# Moving loaches back and forth between tanks to kill ich



## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

Um....this isn't working. We've been moving our loaches back and forth between 2 hospital tanks on a daily basis at 80F and disinfecting everything between moves. We've done this for the past 5 days and it doesn't seem to be working. We've also had a uv sterilizer going in the tank (also disinfected between moves) to take care of any swimming ich. I hate to put the loaches through this if it isn't working. I also hate to use medication because that's how we lost our last loaches. I have Kordon's Rid ich+ (malachite and formalin) and some coppersafe. No aquarisol here at my lfs. Should we keep going with the moving the loaches torture or switch to medication torture? I just want happy fish!!! If you recommend that we switch to a drug - at what dose?


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## sonicboomer (Apr 5, 2010)

You might need more than 5 days. It took 2 weeks to get rid of ich for me and give it enough extra days to be *pretty* sure it was all gone. Hang in there.

The constant moving might be stressing out your loaches btw.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

It doesn't kill the ich already attached to the fish, just keeps new ich from attaching. It will work if they fish can fight off the ich already on them. Unfortunately, stress can hurt their ability to do that. But loaches are super-senisitive to common meds. I looked for a loach forum and found this http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=16721 , It says try a half-dose of Rid-Ich, be careful and change water if they show adverse effect and don't try any salt cure.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

You have to wait for the parasites to fall off, which will take awhile. The whole point of this is to keep the fish from getting reinfected by newly hatched swarmers by making sure they aren't _exposed_ to any newly hatched swarmers. Alas, there's no good way to get the things to jump off in the first place except time.

Well, there is garlic... if you feed the fish some food which has garlic oil/powder in it, the fish will start to taste bad and the ickies will drop off, but this takes longer to start working than this current treatment will probably take anyway.


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## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

Gotcha. Thanks folks! We'll keep at it. Yeah, we are stressing out our loach friends but we lost our last loaches after ich meds and I hate to go through that again.


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## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

We gave up and medicated. After The ich didn't seem to be getting better. Instead, it started to get worse and spread to fish that didn't yet have it. So we put a 1/2 dose of Coppersafe into the hospital tank with the loaches. They've tolerated the medication well but the ich still isn't improving. The temperature is up pretty high (84F) so the life cycle should be short, but it just isn't going away.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

coppersafe=aquarisol. Other have copper sulfate as the one and only ingredient. Coppersafe just costs more, cuz mardel is an expensive name.


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## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

Update: So we lost one a few weeks ago the day after we added coppersafe, but since then, the remaining fish have been great. The ich has cleared up. I've kept them in the qt tank anyway so that I can keep things healthy in the big tank until I'm absolutely sure everything is ok. I'm thinking 30 days since the coppersafe. I just want to keep my angelfish safe and healthy! In the meantime, I'm really relieved that all the loaches (minus one) are doing better. I bet if I had started with the coppersafe instead of the moving back and forth plan, all the loaches would have made it. I think that the delay allowed the ich to get out of control before treatment.


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## toddnbecka (Jun 30, 2006)

I just raise the temp to 84 and add some rock salt to the tank. No worries about which fish are sensitive to which medication, enough salt ti kill the Ich doesn't bother many fish.


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## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

So, it's been almost 30 days (We dosed on the 19th of May) that the remaining loaches have been in the qt tank and I'm really anxious to get them back to the big tank. But....although the loaches seem active (I don't have a good baseline of what these particular loaches activity level is because these were brand new fish when this whole thing started - hence the disease...), I'm hesitant to move them. This is because of 2 reasons. The first reason is that the big tank is so happy and healthy (finally!). Water chemistry is good, plants are growing, fish are happy, life is good. What if these fish are still carrying something and I screw up the big tank again? The second reason is that the loaches (they are the small silver and black ones) don't seem as bright silver as they used to be. In fact, they seem a little gold to me. I'm worried about velvet. Although its a qt tank, I've kept the water quality in there very good and kept everything clean and nice in there, so I don't think it is the water quality. But maybe they had velvet in the first place, along with the ich? These fish came from petsmart. Yeah, so they don't have any other signs of velvet. No flashing. No fine dust of spots. Just this sort of rusty gold color. I swear, I've been staring at them for so long I wonder if I'm hallucinating it. But really, they've been in Coppersafe water (1/2 dose because they are loaches) for almost 30 days - shouldn't it be gone if it was there in the first place? I've replaced the removed Coppersafe when I do water changes.


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## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

Not sure if anyone is following this, but here is another update. My husband thinks I'm totally nuts for thinking they might have velvet. He says they never were super bright silver and they've always had that sort of bronze tint. There is definitely no powdery looking stuff on them and their appetite is fine. Still no flashing. But I haven't moved them from the qt tank yet....


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

I say go back to the tank switching for a week. If they're clean, they'll be fine. If they're not, the stress will make them break out again, and you'll know for sure.
Or not. They're probably as good as you're going to get them.


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## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

I can't take it anymore!!!! I want to put them in the big tank!!! That tank switching was such a nightmare. That is totally a brilliant suggestion, but I don't know if I can take it. I'm writing a grant at work and its just killing me.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

LOL!
Okay,then, go for it. It'll probably turn out okay, but if not, worst case scenario, you just have to start over again. ( but you probably won't have to )


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## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

Okay, so today I moved the loaches into the big tank! It was so exciting and they are doing so well! They look really good. Nothing sketchy about their appearance. In fact, they look better now than they did in that dinky little qt tank. They are really active and exploring and playing and it is awesome. So...pray for them!


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## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

Update - life is still pretty good and the loaches are really digging being in the big tank!


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## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

Update - things are still good! Everybody seems happy/healthy.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

...and the ewoks danced.


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## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

Thanks for noticing


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