes, just as I did when I didn't quarantine Choccy, and have literally paid the price for it (about £50 for all the kit!!!), but hey, it's part of life's lessons, if you don't make mistakes, you don't learn...

Anyway, I'm debating whether or not I should put in my 50w heater aswell as the heaters seem to be running a lot (it's cold in this room at the moment), just to give the other two a little less work to do and keep the heat stable...

[2cvbloke]

Well well well, it seems the heat has had another effect on the fish, Whitey's popping eggs out all over the place!!! I don't want to breed them so I'll leave the eggs to the loaches and the dimwits, but I really didn't expect this to happen!!! Absolutely incredible!!!