Loaches Online Forum

hi guys my tiger barbs have got white spot and they have it bad! there in with my convicts and my covicts just had there 3 batch yesterday morning. i herd that you can kill white spot by raising the temp to 30deggres but im not to sure if my tiger barbs and my convicts can take that much heat and not to mention the connies baby's and help would be much apresiated as soon as possible

i would have gone straight for the medication myself the quicker you treat the tank the better before the second flush of white spot.
i think the fry will be alright with it, i've dosed tanks before with fry in with no harm to them.

mick

You can kill Ich by raising the temperature, but you do indeed have to get it over 30*C (86*F). Including deep under the substrate. This means raising the temperature even higher.

I would do a LOT of gravel vacuuming. You will them be removing the Ich organisms as they fall off the fish, before they can reproduce. At this point you might need to do gravel vacs twice a day for a few days, then you can back off to once a day.

If the Cons are not showing signs of Ich right now I would remove them and the babies to a bare bottom tank to monitor them and not expose the babies to Ich medicines.

Then medicate the remaining fish with whatever medicine is available. Ich has gone through several generations to get the fish as covered as you say they are, and are all over the tank and in the gravel. Still do the gravel vacs, but treat with either salt or Ich medicine, too.

In the tank with the Convicts: Vacuum the floor of the tank daily just in case some Ich moved in when you moved the fish. Add salt to the water:
5 ml per 40 liters (1 tsp per 10 gallons) the first day, same on the second day, same again on the third day. Dissolve the salt in a bit of water and pour it into the tank slowly over the course of the day.
When you do water changes replace the amount of salt that was in the water you removed.

Is it ok to add salt to loach tanks if infected with ich?

Salt and Loaches is a controversial issue. There are members here who have treated Loaches with salt (Search the forums for a post about this).

It seems the best way to do this is to raise the salt level SLOWLY,
for example 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons dissolved in a little water and added throughout the day.
Do the same the next day, and again the next day.
Total dose is 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons.

Metric: 5 ml per 40 liters daily for 3 days.

Salt does not evaporate, so when you do water changes add salt to the replacement water: If you change 10 gallons, add 1 tablespoon of salt to the new water.

When treatment is done reduce the salt level slowly. For example a 25% water change once a week will remove the salt slowly.

many thanks....must try it out the next time