My Fish Got Ich And Its Not Going Away Yet

Ive done all I can for them and I feel like I failed them... Treating the tank with malachite green for the second time and it doesn't seem to be getting any better, it just made my nitrate levels go crazy. I feel really sad about it. I even tried a lightly salted soak tonight on my clown loach as a last ditch effort thinking it might help... I have never had ich this bad. I need some kind words Incase someone does have some advice ill fill out a sick fish template. Ill take any advice I can get. Started with my clown loach getting it then I saw some white spots on a hatchet fish then a barb today.. I'm scared I will loose the whole tank! I had a large bristlenose die unexpectedly today he did not look like he had any ich. Perhaps the change in water perimeters from the medicine did him in :/ Feeling bad about the whole situation.

Tank

What is the water volume of the tank? 60 Gal
How long has the tank been running? 5 years
Does it have a filter? yes
Does it have a heater? yes
What is the water temperature? 81.6
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) 8 tiger barbs, 1 synamesis, 1 black ghost knife, 1 clown loach, 2 bearded plecos and 2 hatchet fish

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Weekly
How much of the water do you change? 35%
What do you use to treat your water? tap water declorifier and I dose with potassium if I see the plants have holes
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? I have sand but I do vaccume the bottom

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? yes
What do you use to test the water? test kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
(This is after I added the ich medication, it was better before that)
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0-0.25
Nitrate: 80+
pH: 7.6

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? 1x daily
How much do you feed your fish? 3 algae wafers and sinking pellets
What brand of food do you feed your fish? bug bites and generic wafers
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? sometimes

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? 3 years
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? last tuesday
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? white spots appearing over body and rubbing on things. Also standing motionesss for a few minutes then going back to swimming
Have you started any treatment for the illness? Malichite green on thursday (but a half dose because of the barbs and loach) then did a water change and waited till today and it hadn't got any better so I dosed it again. Then I bathed the loach in 1 tsp of water for 5 minutes then put back in the tank..
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? no
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? yes, covered in white spots and tail standing sometimes swimming sideways

 

Only two things I can think of, do you have carbon in your filter that's inhibiting the medication, if not then after this course of treatment try changing to King British white spot control I've found this good, I know there's a short period between changing medication if using a different brand, you could add some carbon to take the old med out before starting the new but take carbon out before starting new treatment, you may already know this anyway

 

Ich won’t cure unless you get rid of the cause. I see you have ammonia and nitrite. You might not cure it till you remove those. Get rid of the cause and it’ll cure quickly...

You might not cure the Clown Loach till you remove his stress by getting it some company...

 

Ich won’t cure unless you get rid of the cause. I see you have ammonia and nitrite. You might not cure it till you remove those. Get rid of the cause and it’ll cure quickly...

You might not cure the Clown Loach till you remove his stress by getting it some company...

The water perimeters were pretty good before I started treatment, the ammonia was 0.0 and the nitrate was 40ppm. I got the loach a long time ago and no one told me that he needed friends :/ and that they got so big. I had two more deaths this morning and did a large water change and added the carbon back into the filter to remove the medicine. Pretty sure it was the malachite green that messed up my water as it made the nitrates skyrocket... I am going to give it a few days and see if the ich improves. I'm scared to do too many water changes at this point as I don't want to stress out the remaining fish too much.. Should I do 25% per day or what do you think?

 

I would change as much as you need to to get rid of the ammonia and nitrite asap . If the parameters are similar a water change can only be a good thing. Prime will also help to neutralise them till your filtration recovers...

 

I would change as much as you need to to get rid of the ammonia and nitrite asap . If the parameters are similar a water change can only be a good thing. Prime will also help to neutralise them till your filtration recovers...

Great thank you! Ive lost so many fish to this it really sucks...

 

If anyone had any ideas for me I would appreciate it, my remaining tiger barbs still have ich on them.. I dosed the tank with some prime last night to try and fix the water quality but the ich is still persisting. Don't want to mess up my tank, thinking of setting up a quarantine tank and treating them in that but I don't want another tank in my house anyone got tips?