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A sudden outbreak of ich has occured in my clown loach tank. Over the last 2 days 3 of the 6 have died. I've done a 20% water change, raised the temperature to about 85 degrees and treated the tank with Coopersafe. Just wondering if anyone else may have a suggestion on what I may need to do. Thanks for any help!

Add some more surface agitation, as the increase in temperature decreased the amount of dissovled oxygen in the water, and be sure to continue to treat for an additional two or three days after the last white spot disappears.

Joe Potato

From what I know, loaches can be sensitive to medications, so I hope you didn't go full dose. (Try reading the thread about the Yellow Lab, ACIDRAIN recommended half the dose for twice as long)

STOP the COPPER!

Clown loaches and other scaleless fish and inverts do NOT do well with copper. Copper treatment can be fatal to clown loaches, especially when they're already battling ich. This may be the reason you have already lost two of them. You'll want to get that copper out of there ASAP to avoid further losses. I would suggest a massive water change, make sure the water is the same temp (or a few degrees warmer) and pH as the tank. I would probably change out about 50% at about 87 degrees. Get as much activated carbon as you can cram into the filter in there to pull the copper as quickly as possible. Increase surface agitation by lowering the water level by a few inches and add an extra pump and airstone or two to get your dissolved oxygen higher.

Rid Ich Plus is a fantastic medication for the treatment of ich and is scaleless fish safe. I highly recommend it for the treatement, as it can be dosed at full strength even when treating medication-sensitive fish like clown loaches. Do NOT start treatment with Rid Ich until you are certain that all of the copper has been removed. I would do the initial 50% water change followed by 20% changes daily for the next 3 days to be absolutely safe on top of the use of activated carbon, which can be removed before you start the new treatment.

I'm hoping you won't have any more losses, Good Luck.

Another great product for Scaleless fish is Kent Marine RX-P. I have had nothing but fantastic results with this medicine, and have yet to lose any fish from ich. I even treated a sensitive wild-caught Polka Dot Loach with Kent marine RXP successfully.
As stated before, DO NOT USE COPPER. Do not Use DYES. This includes: Malachite Green, Methylene Blue, Gentian Violet, and the like. Do not use FORMALIN, this could also kill your loaches.
Any heavy metal, corrosive (such as formalin -really the active ingredient in Formaldehyde ugh), or dyes can kill or seriously harm scaleless fish.
Kordon's Rid Ich Plus is safe for Scaleless fish as is Kent Marine RX-P...these are the only 2 meds I know of that are truly safe on scaleless fish.
I dont think you should turn the heat up to 87 though (or dump water that hot in your tank)....that could also kill your fish and is going a little bit too overboard!!
Heat of 80-82 degrees if just fine. Remove the copper through a series of 3 consecutive 35% water changes on 3 different days. Then medicate with a proper med for Scaleless fish. Do a good gravel vac prior to the first dose as this will remove some of the ich larva from the gravel. Treat for at least 14 days.


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Also, to rid your tank of any meds or copper and other heavy metals, use activated carbon.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Thanks for all the advice. I guess I've learned not to listen to the LFS who assured me the Coopersafe was safe for clown loaches.As of this morning 1 more had died. I've done a 50% water change in the tank Luckily I do keep 2 filters on the tank(stuffed with activated carbon) and a air stone in the tank. I've also purchased Rid Ich Plus(haven't yet added any) but at this point I have 2 left and 1 seems to knockin on fish heavens door.

Well I've add the Rid Ick + ,I'm now down to 1 clown loach the other was dead when I got home from work. The 1 left is swimming around in the tank as if it's fine but it's covered in ick and I doubt will make it through the night. I guess at best I've learned from my mistakes and will just start over knowing what to do and what not to do next time.

Sorry to hear about your losses. Keep hoping and maybe he'll make it through the night.

Unfortunately, I think as all of us have dealt with at some point, our LFS salespeople will tell us what it takes to sell a product. While they may be trained in bagging the fish and routine maintenance, I doubt the majority of them keep tanks at home, hobby or otherwise. I think coming here for (several) second opinion/s is the best idea, and will save you from the "Yeah, this works on everything."

Well it saddens me to report that my last clown loach has finally died. I guess its time to start over.

I feel sooo sad for you. I lost a couple of clown loaches also. What was weird, their mouths looked stuck open and their eyes became very black. Did that happen to you? I love clown loaches they are my favorite. I cried when my Marilyn died. The worst part is that I think I caused it myself with a possible water temp drop when I did a water change. I have three of them now, (and two of those were in the original group that was being treated) and they are doing wonderfully. Try again.........I am so sorry.

I to RasboroMary I'm guilty of the dreaded temp. drop after doing a water change. My clown loaches got ick and thou I must say when they died their mouths weren't open or eyes very black. By the time I finally got some good reliable information on how to treat them it was simply to late. Right now the tank still sits empty as am trying to give it enough time to make sure all the ick and ick spores have died off.Probably within the next couple of weeks I plan on recycling the tank and trying my luck with the clown loaches again. This time a little bit more knowledgable about how to properly tank care of them.