Clown Loach In A Tank With Ich?

[Jasonandlori]

I have just noticed a few white spots on a few of my platies! Looks like the start of ICH!! Cant get good pictures but from pictures I have seen on the net it looks like ICH
I have a community tank of Clown Loaches, few Panda Cories, platies, guppies and 2 Ghost Shrimp and a peacock eel... will the common over the counter Ich Treatments harm anything? Know the Loaches are delecate and wondering if the Shrimp need to be considered also...

 

[drewry]

hi Jasonandlori

well i know corys are , i used protozin on my adult bronze, peppers and swartzi about 4 weeks ago .it told me to half dose on scaleless fish ,loaches and when fry are presant.

but i got some white spot treatment yesterday for my 3 week old bronze cory fry made by interpet it doesnt say to half dose on anything, i put recomended dose in ,and after 5 mins my corys started acting strange and floating upside down i had to do nearly a compleat water change there ok now but one died.
so dont make the same mistake as me ,the treatment you buy if it doesnt say anything about halfdoseing id half dose anyway because uv got corys and loaches

 

[marcan]

Always half dose common medication for "scaleless" fish like loaches.

Good luck

 

[Jasonandlori]

Always half dose common medication for "scaleless" fish like loaches.

Good luck

Since Im doing half dose.. should I double the length I treat?

 

[Jules H-T]

I'd leave the meds in there until they get water changed out naturally. Make sure you up the temp to 80, but only after you've medicated. The whole thing should be done and dusted inside a week. Incidentally I've used interpet anti whitespot successfully on clown loaches at half dose.

 

[marcan]

You don't need to double the length.
Treat the tank until there's no more ich on any fish. Hopefully, one week should be long enough.

If you have carbon in your filter, make sure to remove it because treating.

 

[Jasonandlori]

You don't need to double the length.
Treat the tank until there's no more ich on any fish. Hopefully, one week should be long enough.

If you have carbon in your filter, make sure to remove it because treating.

Thanks for the help guys! Wish me luck!

 

[Iron Man]

That's strange because in my experience clown loaches are the first to get it before anything else. I had some in a tank with malawi cichlids and I used the salt method. You can either use table salt or "aquarium salt". I salted the water to full dosage AND turned the temp up to 82 and left it like that for 2 weeks. When I changed water I vacuumed the substrate really well and added the salt back to the fresh change water. Never had ich again in that tank.

I don't know about cories and salt but it seems when ppl talk about cories and salt they're going by the "scaleless fish and salt" rule which isn't always accurate. My loaches did just fine through the whole thing.

 

[CrashingWaves]

Clown loaches are extremely sensitive to ich. There's really no point in removing them from the tank since they've already been exposed to it, but, you never know. Some people would suggest a half dose of a salt bath for clown loaches (if they do have ich). Others would suggest using medications for scaleless fish. Clown Loaches are very difficult to get rid of ich with usually. I've only had my clown loaches get ich twice. The first time I used something called "QuICK Cure" from Walmart, and it clearned it up very quickly. The second time it didn't work at I lost two of my clown loaches. It's really a roll of the dice unfortunately.

God Bless,
Joshua

 

[mrbudgie]

i have clown loaches and i use an anti white spot called W3 and turn up the heat a bit and do a water change first,

the white spots on fish are only visible after it has burst and the parasites can only be killed whilst in the water, the lower the water temp the longer the parasites can free swin before finding a new fish, so turning the heat up shortens their life span.

 

[CrashingWaves]

Just as long as you aren't cooking your fish at the same time as well

God Bless,
Joshua

 

[Lateral Line]

Salt is very harmful to many freshwater fish. Also, turning the heat up may quicken the life cycle of the Ich parasites, but it also reduces the Oxygen content of the water. Loaches are high energy high Oxygen level fish, be careful with the temperature. Add some airation if you can to move the surface water about, or use the output of a filter to acheive the same thing.

 

[CrashingWaves]

Let me at least say this. No matter what treatment you use for clown loaches to get rid of ich, you're going to be taking a risk. Even if a medication is made for scaless fish, they still really won't take that kindly to it. Salt and loaches don't really mix either, though it has been done with some success. You have to take somewhat of a risk to cure ich on clown loaches

God Bless,
Joshua