I've been treating a 10 gallon bare bottom quarantine tank with heat (86.6 F) and 1 Tablespoon of salt. Set up large airstone.

Below from memory, is what I've been doing.

Day one- get sidthimunki loaches home, and see a few ich spots. Do all of the above.

Day three- one loach jumps into filter, and long story made short, jams the filter and winds up dying. I transfer bio media to new filter and continue with treatment.

Day four- buy two new loaches to make up for the one that died.

Day seven- do 50% water change

Day eight?- electricity goes out for no more than an hour, tank gets down to 85 degrees.

Day ten- decide to start slowly lowering temperature back down...turn heater to 86.2 (from 86.6 previously)

Day eleven- noticed that I can see a total of 2-3 spots of ich on the group of loaches. One loach occasionally flashes. I turn the temperature back up to 86.6

I think we're at day twelve or thirteen now, and I can still count a couple ich spots.

So the question is, how long does it take to get rid of this darned ich on a scaleless fish such as a loach? I need to buy more RO water from the lfs today so I can do another water change. Maybe if I step up the water changes to 2x a week it will help? I hesitate to turn the temp up higher, because it is my understanding that 86 degrees is really the upper limit that loaches will tolerate.

I did a search and found a sticky just for treating loaches for ich. It suggests what I would consider a mild course of medication, lots of air, no salt, and a temp of 86 (not higher). Now normally one would never use heat and medication at the same time, but this advice is coming from a loach forum. What do you all think? It seems like due to the salt and heat sensitivity of loaches, I might need to rethink my current treatment.

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=2599

Treating loaches for ich can be very tricky. I've never experienced it myself, but I've had the opportunity to talk to alot of people who have!

I don't know how many people I have heard from that introduced ich to a main tank with loaches! Just be glad you isolated these guys from the start! It can be harder to deal with when trying to treat the loaches and your scaled fish at the same time!

If you continue with the heat and salt method, you want to keep it up until 3-4 days after you witness the disappearance of the last white spot.

If you go with medication, everyone I know has used it at half strength, as suggested in the link you provided. Quick Cure is the medication I use for ich. It contains malachite green and formalin. Interestingly enough, it is even safe for fry! Since you've already eradicated MOST of it, I would go with using the meds at half strength every 3-4 days, and focusing on my water changes just prior to the addition of the medication.

We can't get Quick Cure here anymore, and with you living in California, you may not be able to find it, either.

There is another med called Coppersafe made by Mardel. I'm not sure but it may be safe for use with scaleless fish. Again, I would use it at half strength. But check on the package insert to make sure it's okay for scaleless fish!

Kim

Loaches are ich magnets. I personally think the lfs should always keep loaches in tanks with self-contained filtration since it is so common for them to get it. At least they wouldn't be spreading it through every tank in the store. The lfs where I bought the sithimunkis STILL has clown loaches with ich. All the sidthimunki loaches have been sold.

Thanks Kim for the reply. That's pretty much what I thought.

I have to agree with Kim on this one. I use the Ich meds from Jungle. They work fantastic. Sometimes the salt and heat only works best for scaled fish. Just use half of the dose for scaleless fish, and some other bottom dwellers.