clown loach

[fishmanuk]

i bought my clown loach 2 days ago, and i noticed white spots on it so i moved it to my other tank and within two hours he was covered in it so i turned up the temp and within half an hour he was dead does this normally happen so quick i thought it was a gradual thing with white spot .this white spot is a bloody nightmare as i seem to be getting all the time,ive already lost 20 fish to this just 1 month ago is there anything i can do to keep this at bay as it keeps coming back

 

[kaz petts]

Sorry to hear about the loaches.
I would suggest you purchase a white spot medication. Both my clown loaches died from the same thing. Do NOT turn temp up as the parasite will thrive in a higher temp.
Unfortunatly clown loaches are prone to white spot and is quite often the cause of their demise.
The parasite will live on the fish for a while and then fall off into the water and gravel where it will stay until it finds another host which it will latch onto.
Treat the whole tank for this until all the fish are clear of the tell tale signs such as the actual spots and rubbing on gravel/rocks etc. Once the tell tale signs have elapsed you will need to continue treating the tank water for another couple of days. I might also be a good idea to do a percentage water change and give the gravel a bit of a vaccum to try and suck some of the little blighters out and treat the water again for a few days.
If you use any medication in the tank make sure you take the carbon out of your biological filter (if you are using an undergravel filter then there is no need to do this or if you are just using the normal sponge that comes with the filter, you need to take the carbon sponge out as this removes the medication from the water.)
I have had a massive case of white spot and some of my fish still have it so I am continuing treatment.
White spot can be caused through stress or introduction of fish or plants which have got the parasite already attached which is why you should really quaranteen any new fish for a week or so before putting them in the tank with the rest of the fish and why you should always give any new plants a bit of a clean before adding them to the tank.
I hope this helps
Good luck
Kaz

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I have to disagree, the tempature should always be put up to 82F when treating ich unless it is coldwater fish. With ich the whole tank should be treated as it will be existing in the tan now and is very cotagious.

Clown loaches are very prone to whitespot are as a lot of fish under stressful conditions. The move is likely to have been the trigger.

You should now treat the whole tank because it has been present in there. Also, you say that it keeps coming back, have you been treating it for long enough for it to actually go away in the first place? I recommend that ich is treated for 3 weeks because it can only be effected by medication when there are no spots on the fish, during the free swimming stage.

HTH

 

[kaz petts]

Ok Cheese Specialist, thanks for the correction there on the temp thing.
Sorry for incorrect info there!
Kaz

 

[breezer40]

I had a similar thing happen with my first clown loaches..got them home and they soon developed white spot then died.

I love the clowns and was determained to give it another go but this time I did plenty of research and looked at articles written on ICH then prepared the tank by raising the temps to 86 degrees. At 86 the ich parasite can not survive and fortunatly clowns can.

All 6 clowns settled in with no ICH (they are very prone to it). After two weeks I gradually lowered the temps to normal.

This is a great article about ICH:

http/www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion...aq=2&fldAuto=32