Ich on my clown loaches! Need help
- Thread starter AR115
- Start date
Try to keep ball park amount of the water you take out with water changesin mind, and replace the dose of meds back to make up for the water with meds removed.
Meds and salt all work on the same principal, ....it is.that the the osmotic pressure they produce is too much for the young ick that hatch off the fish to tolerate. Each spot releases up to 100 new young ick, and it is at that stage they are vulnerable to the osmotic pressure produced by the meds.
The problem with using heat alone, is that their are strains of ick high temps do not kill.
I live in Panama and there is a strain here, that resists water temps in the 90sF, so it is feasible that with imports of fish, new strains of ick are also imported. A strain from New York or Idaho may be killed by heat, but a strain from warm waters in Venezuela or Congo, may not.
Meds and salt all work on the same principal, ....it is.that the the osmotic pressure they produce is too much for the young ick that hatch off the fish to tolerate. Each spot releases up to 100 new young ick, and it is at that stage they are vulnerable to the osmotic pressure produced by the meds.
The problem with using heat alone, is that their are strains of ick high temps do not kill.
I live in Panama and there is a strain here, that resists water temps in the 90sF, so it is feasible that with imports of fish, new strains of ick are also imported. A strain from New York or Idaho may be killed by heat, but a strain from warm waters in Venezuela or Congo, may not.
High temperature and ammonia not a good combination for fish stress or respiration, probably explains the tetra struggling. Introducing several new fish to the tank may explain the ammonia. Your beneficial bacteria colony is in approximate equilibrium with available nutrients, adding fish can mean beneficial bacteria need time to catch up to the new load. How much this matters can depend on tank size and the ratio of new fish added (or their size) vs. fish already in the tank. In other words, add two or three moderately sized fish to a big tank with 15 fish, not a big jump, add 3 fish to a tank with 3 is more significant. I like to feed lightly the first few days if I'm adding several fish, give the bacteria a chance to adjust.
Preferred treatments for ich differ with different people. Here's a pretty thorough treatment of the subject (you can use his links to skip right to treatment), but as he says:
In other words, not all treatments work through the same pathways, and some may work better in one set of conditions and others work better under another set of conditions. There's not really a single one-size-fits-all, works-every-time treatment.
Preferred treatments for ich differ with different people. Here's a pretty thorough treatment of the subject (you can use his links to skip right to treatment), but as he says:
In other words, not all treatments work through the same pathways, and some may work better in one set of conditions and others work better under another set of conditions. There's not really a single one-size-fits-all, works-every-time treatment.
...All of that said, I've had just one case of ich in the past 25 years, about 8 years ago, bad one after using river water for voluminous water changes during a lengthy power outage. I went to my old standard treatment from previous years, Coppersafe, which worked. But that's just me. 
...after that I got a generator, none could be found during the power outage which was widespread and regional after "the derecho".
...after that I got a generator, none could be found during the power outage which was widespread and regional after "the derecho".
What were you doing?
Don't ask that, i'd like to think this is a family orientated forum. And definitely don't ask where the white spots were .
My 88F high-temp ich treatment did not harm my 16 CL nor any of my other fish (mostly tetras), but it did kill many of my live plants. My tank is always kept at steady 82F (28C) nowadays, and the CL are doing well. Also, I have an air pump plus lots of vigorous water movement from 3 big filters, so together they enhance O2 exchange at the surface. Good luck.
let's just say I almost imported a very "invasive species" .Don't ask that, i'd like to think this is a family orientated forum. And definitely don't ask where the white spots were .
