Loaches Online Forum

I am a new freshwater aquarium owner, and I am willing to admit I went about things in all the wrong ways. I did not cycle my tank properly and put too many fish in the tank to start off with. Of course the store owner read "SUCKER" all over my forehead. Anyway, I finally got the ammonia under control and have been working steadily on the nitrite levels, my nitrates are still within safe levels. But to make matters worse I have what appears to be Ich in my tank.

One of my black mollies broke out with white spots near the nose and has a white looking fungus covering her eyes. This came about almost overnight, and a day after my other molly went belly-up, which I had assumed was caused by my high nitrite levels (which I have been treating with Prime and water changes).

I seperated the molly out of the tank, since I did not see any other fish with any white spots, but I also started treating the main tank with Aquari-Sol and began raising the temp slowly towards 85 deg. I have the molly in a small tank and I am doing regular water changes and treating with Aquari-Sol daily as well. Well today I notice my Clown Loach is seriously distressed inside the castle, I got it out and it immediately went to its side. I just so happened to be giving the segregated molly a salt dip at the time and I quickly rushed the Clown Loach to the bath. I figured what the heck, he is a goner anyway it is worth a shot. Sure enough he recovered, but I noticed his belly seems distended and he has about 4-5 white spots on his body and fins. So now he is separated with the molly, still alive.

Note: I might add the Clown Loach distressed when I started raising temps in the tank to attack the Ich. My temp showed about 83 deg, which is about what I had set it at. I was raising the temp roughly 1 degree every 2 hours.

1. I immediately removed the carbon filter and I am now running my micro filter (Marineland product for up to 55 gallon tank, water is horrible in Florida and it seems to do the trick mostly).

2. I have done a 30% water change and I added 4 tablespoons of salt to the tank (a little less than 1 tablespoon per 7 gallons) with the water change. I am afraid to do more than that because I have two Corydoras, who appear to be fine at the moment and I have read they can take some salt but not much.

3. I pulled all my plastic plants and most rocks and washed them with a bleach solution and I am air drying them. The castle I am air drying because I do not think it can take the dishwasher, but I have rinsed it in hot water/bleach solution.

4. I vacuumed the gravel thoroughly in my water change.

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So my question is what have I jacked-up and what should I do now?

1. Should I keep treating with Aquari-Sol after I added the salt?

2. Should I attempt to raise temps again now that I have the Clown Loach segregated in another tank?

3. Am I facing Ich?

4. I can provide picks if needed.

Ax

Update:

Well,

Not much luck on responses yet, so I will share where I am. And yes, I did read the site's article concerning Ich.

As for the Clown Loach I immersed in the salt bath (roughly 6 hours ago), he is doing fine. Still a bit lethargic but not distressed and definitely not floating upsidedown like he was prior to the salt bath. It appears I may have gotten lucky since I am reading conflicting messages that they cannot take salt and other sites say they can handle it to a degree.

All other fish in the main tank are doing fine. Remember I added 4 tablespoons of salt to my 29 gallon tank, which is about one-third less than the salt amount called for. In fact a couple of fish which seemed rather stressed before now seem better off. The rest are status quo. The corydoras have not had any ill effects and it has been over six hours since I added the salt.

No other signs of Ich on the other fish yet. I am allowing all plants and large rocks to sit out over night. I dried them thoroughly, even broke out the hairdryer because I have read the Ich does not last in the air for long.

I am still running the micro filter only, and have started heating the tank again, slowly. Sitting at 81 deg currently. Running an air stone and agitating the surface with the filter outlet to keep oxygen levels high.

I have decided at this point to continue treating with Aquari-Sol. Though I only applied half a dose after the cleaning due to the salt addition to the tank. Fish seem to be fine with it.

Molly in the segregation tank seems to be getting her eyesight back bit and is eating somewhat. Her eyes are slowly clearing up, but since I do not have a way to heat this tank I forced to ride out the Ich slowly and do several water changes since the tank is so small.

Ax