saulat

Hi,

I woke up yesterday to find that my clown loaches have ICH as well as a few spots on my sword tails, none that I can see on my siamese algea eaters. I turned the temp down the night before I found it to about 76 and now have it back to about 80. I started treatment with what the store recommended me, Nox Ich (50% malachite green, 50% sodium chloride). It recommends 1 drop per gallon which the store told me to do half that. I did but forgot I had my carbon in my filter for a few hours and after removing that did the full dose. I also did almost a full dose today. I found somewhere online saying that the clown loaches are sensitive and I should only be doing half the dosage. I also have read that treatment takes about 2 weeks but the bottle only says to do 3 days and then a break if I still have it then 3 more days. How much should I be using and for how long?? Also, are my plants going to die from this? I tried to take a pic but couldn't get a clear one.

Oh, I have a 55gallon aquarium.

Lucy

Hi, sorry your fish have ich. You can treat it with out meds.
Slowly turn up the temp to about 84-85F leave it there for at least 2 weeks. Increase aeration to make up for less oxygen in the waremer water.
Do water changes and thorough gravel vacs to pick up the ich spores.

Good luck, I hope it clears up soon.

saulat

Thanks, thinking I'll raise the temp and just use a weaker dose half or a third until it clears up just to make sure. Most of the fish seem ok but the clowns are fairly covered, maybe cause they are bottom feeders.

saulat

I am going to go with the non medication route I think. I read that clowns get ich at the very easily

SWilkins

Raising the temp alone should work just fine. I just got a guppy tank cleared here of ICH using 85 degree temp for two weeks. Now in the process of finishing lowering the temp. Good luck it just takes some time but you can do it without meds that is for sure.

saulat

Good, I just spent money and time on getting lighting and plant substrate. Id hate to poison my plants or lose any fish. Do I need to remove the carbon from my filter after a few days??

saulat

I have heard 86 degrees and 84-85 degrees for this heat/salt treatment of Ich. Also heard that I can add salt. How much salt and is table salt ok? Can my plants and fish survive the increased temp and adding salt. I have sword tails, siamese algea eaters, clown loaches as fish. I have a straight vallis, anacharis, hornwort, java fern, flame moss, and water wisteria as plants. My pH is about 7.4, hard water, 55 gallon tank, 4x28 watt T5 bulbs, hard water, some nitrates as my tank is not totally cycled yet. I've got the temp up to about 84 now, been raising one or two degrees a day since I noticed I had Ich. I think turning the temp down is what caused the clowns to get the ich. The girl at the pet store said she would use meds not heat and salt if she were treating her tank. She seemed to think the meds were better on the fish than changing the temp and adding salt.

SWilkins

I don't think your scaleless fish will do well with salt or really your plants for that matter. I really never believed it myself about the temp alone doing the job until I tried it a few years back. It works great with no meds to endanger any plants or fish and it is really really cheap. Just do some extra vacs to get out the ICH cysts and make sure you have some extra airation in your tank since your temp will be up and it will have less oxygen available in the water.

saulat

I have read a few places that the clowns can do some salt and possibly prefer it, they were the least concern out of them all and I think swords can handle some. The algea eaters and plants were my main concern but so long as the temp works I am happy. I'll give it some time and find out.

saulat

Added some mortons salt and raised the temp to around 86. See no ich today so should be good in a few days if there isn't another outbreak.