New Clown Loaches

[Dego510]

Hey everyone.

Two weeks ago I bought 3 clown loaches. A day after adding them to my 10 gallon quarantine tank, all 3 got ich. I raised the temp to 86 degrees and used half the dosage of Quick Cure (1 drop for every 2 gallons). That didn't work as last one died Tuesday night.

Here's where I need advice and help. I just found a deal and am getting 5 clown loaches this evening. The quarantine tank is still running and I did a 50% WC last night. It probably still has a little bit of Quick Cure remaining in the water. Can I add the new Clown Loaches to this tank even though the last ich-infected loach left the tank 2 days ago? Wouldn't ich have died off since it didn't have a host for the past 2 days? I'll do another 50% WC before I add the loaches.

Please advise since I'm getting the new loaches in a few hours.

Oh . . . my other option is adding them to a 20 gallon that has about 10 demasoni all under an 1".

 

[08trdoffroad]

Even with no fish in the tank ich can survive several weeks, I have read upto six. IMO you are asking for another outbreak if you put them in the Q tank.

 

[alexmuw]

I would bleach the tank and use water declorinator to neutralize the bleach.
Use a different filter (ich can also stay in the filter media). You can also bleach the filter and grab some media from a different tank.

I've done this many times with no issues arising.

 

[taninsama]

Yeah, don't put them in the 10g without cleaning it REALLY well, and then rinsing it REALLY, REALLY well. I don't know how they would do with your other fish, but there is a chance that the new loaches could be diseased as well. You didn't get them from the same place, did you?

 

[Dego510]

Can I just pour some bleach into tank and just have it run for 1/2 a day? It's a ten gallon with a sponge filter and heater.

I'm going to add the new clown loaches to my existing 20 gallon with the <1" demasoni. I'll use a tank separator to avoid any harassment the Demasoni might show.

I bought the first 3 loaches from PetSmart. They were 2.5" and looked heathly, so I wanted to give it a shot even though most people warn about chain LFS having ich. The other issue is that I probably didn't acclimate them long enough to my water (high ph), while most LFS probably have low ph water.

The 5 that I'm getting today are 3"+ and are from a local seller, which most likely means that the CL are used to the higher ph since it's the same water source.