I am a newbie to fishkeeping, but am presently dealing with white spot on my 2 clown loaches. I noticed the problem too late. They started flashing over a month ago and I just thought they were clowning around. Full blown spots covered their bodies on Monday night. I began treatment Tuesday, raising temperature to 82 (from 76), and adding rock salt, dissolved in a quart of tank water two teaspoons at a time, three hours apart, til the 12 gallon tank had two tablespoons of salt in it, and did a 1/2 dose of Super Ick Cure liquid (1 teaspoon diluted in a quart of tank water). I then started adding Kordon's herbal Ich-Attack - 2 teaspoons every 12 hours. This is a double dose and double the application regimen. My 2 corys and 2 bushynose plecs all seem comfortable and unstressed. But, alas, I lost the smaller clown loach yesterday - a 2-incher, and it wasn't playing dead this time. The 3-incher is struggling, but is active and shows a few less spots, if this is possible as his entire body was covered in white yesterday. I'm thinking with the timing and all, that I am probably dealing with the second bloom of white spot now. The first bloom probably involved the mouth and gills of my poor clown loaches and was never visible. They were trying to tell me how itchy they were with all that rock rubbing and flicking movements! Poor things! I will let you know if the big fella makes it. I will do a second 1/2 dose of Super Ick Cure today, along with a gravel vac and 30% water change, wait 6 hours and begin the Kordon's herbal Ich-Attack once again and repeat as above every 2 days until all spots are gone from the loach, then do 4 treatments more, three days apart to make sure that the tank is clean of those creepy crawlies. When I do the water changes, I will add in the missing salt proportionately to bring it back up to the two tablespoons per 12 gallon level and will let you know how all tank companions do. I am anticipating a minimum 14 days of working with this. Whew!
OK - its Saturday now and this is the update. I did as above on Thursday. The remaining clown lost more spots, but seemed sicker. By Thursday afternoon, he was laying on his side at the back of the tank with only an occasional flick of the tail fin to let me know he was still alive, and he stayed there through Friday afternoon. Worse, his tank mates began showing signs of stress. Nitrite and nitrate levels were rising along with ammonia. On Friday afternoon, I decided to do a gradual 70% water change, making sure the temperature never fluctuated from 82F. I did not add in more salt, but instead did another treatment with the herbal Ich-Attack. Everyone in the tank perked up, including the clown loach and all test results were within safe perameters for nitrite, nitrate, gh, kh, ammonia and ph6.8.
Today, my 3-inch clown loach still lives! He is moving very slowly though. All of his spots are gone now. I did another treatment with the herbal Ich-Attack this morning and added 2 more teaspoons of dissolved rock salt back into the tank, as I think that the Ich might be in the free-swimming stage now and I want to be sure to get all of them. I don't think that I will use any more of the Super Ick Cure. My present plan is to follow through each day with a constant 82F water temp, 30% water changes, adding 2 teaspoons of salt back into the tank every third day, plus twice daily treatments with the Kordon's herbal Ich-Attack. I will update a week from now and let you all know how the tank has fared.
OK - its Saturday again, a week later. My 3 to 4 inch Clown Loach survived and recovered beautifully - completely back to normal by Tuesday of this week. I kept the temperature constant at 82F, and did 25% daily water changes through Friday, then changed out only 1 gallon each day through today. I ended the Kordon's Ich-Attack on Wednesday and restored the carbon filter to the tank. I am using "Cycle" to encourage the tank to cycle, now that the waters are clear of the Super Ick Cure. I am still testing for nitrite and ammonia spikes as I am finding trace nitrite from time to time. I also ended salt additions on Wednesday. No other fishes show any signs of "Ich". I used lots of "Stress Coat" throughout the Ich ordeal. I reduced the temperature in the tank to 80F on "Thursday. On the herbal Ich-Attack - this product does turn the tank water tea-colored (as in black tea- not green). The tea color is finally gone today, but the tank water is still cloudy. I hope this will clear up over the next few days. I had mercy on my clown loach and on Friday, returned him to the store from whence I had bought him a year ago as a tiny little thing. He had more than tripled his size in that 1-year period! I love the clown loaches, but will not keep another in my little 12-gallon tank...it just isn't fair to the fish - they just get too big. Sure do hope to never have to deal with Ich again - ever...it was awful! And expensive! And time consuming!
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