transit tank

[ENTREPRENEUR]

I have a transition tank that I have recently placed 4 clown loaches about 2 inches long in. They were stressed out do to the fact that they were very hard to get out of the previous tank. One has 3 to 4 white spots on its tail now which the with the traumatic experience is ICK I am sure. I have one other out of the group that has one small white spot on it. In my transition tank there are no issues with water quality I can assure you and it has been up and running for a long time. I naturally put in the recommenced amount of aquarium salt to help promote gill function... Things seem to be getting better with out medications. What are your experience with letting “sleeping dogs lie”. Can the fish naturally beat the Ick, or at the first sign of it am I better off medicating the transit tank? Would love to here the different ideas.

[AngelMom]

Scaleless fish (loaches, sharks, etc) frequently will not do well with salt...it irritates their skin too much. IME, you are better off medicating in this case. My ick killer of choice is Aquarisol.

[lloyd berg]

there are some keepers, like myself, who believe various parasites naturally evolve in an aquarium in the same way bacterias do. a healthy fish can tolerate a few bites (via strong immune system), and maintain a healthy slime coat (via good water quality), to keep itself from being taken advantage of. the problem we have with parasites then, is not their presence, but in fact their capacity to infest when given opportunity.
the best way to control an enemy is to know it. 1)if a fish is overwhelmed with infestation remove it. it is literally carrying/feeding their next generation. 2) clean house. syphon through the substrate and rinse out the filter regularily. and 3) keep your cycle intact and the nitrates low. this keeps your fish in top shape and allows them the natural ability to keep opportunistic types at bay.
there are are situations where a fish has passed the ability to fight it's own fight. for that... we need to intervene with meds and such. IMHO.

[ENTREPRENEUR]

I know that it was stress of the move that has caused this. I did not know that loaches had a problem with salt. I new they were scaleless, but that was some great information that I had not expected! Any thoughts or experiences with the “tea extract” that seem to becoming more popular?

[AngelMom]

I've never tried to use the tea tree extract (ie, MelaFix) to treat ich....I doubt that it would work tough, since it's a natural antibiotic and not an anti-parasitic.

[oscarbartoni]

Also raise the water temp up to 80 to 84 and t5he Ick will go through it's life cycle a lot faster. Make sure to do regulsr water changes and vac the gravel (to help; get rid of any Ick eggs that might be lurking). When you do a water change make sure to treat the water for chlorine/chloamine as well as heavy metals and also meke sure to have the temp of the water as warm as the tank temp (to avoid any more stress). Dop small ut frequent water changs to avoid stessing them any.