how long to medicate?

My experience with half doses (Quick Cure) for ich didn't turn out well. Loaches (clowns, zebras, yo-yo, hillstream, orange-finned) and tetras (lemon, neons, cardinals, rummynose, congo, glo-lites) that I've kept and treated, all tolerated 1 tablespoon salt/5 gal water and full doses of formalin (25 ppm). Research on Malachite Green led me to use plain formalin as treatment. The key is to give them a day at half dose and the next day (after a partial water change) give them a full dose. Continue with daily partial water changes and re-dosing at full dose for 7-10 days. I always use salt in conjunction with formalin for ich.
 
Well. :( I've lost 4 out of my 5 loaches that I had for over 2 years!
And the last one doesn't look all that great.

Did a 50 % water change the other night and did another one just a wee bit ago.

am trying to use just the salt.

but what i can't figure out is why this case of ich is so bad?
they have had it before and it went away with the 2 day quick cure.

the angels and rope fish look fine and so does the big ole worm.
the queen botia and shark and last clown loach are still having ich on them.

have raised the temp to 80. so will let you all know how it goes from here.

thanks for the advice.

Dahlia ;) the enzymes i meant are the kind of quick add stuff that comes in bottles. helps to up the good bacteria in the tank.
one is called Cycle and comes in a bottle that you keep refrigerated.
 
my last clown loach died.
so i lost all 5 of them.

the other fish are still showing signs of ich, but i guess now i can up the salt since the loaches have died.
 
My boyfriend and I have medicated his 25 gallon tank with three clown loaches (mostly v. small still), one zebra danio, 2 lemon tetras, and a bristlenose pl*co with a tablespoon of sea salt for aquariums and nothing bad happened at all. None even showed signs of stress!
 
One nice facet of having a closed system (i.e. an aquarium) is that you can simply do a water change to dilute chemicals (salt, etc...) if the fish begin to show signs of stress. If you're worried about an overdose (like, if you're not sure how much salt a...I don't know...loach for instance, can tolerate) be prepared to do a water change.;)
 
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