MethBlue for ich

[fatbotia]

I some how managed to introduce ich into my planted loach tank last week, from a new plant me thinks. Anyway, I tried heat treatment at 31.5 celcius, for the past 6 days, and I've had mixed results.
Because it's a planted tank, I left the lights on. After a few days, the spots have cleared up on the Rams and Platies, but the loaches and a bristlenose, have gotten worse. (BTW, the extra heat seems to have made the loaches more active and lively)

So my plan is now to net out all the fish and medicate them in a separate tank, and let the ich burn out (untreated) in the main aquarium. I've got an old bottle to Methylene Blue, and have used it successfully in the past, for ich. I guess my question is, is this safe for Loaches (Sids and Yo Yos), can I use it at the normal dose rate.
Also, is there a plant safe (cryptocorynes), filter safe, reliable treatment that will nuke ich?

[Blue]

Fatbotia, ich is already present in your tank so there is no point separating the afflicted ones anymore. The warmer the temp, the higher the metabolic rate thus this does seem to make the fish more active rather than sluggish.

How long have you keep methylene blue? What loaches are they? Dose should be cut by half as loaches are sensitive to meds.

Read this article.
http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=2599

[chefkeith]

I'm not sure that there are any plant safe meds.

[fatbotia]

well, I went ahead with the methylene blue treatment. After a week of seeing my loaches getting ever more miserable by the day, I decided it was time to take the plants out and dose with methblue at the normal rate. It was touch and go for a few days, but I'm happy to report that they've turned the corner, and appear to be much healthier, though ATM, I'm still continuing to treat the tank at full strenth, and continue that for at least a few more days.
At their worst, the loaches were in such poor condition, that I considered netting them out, and putting them out of their misery. They were absolutely covered in ich spots, appeared slimey, and laid on their sides in the tank corner, gasping, and were generally very weak.
For anyone interested. I kept the temp at 32C, completely bare, very strong water movement using oversized powerhead, and dosed using standard 3ppm Methylene Blue @ 10ml/40L, and did 50% water changes every second day. From the start of treatment, the fish seemed to get worse up until the 4th day, then will get progressivley better.
So for anyone wondering, Meth Blue does work against ich for loaches (sids and yoyos).

[chefkeith]

That's great news. It's good to hear about an ich treatement that actually worked. Keep up the treatment for another week though or the ich could re-infest.

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Hi fatbotia,

Methilene blue is present in many ich medicines but as I have already read somewhere, it do impact on the nitrifying bacterias so, it´s advisable to check ammonia and nitrites levels.

[namal kamalgoda]

Had an out break of ich and whote spot a few days back .Methilene blue combined with water change, worked for me. Don't forget to remove any activated carbon from your filter

[chefkeith]

Who was it that said meth blue won't work for treating ich? I haven't seen him post for awhile. Did he get banned?