I recently purchased some penguin tetras from a trusted lfs but unfortunately they broke out With ick, killing three of the six tetras and 3 of 5 clown loaches. I have cured all of the other fish but the clown loaches still have ick whats the best way to cure them?
Clown loaches with ick
- Thread starter dpk2313
- Start date
salt and raise temp, fish without scales are really sensitive to chemicals. also add in more frequent water changes.
Why would you use those chemicals? They don't cure ick. Raise the temp to 86-88 and add salt and wait 2 weeks.
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I have used them for years with great results, faster recovery, less spread, etc not to mention to no detriment of the scaleless fish, that is why I used those chemicals. It has been a bit less then 2 weeks but I'm not use to waiting this lon for results, they are eating fine, fat and happy acting as usual but they can't seem to shake it.
sometimes ick takes more time to cure, just keep temp up with salt and daily water changes, and eventually it will pass. it happens o all of us one time or another, ive battled ick for a month straight one time on my ebjd when all my other fish were fine, it just happens. as long as you do your best to keep clean water and temp high with salt you will get through it!
Everytime there is a ick question, someone comes up with salt and elevated temperature. This is old remedy before more effective medication becomes available. IME, salt and elevated temperature works too slowly to save clown loaches. Ick is persistent and spreads rapidly loaches. You need to use harsh chemicals to wipe out ick quickly,and don't delay or else you will have dead loaches.. Malachite Green, marketed under different trade name, is most effective in curing ick but use only half dosage for loaches as recommended. Typically, two treatments in 3 days is sufficient to wipe out ick.
Loaches are not scaless but have scales too tiny to be visible.
Depending on what type of fish is infected. Ick is not fatal to cichlids and a salt solution will slowly eliminate ick, and even without treatment, some will recover on their own. Ick spread rapidly in loaches and tetra, and any delay in treatment will kill them in a week. Salt works best as preventive measure, but too slow to cure loaches and tetra once they get infected. Malachite Green is harsh toxin to ick pathogen. and one treament is enough to wipe them out. Salt is too mild on ick and you needs to sustain the salinity for a long time and many life cycles in order to eliminate the ick pathogens. Raising the temperature and sustaining too long salinity can be harsh on fish too. With chemical, you will see results in one treatment and 3 days. I am speaking with experience. I lost many loaches to ick waiting for salt and temperature to work.
If you use the recommended dosage, proprietary ick remedy like malachite green is not harsh to the fish, only harsh to the ick. In fact, the recommended dosage is quite conservative, meaning that even you if you over dose by some extent, most fish can tolerate it. I've done that before by accidentally over dosing by twice the recommended amount in my cichlid tank, and none of the fish was poisoned . I wouldn't be as lucky with loaches though as they are very sensitive to malachite green and the instruction says to use only half the recommended dosage. It's interesting that fish that are most sensitive to malachite green are also the fish most susceptible to lethal infection by ick