Zebra Loach with Ich?

[Katz]

Hello Bottom Feeder bunch!

Here's my question to you well informed people. I have two Zebra loaches (Abbot and Castello) as well as Louis the puffer fish in a 10 gal tank. They get along just fine, before you start worrying. Waterchange is 20% twice a week (Wednesday evening and Sunday morning). Tank has been established for 9 months, water parameters should be fine, although I will get them tested this weekend, just to be sure.

I've had the loaches for about 6 weeks. Now Castello has started flashing a little, but it's hard to tell if he is just playing, digging for snails (homegrown), or actually iching. I'm going to say he's iching, so of course I guessed Ich, but I can't see any white spots or anything else on his skin. Abbot is the quieter of the two, usually just comes out of his casle for feedings. He seems fine, also no visible signs of infection on him or Louis. Everyone has good appetite.

Should I just start a raised temp/salt treatment to be proactive, or should I wait till I see visible signs of illness?

Thanks for all your help!

[baxter]

Hey Katz, I saw your note about nobody responding, and by no means am I as much of an expert as most of the folks out here, but I'll give it a shot, don't want anybody to feel like they're not welcome.

First, what kind of puffer do you have? If it's anything other than a dwarf it should be in a slightly brackish mix. (I'll probably get a lot of flak for that since it's always argued about which fish can and should be in brackish water.)

And as for the loach, is it still acting funny? Have you noticed any signs of infection of any kind?

[Katz]

Thanks baxter!!

The Puffer is a red eye puffer, strictly freshwater I have been assured. The loach is still acting funny, but no sign of infection. Maybe it's just how he looks for food.

Thanks for caring :-)

[Bustedthumb]

I recently ran into the same sort of thing. I didnt post a reply because I hadn't learned what it was until now. My fish would rub up against things without any external signs of problems. So, I did nothing. I waited a while. Almost a week later the little spots appeared. At that point I started treatment for ich. But, as others have said, it could be anything. That was just my personal experience with the itchy scratchy thing. However, those fish in that tank were under considerable stress at the time. (long story) Anyway, the problem seems to be cleared up now. No more rubbing, no more spots. More importantly, no fish died. Yay! But certainly watch and make sure that you know what the problem is before medicating. When in doubt...do nothing.

[Michael Roth]

By all means, be vigilant for ich, but...Zebra Loaches flash as a sort of posturing contest. "I'm the toughest S.O.B in this tank" type of thing, I would keep an eye out ...but I doubt its ich.

[Katz]

Thanks for the replies. He seems fine, so I'm just watching for now. He only seems to do it after the evening feeding, I think he might just be digging for runaway worms. They are greedy buggers, but they do a great job of eating the Puffer's leftovers.

Thanks again!!