Help! Sick Clown loach

Hi! Loaches are very sensitive to ich - If the loach has it then it means your tank is infected so you need to treat the whole tank - I keep scaleless fish and when i got ich in the past here's what worked for me - raise the temp tank to about 83-85 degrees - this speeds up the parasites life cycle - next begin medicating with jungle ich cure II for scaleless fish - you must use a scaleless fish med for the ich because if you use a regular ich med it will kill your loach - ich is very curable - continue medicating for the enitre time the directions indicate don't stop medicating when you see the white spots go away ! The parasite is still in the water and gravel at this point - ich on the fish is the visible form of the parasite when you raise the temp the parasite will fall off the fish and form a cyst which waits in the gravel to hatch - once it hatches it is a free swimming tomite - this is when the parasite is vulnerable to meds and this is when you kill it - most people make the mistake of thinking they have killed it when they see no more white spots - the tomite has only a short time (not sure of the amouotn of time think i head 46 hours before) to find a host before it dies - this is when you kill it with meds - so you want to medicate for the length of time on the instructions but some recomend medicating for at least 3 weeks - don't over medicate though - be sure to follow the dosing instructions -
so lets recap
1. raise temp
2. ich med for scaleless fish - i've used jungles ich gaurd II
3. continue medicating and do 25% water changes at least once a week - i also like to vacuum the gravel gently to try to remove any cysts laying within the gravel -however be careful not to stir the gravel up too much as i believe you end up burying some of the cysts in the gravel instead of sucking them out causing future outbreaks -


others may recomend a salt treatment but i don't know how to do this so they may tell you but i think it's prob more complicated - just go with the scaleless ich med n you will win the battle


it might be a good didea to set up a quarantine tank for new fish to prevent this sort of thing in the future as constant ich outbreaks from new fish can get expensive to fight - maybe set up a 10 g for quarantine

cannot really help much but ive just got my clowns over white spot (ich)
i put them in a qtank left them in there till they were better and last week i moved them back but 2 died

i told u i cant really help

Most tropicals can tolerate the warmer water for a while - pls post back the types of fish you have - if your concerned about the temp bump it up to about 81 or so at least for now

Hmmm - I'm not sure about the frogs - but the oscars and terrors should be ok for a while go with 83 degrees - if someone who is more familiar with these types of fish know something else then let her know but they are south american and i keep angels from south america and they prefer water int he low 80's anyhow -


are you a newbie?
your tank is way to small for 3 oscars and green terrors - just 2 oscars will require 100 plsu gallons they grow very fast!


If they are young get out while you still can - take them back to the fish store and start with an easier set up - green terrors are fairly aggressive and i don't know that you have a good mix in there - that's a lot of big agressive cichlids in one tank - my guess is your fish are all still small right now and it looks good but they will grow quick and you will have a mess on your hands - a clown loach doesn't mix with this crowd either - he will be shy and hide a lot - plus the loach needs friends they like to be in small groups of their own kind -
write back let us know we'll try to help

i had the exact problem 2 weeks ago, cures them in 5 days. Healthy ever since

raise the temp to 28oC
remove carbon from cannister filter (it reacts with the medicine)
use Sera Costapur treatment
use 1ml per 40liters of water on first and third day
on second and fourth day, do a water change of 20%

you can continue the same procedure until spots are gone

Leave it up that high for a week or two - do a search on the forum here under the search tab and type in ich you'll get a ton of good threads with info -


i usually go with a week and a half of high temps - remember just cause you dn't see white spots DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE CURED THE FISH!


thats the number one mistake you need to wait for all those cysts hatch into tomites this can take some time

5 days is not enough - if you stop treatment after a week i GAURANTEE you this will come back within the month - i've been there many times - now i know! keep treatment going for 3 weeks - post back if you need more help- don't forget either ASSUME your other fish are now infected as well because it's in the water -
good luck!