kez

lost six fish three of them being my fav clown loaches ,they looked like they had sand all over them but its not is there any thing else it could of been

arfon

something seriously wrong there. Clowns are highly prone to Itch and other parasitic disorders. Unfortunately, this includes internal or intestinal parasites, Other than parasites, I've found clown loaches to be relatively hardy, Ive not had any problems with mine so far. i would take a sample of water to your local fish shop and definitely don't put any more fish in tank til problems sorted.

Butterfly

Sounds like the Clowns had a bad case of ICH, left untreated it will kill them. The other fish probably had ICH also.
A good way to treat ICH is to raise the water temperature up to 82F leave it for 14 days and do water changes about every other day.Warmer water has less oxygen in it so the water changes are necessary.
Carol

inuyasha_lover_21

And Also be CAREFUL not to treat them with some medications. Since they have no scales. I think its malachite or copper you have to watch out for. If I am wrong please correct me.

Neville

hi kez,
i really feel sorry for your fish.............do not add any more fish to your tank until the water quality is perfect again............

Jynx

What I did when my fish had ick, I was told to do a complete water change. So, I emptied out all but a couple inches of water, so that the fish could still swim, took out the decorations and scrubbed them under hot hot water (no soap, or cleaning solutions) before I put them back in, and refilled, the tank. It seemed to work since the last fish I had lived for a few months with no signs of ick.

~Jynx

Butterfly

Jynx- when you do a water change that big and clean the decor you are losing a good portion of your beneficial bacteria. ICH lives in the gravel along with other things that are natural parts of the make up of a normal aquarium. The fish are not affected by these things until their immune system is compromised in some way. Stress is usually what brings on an illness, anything from getting chilled, being bullied, being in a crowded situation to multiples of other things. Then they get sick.
A good analogy is cold germs- Cold germs are in the air we humans breathe all the time and we don't catch it until we are tired, not eating right etc. I hope I wasn't confusing.
Carol

kez

thank you for the advice have turned the temp up and doing the water changes so far things seem good hopefully i wont lose NE more fish wot is ich and how does come about if ne one has a link which i can look at i would be grateful

BristolBulldog

Just my two cents on this. My tank got ich, and i didn't notice it until it was a little too late. i tried raising the temperature and doing daily changes of 50%, and hoovering the bottom. This just didn't seem to work for me. I think the ich in the tank was so bad that i really needed to get them off my bloody fish!

i used some Rid Ich, but only 50% the amount recommended, along with the higher temperature, so the Ich progressed (i.e. got off my fish) quicker.

I used only 50% as i had a crayfish in the tanbk at the time, and they don't like the treatment very well.

susitna-flower

Sorry for your loss. RIP Now I was going back through all your posts, and it doesn't sound like you have had your tank all that long. Has it gone all the way through the nitrogen cycle? IF not then you need to be sure of this with testing your ammonia, nitrites and nitrate levels with a API Master test kit for freshwater! Read all the articles in the Fish Tank Beginners Guides at the bottom of this page. You need to do this before you get any more fish, as well as getting the ich out of your tank. You can read lots more on ich in the desease section of Freshwater section. You will know lots more about your tank, and how to keep your fish healthy after you run your tests. Best of Luck

Fish in the Frozen North 8)

kez

our friend set our tank up for us put it though a nitrogen cycle,he is also coming to do all the test or me tonite so i let you know how we get on

kez

well pleases to know done the test and all is good been told there`s no worry`s and now i know how to do the test i can do it when i need to now instead of having someone coming to do it for me

les

Check out the "freshwater fish diseases" section and do a search under Ich/Ick/Whitespot ...

http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/3-fres...se-read.0.html

http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/3-fres...te-spot.0.html

chipster55

I got ich in my tanks one time each. I followed this forums advice and moved water temp to 84 (slowly) and turned up the aeriation and ich was gone in about 4-6 days. I kept temp for 2 weeks and it was gone and never got it back...I did lose half my tank in the 55 gal but saved my best fiish (red tail shark that is 4-5 inches). Good Luck