I have a 30 gallon community tank with 4 clown loaches (small ones). Recently one of the clown loaches?

Question

developed 'ich' and to prevent this from 'exploding' in the tank to everyone else..I treated the tank with malachite green and formalin-raised the temp to 84 degrees..during the treatment another of the clown loaches got ich..and I had to do partial water changes after 3 day..as the first one still had it...and redo the whole treatment a second time..I have since done a substantial water change and am using charcoal to try and get the tank back to it['s good condition. I have gradually drop the temp to 78 deg Everything is going fine.except the loach that was originally ill. He was never as strong as the rest( probably why he got ill in the first place.). He tries to interact with the other loaches and does so intermittently..but spends much time on his own sleeping beside the heater...He has a good appetite-have been feeding him flake food, freeze dried shrimp, and freeze/d blood worms...but he is still very thin..Can I do anything else to get him to gain weight and be more healthy?

sorry --feeding him frozen shrimp and bloodworms...not freeze dried.

Answer 1

You are doing such a good job! That's so great to see for a change! You are doing everything right. All I can say is that it takes a long time to get a fish back to full health. Sometimes 6-8 or 10 weeks. He's had the crap beat out of him being sick, so he's gonna feel really crummy for a long while. So, all I can say is keep doing what you've been doing and be patient and persistent and don't give up on the treatments until he is happy and healthy again! You are doing so well! Good luck!

Oh, you could probably just go with a salt solution at this point and that would be enough to de-stress and get him back to health. A scant 1 tsp per 1 gallon of water. Use aquarium salt and read the directions for treatment.

Answer 2

Yep, you are completely on the right track, just keep up what you are doing and he should pull through just fine. A bit of salt in the water is a good idea, but you have to use enough to have an effect. 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons is a mimimum effective amount.

Answer 3

You are treating ur fish well,continue your treatment, it might take some weeks, but there is one thing, u should never feed any kind of live worms to the fish under treatment of any disease, they are dirty and act as transmitters of diseases under the circumstances. Excess of blood worms also causes ich, so feed them only once a week when they are normal, but there is an exception u can go on dried & frozen foods.