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Ok I've lost all my clown loaches to ick and the tank is empty. I've done a 50% water change continued to add the Rid Ick and also turned up the heater.MY question is How long do you recommend I treat the tank and How long should I wait before I add new fish?

Did all the fish die or just the clowns

Complete the round of treatment according to the directions. If all the fish died the ich should die as well as it needs a fish host to complete its life cycle. If you still have fish then follow the directions exactly. Some medications require additional rounds of treatment.

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Yes clown loaches were the only thing in the tank. 6 of them to be exact. I knew ich needed a host to survive I just didn't know if there was a specific amount of time that they might be able to survive in the tank without one.

Sorry about your losing the Clowns

Ich can only survive if it has a host fish to attach to during it's cycle.

If you treat the tank, put the temp up to about 30*C and keep it fish free for a week you will not have any ich left in the tank. I think 72 hours is the maximum length of time that the parasite has to hatch & attach to a host, so 1 week is fine, but to be on the safe side leave it for 2 weeks and then you'd be sure that all eggs have either hatched or died.

Deb



In wildness, nature is not human-hearted!

Real sorry about that Cichlid Keeper ...I agree with debbiemc's plan ....I'd make plans to either feed the bacteria during the process or plans on re-cycling the tank once you're ready to restock.

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Your advice may come under the heading of "wishful thinking"...

There's nothing that can guarantee ich will not return to any given tank after a period of time with no fish.

That's why brand new tanks and fish are attacked by ich if the trops are not properly acclimated.

Anytime new Clown Loaches are introduced to a tank without the proper acclimation, the Clowns will contract ich to which they have little or no resistance.

Being a warm water fish, sort of a super tropical, Clowns do best in water 84-86 degrees (30c).

--garyroland.

Gary,
I understand where your coming from and all. Only thing is it wasn't a new tank its been up for over a year. I just moved the fish that were in it into another tank and put the clown loaches in by themselves. Secondly they had been in the tank for 2 possibly 3 months before cotracting ick. So if they weren't acclimated currently wouldn't they have contracted the ick a lot sooner? Are could my problem have been simply that the water wasn't warm enough? I kept it at about 78 and the PH at 7.0.

I wasn't implying that the tank was new, only that new tanks (fish) are not immune to the ich parasite...

Now that you've supplied further info I may be able to speculate that your Clowns contracted ich from water changes that were not the exact same temp as the tank water was.

Even the pouring in of new water, of a lower temp, that touches the Clowns, could trigger a resistance/shock episode that causes an immune lowering.

However, when dealing with Clown Loaches and ich, the temp must be raised to 86 degrees while dosing the appropriate med, in this case Rid Ich Plus, for a ten day period or until all spots are gone.

Be advised, as I mentioned before, Clowns do not come in contact with ich in nature and have absolutely no resistance to the parasite. All young Clowns are taken from the wild.

--garyroland.

Ok, but the problem with the water change theory is that I keep the water I'm going to be adding in the tank when I do a water change in an 18 gallon rubbermaid tub and I use a heater to heat the water to as close to the temperature of the tank as possible before adding it. So could that a small of a temperature difference caused the problem?

I keep my new water in almost the same setup, a 32 gallon Rubbermaid trash can heated to the identical temp as the tanks...

It seems to be common knowledge that even a 2 degree sudden temp drop can trigger a trop immune system reaction to ich.

Did that happen to your Clowns?? I don't know. It would depend on how sudden the water was poured into the tank and how much water was used.

Even an extended heater failure on the lower side of the temp can trigger the same thing.

An inaccurate thermometer can read a temp higher than it actually is also.

I can tell you that if the temp had been raised to 86 degrees or perhaps a little higher including the med, your Clowns would have survived the ich.

--garyroland.

Alright so that explains my problems. Thanks for the advice Gary, I really appreciate it. Also thanks to everyone else too.

I should mention, in case there's any confusion, the temp is raised to 86 degrees including the med during the treatment period only, which may be seven to ten days.

A little late now but the info may come in handy if you purchase more Clowns and they contract ich.

--garyroland.

Last edited by garyroland at 19-Nov-2004 09:46