Sick Loach???

Question

the other day i noiced white spots on the fin (tail)
and then it struck me that it was ich :(

i saw it starting to grow on the body
ive been increasing heat in the tank.

im going away for two weeks in 13 days

how can i treat this????????

Answer 1

You can get most of the treatment over in the two weeks. Get the heat up around 85o (minimum) to 90o by changing a few degrees per hour. This will speed up the lifecycle and help prevent the parasite from reproducing.

You can use a number of treatment options, such as salt or medication (something with malachite grren and formalin as combined ingredients is the best remedy, but both ingeredients are carcinogens and should be used with care). You'll have to determine if any of your fish would be sensitive to this high of temperature, or any of the treatment options. Some scaleless catfish, tetras, and some others are sensitive to salt or copper.

You wan to continue treating for 10-14 days, or at least 3-5 days after you no longer see the spots (it's only when the parasite is in the water that the treatment affects them). You could start a treatment now, and do a water change just before you leave. If the spots aren't completely gone before you're ready to go and do the water change, add back the amount of medication that was removed (not a full dose!). In other words, if you have a 20 gallon tank and do a 25% change, you only need to add back 1/4 of the full dose. I like Quick Cure for this reason - the dose is one drop per gallon. By the time you get back, the treatment should be finished and you can add carbon and/or do another water change at that time to remove the treatment. If you use salt, start at 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of tank volume. If your fish aren't salt sensitive, you can increase this to 1 teaspoon per gallon.

Here's more info on these treatments: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml

Answer 2

They sell ich meds in your petstore, i just had a recent encounter with ich and i didnt treat it fast enough and it Killed my eel and one of my dwarf gouramis.