ICH on my clown loach

[tower]

Hello Everyone,

Sadly I have a bad case of ich with my clown loaches. After reading a lot of peoples comments I decided Rid Ich sounded like a safe way to go. Ive been treeting my tank for 4 days now (dose at 5ml for 10 Gallons every 24 hours) and they all seem pretty active, BUT: they still have quite a bit of ich and one of them is showing sings of damaged skin. I see he has a few white flaky patches and I'm scared for his life!! What should I do? If I stop the treatement the ich will probably kill them, they do have quite a bit. Any ideas?

[Diana]

Hi, tower, welcome to Loaches.

Ich has a life cycle that the Rid Ich interrupts, but Rid Ich does not kill all the different phases of Ich. Here is what is probably happening:

Before you even know there is Ich in the tank the young Ich (the phase called theront) searches for a host. It is too small to see when it lands on the host.
It burrows under the slime coat, and cannot be affected by meds.
On the fish it is called a trophont, it starts growing, and a day or so later it is big enough to see. More and more baby Ich (Theronts) land on the fish every day, including right before you add medicine to the water.

Add medicine to the tank on this date and watch the Ich. The only phase you can easily see is the phase that is on the fish, the trophont.

The Ich that landed on the fish right before you added medicine grows for a day or so before it is big enough to see, and continues growing for a few more days. So, you still see Ich on your fish on day 4 of treatment, and some of it looks like it is new spots. The actually got on there before the medicine was in the water, but were too small to see for a day or so. If you have got the temperature of the water about 80*F or higher this phase should go faster, and by day 4 I would expect very few Ich remaining on the fish, and no 'new' spots after about day 2, maybe day 3.

Ich starts falling off the fish, (It is called a tomont once it falls off the fish) so about now you should start seeing less and less Ich on the fish. If the water temperature is in the mid 70s*F then this may be happening around days 4-6.
If you keep seeing more, new Ich then the medicine is not working (see notes below)

Ich falls to the floor of the tank and starts to reproduce. This is where gravel vacuuming comes in. The more Ich tomonts you can remove from the floor of the tank before it reproduces the fewer there are to re-infest the fish. Gravel vac every other day or more frequently, and add that day's dose of medicine after the water change.

The babies (theronts) are the ones that are killed by most Ich treatments.

Things that de-activate Rid Ich:
Amquel, Amquel Plus
Activated Carbon.

Remove activated carbon from the filter.
Do not use Amquel or Amquel Plus dechlorinators while using the dye based Ich medicines. Read the label, and go to the web site for the dechlor you are using to be sure it is OK.

[tower]

Thanks a lot!!

I dont think I see new ich. In fact a couple of my younger clowns seem to be getting over it. What I'm worried bout are two things, maybe you can tell me if they are normal
1) One of the larger clowns seems to have flaky skin in some parts like it was falling off.

2) one of my younger clowns seems to be swimming upside down and on his side a lot. He didnt do this before so I'm not sure hes ok or just acting silly!


Thanks a lot!

[Diana]

Flaky skin, or excess slime coat can indicate something irritating, either in the water (ammonia, wrong pH, other) or parasites.

Swimming at weird angles can be normal for some fish, especially Loaches, and I had a Pleco that would do that. Make sure this one is eating, socializing, and so on, and watch for other problems, like actual difficulty swimming. There might be a swim bladder issue if the fish cannot rise or sink to where he (or she) wants to be in the tank. You might see that this one always stays at one elevation, and may swim hard for a short time trying to go higher or lower, but just drifts back to that one area.