Clown Loaches with Ich Mystery

That could be the sand substrate it is rubbing itself in that is stuck
to the body. If it is ich, it sure is diehard stuff. Call it super-ich!

Nikki

Sue wrote:

Looking at that shot your loach appears to have BOTH ich & oodinium ;o(
Ich being the ones that look like salt whereas velvet appears like a
sprinkling of finely ground pepper!

"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...

When the sun went down, I got a torch out and shone it down the side of
one of the clown loaches and took a few photos. He was breathing
extremely rapidly.

The powdery grains are all raised from the body. They look like minute
salt granules just stuck on:
http://www.ncasali.demon.co.uk/

it seemed to be lessoning day by day and ive seen ich cases that were just
a few spots but my loach was covered, it looked pretty bad.

"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...
Does the ich disappear gradually, day by day, thining out in density, or
does it go in one go? Also, how bad was the infection?

Nikki

blove wrote:
when my clownloach had ich i put in Jungle Ick Guard at half dosage
since i
have scaleless fish in the tank with him, and i turned the heat up to 80
degrees F. and i added a little more aquarium salt and the ich was gone
in
about a week.


"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...

I have 4 clown loaches and they are completely covered in a very fine
powder. I have been treating them with white spot treatmenr for 2 weeks,
but the "white spots" remain untouched. I also increased the tempearture
to over 30 degrees Celsius. The clown loaches haven't lost any colour,
but they have become very shy, but do come out when it is darker. They
also scratch themselves on rocks.

In all the 15 years I have been keeping fish I have never seen such fine
microscopic spots. They seem to be less than 0.3 millimetre and they
never grow any larger except on the tail. They certainly never reach the
size shown in this photo below.

http://www.loaches.com/species_image..._ick_large.jpg

My large adult silver shark also has some of these spots, but the
density is far less, but the spot size is the same. In fact, they almost
look like microscopic bubbles trapped under its skin.

My mollies had a few on their tail, but they has cleared up.

The tank is 330 litres. I have been changing 20% of the tank water every
couple of days. The readings for nitrites and ammonia are close to 0,
but the nitrites did spike a few days ago.

Are these spots really Ichthyophthirius? They seem completely immune to
Protozin, which is the medicine I have been giving them. Usually, white
spot clears up in a few days and the spots are much larger and snowy
looking.

Any ideas welcome!

Nikki

1 clown loach survived the night.

I'm such an airhead for introducing new fish 2 weeks ago from my LFS
without quarantining them first. It's very rare that I buy fish because
the fish I do get live for years with absolutely no bother. My fish die
of old age.

The last time I introduced anything foreign into my aquarium was 10
months ago. This was a bunch of plants from the same chain of LFS. Guess
what? I had a major bacterial infection and 1 fish died, my 9 inch bala.
So I need to quarantine plants too.

I'm going to stick a big red sign on the underside of the lid to my
aquarium saying "Don't you dare!", just in case I become amnesic again.

I now have my whole aquarium draped in a curtain to prevent any light
from reaching it. I have read that the free swimming velvet parasites
use photosynthesis to make energy. The Protozin medication I'm using is
supposed to be good for velvet too. Probably cures all known cancers too.

Nikki

Nikki Casali wrote:
I have 4 clown loaches and they are completely covered in a very fine
powder. I have been treating them with white spot treatmenr for 2 weeks,
but the "white spots" remain untouched. I also increased the tempearture
to over 30 degrees Celsius. The clown loaches haven't lost any colour,
but they have become very shy, but do come out when it is darker. They
also scratch themselves on rocks.

In all the 15 years I have been keeping fish I have never seen such fine
microscopic spots. They seem to be less than 0.3 millimetre and they
never grow any larger except on the tail. They certainly never reach the
size shown in this photo below.

http://www.loaches.com/species_image..._ick_large.jpg

My large adult silver shark also has some of these spots, but the
density is far less, but the spot size is the same. In fact, they almost
look like microscopic bubbles trapped under its skin.

My mollies had a few on their tail, but they has cleared up.

The tank is 330 litres. I have been changing 20% of the tank water every
couple of days. The readings for nitrites and ammonia are close to 0,
but the nitrites did spike a few days ago.

Are these spots really Ichthyophthirius? They seem completely immune to
Protozin, which is the medicine I have been giving them. Usually, white
spot clears up in a few days and the spots are much larger and snowy
looking.

Any ideas welcome!

Nikki

|| That could be the sand substrate it is rubbing itself in that is
|| stuck to the body. If it is ich, it sure is diehard stuff. Call it
|| super-ich!
|||| http://www.ncasali.demon.co.uk/

I still say velvet... breathing rapidly is because there's medication in the
tank that pushes the oxygen out of the water... keep up the water changes
and hopefully he'll pull thru...

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Nikki,

The photos don't look like Ich that I've ever had.

