Sick with ich? loaches

[nixit]

Hi,
I am new to tropical fish keeping. I have a 4 month old 10 gallon cycled tank. In the tank I have a load of real plants. There is a siamese fighter male and female (who are happy), a male and female swordtail (who are also happy), some cardinals, a spotted pleco, a catfish and a snail. And two really unhappy clown loaches. Just today, they have taken to hiding in the curled up leaves of a plant. You can tip them out but they just go back to hiding.
Over the last two weeks the tank has looked cloudy. Ammonia and nitrates are OK but the PH is always at around 6.0. I have taken it back to neutral again this afternoon. The water is clearing but now the loaches are really sick. They have white spots on them - ich?
HELP! What should I do?

 

[canis_lupus]

what do u do to the water to change the PH? it's not good to add ph up or down to the tank as that causes lot's of stress on the fish......what kind of loaches? i would do a water change.....and i think u're tank might b a little overstocked.......how often do u do water changes?

 

[nixit]

Thankyou,
These are clown loaches by the way. I do a 20-25% change of water every week. I use a commercial l kit to test the water and add what it says to add. Its always 6 or under and if I add 40 drops of the ph up it goes to 7. Do you really think I have over stocked the tank?

 

[semper fi]

your tank is definitely overstocked. also loaches are schooling fish and do better in groups of 5 or more. loaches are also scaleless and not totally immune to ich, but not as susceptible. seems strange the loaches are the only ones with signs of ich. are they eating? do the other fish display any symptons?

 

[Mamaschild]

semper fi, from everything I have read and my own experiences, Clown Loaches are very suseptible to Ick. That's the main problem people have with them. The fact that they are the only ones showing simptoms does not suprise me at all.

As for treatment, I have used Jungle brand Ick Clear (the fizzy tabs) with GREAT success on mine. Only had to do it once, but it was completely gone in 3-4 days with only one treatment. Make sure you are keeping the temp at about 80 for the little guys. They like it warmer them some of the other fishies.

I agree on not using the Ph up. 6.0 is great for a number of fish, including the ones you have. As long as it's stable, don't worry about it. The more you play with the Ph, the more swings there will be and the more stressful it is for your fish. I wish i could say my tap water Ph was that low

I also agree that you are overstocked. Depending on what type of Pleco, it can get a foot or more in length. The Clowns can get to 10" or more. The Catfish (is it a Cory?) really would be happier in a school as well. Do you have intentions of upgrading to a larger tank in the near future? If so, they will be fine for now, but do need more space in the long run.

Hopefully I didn't step on any toes with this. I just want to help