FAR too many opinions out there!

[Mith]

Man, I've been looking online all night trying to figure out how to take care of my "scaleless" fish (clown loaches, peacock eels, silver dollars, yoyo loaches etc) and there is JUST too much conflicting info out there!

For starters, I have VERY fine sand in my tank and some of it sticks to the fish occasionally... so it's hard to determine what is sand and what's Ick and what's sand unless you observe each fish and see if the "sand/ick" falls off from day to day.

A couple of my Silver Dollars have a few spots... but they're mid-water fish so I can't see how the spots are sand.

So what I've decided to do is raise the temp to 89° tonight and get some, "rid-ick +" tomorrow and start treatment and see what happens for a few days.

Any comments?

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

That temp is too high. Don't go any higher than 86, and don't add any meds to that tank at that temp. The higher temps will lower the oxygen concentration in the water, and the meds will further lower it. At 86 you should be able to treat the ich that way.

I'll actually go one step further. It's not the issue of scaleless or scaled that makes the difference. The issue is with the sensitivity of the gills. The salt or meds do not effect them through the skin, it is the gills where they can be effected.

[Mith]

That temp is too high. Don't go any higher than 86, and don't add any meds to that tank at that temp. The higher temps will lower the oxygen concentration in the water, and the meds will further lower it. At 86 you should be able to treat the ich that way.

I'll actually go one step further. It's not the issue of scaleless or scaled that makes the difference. The issue is with the sensitivity of the gills. The salt or meds do not effect them through the skin, it is the gills where they can be effected.

I just bumped down the temp to 86° as you suggested. I also have a pretty big air bubbler in the tank to assist with the lesser oxygen levels. I had the temp set at 89° for an hour and the temp of the tank's at 71.8°. So it's probably going to take a couple days to raise the temp slowly (it's cold here)...

So should I treat with temp only, or add meds? (rid-ick +)

[FinalJenemba]

If it helps, I had a ick breakout about 6 months ago. I raised the temp to 86, ran a bubbler, and added salt for about 2 weeks. I have 4 yoyo loaches, didn't loose a single one. They weren't as active with the tank like that, but they survived just fine.

[Brandone]

+1 on the increased temp and salt.

If that doesn't sound like you're doing enough, you can instead tell your friends that you increased the amplitude of molecular oscillations and used a sodium chloride solution to raise the overall specific gravity.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

So should I treat with temp only, or add meds? (rid-ick +)

Personally I'd go with the high temp and a salt treatment. I've never had it harm Clown Loaches or Silver Dollars, and I honestly haven't heard of anyone who could prove that salt harmed either one of those. I know salt won't harm the Clowns since in the wild they will make forays into brackish waters that can last for days, and the brackish waters of the coastal region of the Island of Borneo are a much stronger saline solution than you would use for Ich treatment.

[Crispy]

Mith, if you do use an ich medication, only use half doses for fish such as loaches and eels. they are very sensitive to meds.

[Lady Hobbs]

Mith. Stop already!

Ick will reproduce in 5 days in water at 78 just as it will in temps higher. In cold water tanks it reproduces much slower but that does not mean you need to go to the extreme and cook the fish, either. DO NOT treat with medications and with higher heat at the same time or you are taking oxygen out of the tank.

There is no reason you can not raise the temps to 82 and use salt. But the purpose of using medications is so you do not have to raise those temps like that.

BUT FIRST........Check out those Silver Dollars better. They have little speckles that L@@K like Ick but is not ick. They have very shiny scales and being silver, it can appear to look just like ick but is not. It is very easy to jump to that conclusion because at times I also thought the same thing with my Dollars.

These are fish you already had and simply put them in your new tank, right? Being as they already existed in your home, I would take a second look at this.

If it's Ick, do one or the other. Medications (no copper with loaches) OR raise the temps a bit and use salt.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

I have to strongly disagree with that assessment Crispy. I'm not trying to start a debate or argument here, but half doses on meds and salt for these kinds of fish is what has given rise to the new strain of "super Ich" that came out of Asia. Half doses do not effectively kill the parasites as it takes much longer to have an effect, and thus allows the parasite to slowly build up a resistance to the meds. Over time, this slowly increasing resistance has been passed on from generation to generation so that now we are dealing with a strain of Ich that can only be killed by the use of Quinine. These meds are designed to swiftly deal with the parasite, and not allow them to build up resistance. The same thing applies to salt treatments, use only full strength salt treatment (1tbsp/5gal) as well.

[Lady Hobbs]

One more thing, Mith. Why was your tank at only 71 to began with? Where the heck is the heater that belongs in that tank? Set the darned thing to 78 and leave it there.