dead clown loach (long post)

[libingboy]

this morning, i saw the newest loach (about 1 month in my tank) breathing relatively heavily, immediately looked at the other fishes to see if others were having the same problems, or whether they had any white spots. Didnt see any (although it is admittedly difficult to scan the fishes, but definitely everybody else breathing normally), but decided to buy coppersafe just the same, on the way home.
came home and saw that the newest loach was dead, covered in slime (as it seems to be the case with loaches.) the rest of the fishes still acting normally.
zero ammonia, nitrites. heater is set at 82, but since im in singapore, water temp is generally higher than this. I've bumped heater to 86 just now, but my water temp (w/o the heater is generally higher than that in the morning)
its a 4x2x2, largest loach is 5", smallest is 3". its with a fire eel (7"), a flagtail prochilodus (5"), and 3 juvy bala sharks (4"). theres also 3 3" raphael cats as my cleanup crew.
just now i managed to look at the fire eel. Since this always is in contact with the sand, sand tends to stick to his body. There MAY be some (3-4)white spots on the eel, not sure though, because it may have been sand. the spots i saw seemed to be too reflective to be ich.

im not quite sure what to do now, except for a water change and bumping up the temp to 86F. Im torn between waiting, using coppersafe at half dose, or using a salt treatment.
1. waiting - pro: not sure about diagnosis yet, both alternatives would stress fish.
con: whatever that clown had, killed it quite fast.
2. coppersafe - pro: i would be able to hedge my bets, as to whether its ich or velvet or chinodinella
con: some have reported problems with copper on loaches
3. salt bath - pro: should be safer ich treatment for loaches
con: im not sure about the salt concentration required to kill ich, velvet, etc... im not sure i want to go as high as 1 tblspoon a gallon (how does that translate into specific gravity, btw?)

my second question is source of infection. the eel eats nothing except live ghost shrimp. Could this have been the source of my infection? if anything, ive stepped up my water changes recently, to twice a week, from once a week (30%).

[NancyD]

I'm not sure shrimp can have copper in any form. But maybe thats only other kinds of shrimp? Since that's all your eel will eat you should be very careful since copper can be hard to remove totally after use. I'd think they could be the ich carriers since even plants can. Are ghost shrimp the sort you could breed on a small tank so you'd have a "clean" source of food? Sorry not to be more help. Good luck.
Nancy

[crazie.eddie]

Use of any medications may stress out the fish even more. I had 1 clown loach with some ich and I was able to add salt to the aquarium and raise the temps without stressing any of my other clown loaches, angelfish, pleco, or harlequin rasboras.

If you use salt, make sure you dissolve it, before pouring the solution into the tank. Make sure you pour it over a long period of time. What I did was I cut some slits on the bottom of a disposable plastic cup. I glue some string on the top lip of the cup, so I can hang the cup. Then I put my aquarium salt (not table salt) into the cup and slowly lowered the cup into the tank. I made sure the lip of the cup did not go lower than the water line. Then I hung the cup near the output jet of my filter. This allows the salt to dissolve slowly and will spread throughout the tank.

[aquarioten.nl]

i would not add salt to the tank since plants don't like salt. just put some aquarium water in a bucket put some table spones salt in it. catch the fish put it in the bucket for 10 min. en place the fish back in the tank....