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/

|| 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....
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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.