I'd go down the Velvet route but careful about mixing meds with the stuff
that you've already put in.

One illness will weaken your fish making it more susceptible to others, but
they will also compete against one another for space on your fish.

What is obvious is that your current treatment isn't working.

Moving to velvet meds in your hospital tank sounds best. Smaller water
volumes = less meds but also less stability.

Meds tend to lower how much oxygen is in the water so try to increase
circulation flow-rate or turn-up the venturi on your powerhead.

Tana.

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"RedForeman ©®" wrote in message
...
|| That could be the sand substrate it is rubbing itself in that is
|| stuck to the body. If it is ich, it sure is diehard stuff. Call it
|| super-ich!
|||| http://www.ncasali.demon.co.uk/

I still say velvet... breathing rapidly is because there's medication in
the
tank that pushes the oxygen out of the water... keep up the water changes
and hopefully he'll pull thru...

--
| RedForeman ©® fabricator and creator of the ratbike streetfighter!!!
| ==========================
| 2003 TRX450ES
| 1992 TRX-350 XX (For Sale)
| '98 Tacoma Ext Cab 4X4 Lifted....
| ==========================
| ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤° `°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø
| ((((º`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·.¸. ((((º ·´¯`·. , .·´¯`·.. ((((º
| for any questions you may have....
| www.gmail.com

It's a sad day for me. My last clown died before me. I think I
accelerated its death by placing it in a hospital tank.

I immediately took a skin scraping and viewed it under a microscope.

Under 40x magnification I saw clearly round cells with a worm like thing
inside. In Untergasser's Handbook of Fish diseases, this matches the
photo of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis.

That's not the end of the story. Further on the slide, at 100x
magnification, where I placed this sticky mucous stuff, I saw cells
which are identical to Oodinium. Inside each cell I saw a swirling mass
of dark particles. Around the edge of each cell, I saw something flowing
around it.

I think the ich were on the tail and the oodinium on the main body where
I scraped off the sticky mucous. How about that? Everyone was right.

My LFS sells instant death along with their fish. Must take note of this
for next time.

Time for some Prozac and a nervous breakdown.

Nikki

Anandan Tanabalan wrote:
Nikki,

The photos don't look like Ich that I've ever had.

I'd go down the Velvet route but careful about mixing meds with the stuff
that you've already put in.

One illness will weaken your fish making it more susceptible to others, but
they will also compete against one another for space on your fish.

What is obvious is that your current treatment isn't working.

Moving to velvet meds in your hospital tank sounds best. Smaller water
volumes = less meds but also less stability.

Meds tend to lower how much oxygen is in the water so try to increase
circulation flow-rate or turn-up the venturi on your powerhead.

Tana.

"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...

My LFS sells instant death along with their fish. Must take note of this
for next time.

Time for some Prozac and a nervous breakdown.


Just make sure you don't take the "instant death" instead of the Prozac!

dwhite

Dan White wrote:
"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...

My LFS sells instant death along with their fish. Must take note of this
for next time.

Time for some Prozac and a nervous breakdown.



Just make sure you don't take the "instant death" instead of the Prozac!


Thanks. I'll try to not get the packets confused.

It's completely irrational to feel the loss for a primitive animal like
a fish, but I do. I always thought psychopaths had it easy. I think I
need a drug to temporarily induce psychopathy. Grief today, gone tomorrow!

Nikki

"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...


Dan White wrote:
"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...

My LFS sells instant death along with their fish. Must take note of this
for next time.

Time for some Prozac and a nervous breakdown.



Just make sure you don't take the "instant death" instead of the Prozac!


Thanks. I'll try to not get the packets confused.

It's completely irrational to feel the loss for a primitive animal like
a fish, but I do. I always thought psychopaths had it easy. I think I
need a drug to temporarily induce psychopathy. Grief today, gone tomorrow!

Nikki

Just think of it this way. In the wild, some bird would probably come by
and spear the fish through its chest and eat it alive. Not a pleasant way
to go, either!

dwhite

Dan White wrote:
"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...


Dan White wrote:

"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
.. .


My LFS sells instant death along with their fish. Must take note of this
for next time.

Time for some Prozac and a nervous breakdown.



Just make sure you don't take the "instant death" instead of the Prozac!


Thanks. I'll try to not get the packets confused.

It's completely irrational to feel the loss for a primitive animal like
a fish, but I do. I always thought psychopaths had it easy. I think I
need a drug to temporarily induce psychopathy. Grief today, gone tomorrow!

Nikki


Just think of it this way. In the wild, some bird would probably come by
and spear the fish through its chest and eat it alive. Not a pleasant way
to go, either!


I know. And that's the reason that I don't take it for granted that I
was born in my country and not in a war-torn nation where it is not too
uncommon to be speared through the chest...and worse. :-/

Nikki