All the fish in my freshwater tank are quite big. Well, two 10 inch bala sharks, one eight inch severum cichlid, one eight inch dinosaur eel (bichir), one 8 inch goldfish, three 12 inch plecos, one 5 inch corydora and one 5 inch catfish.
All these fish have muted color plus somewhat inactive behavior, except for the bala sharks that is. They are shiny silver and active. So anyway, I got 4 clown loaches from Denny's Pet world, the Local Fish Store (LFS). Clown loaches have pretty color, a pleasant, non-aggressive disposition and very interesting behavior. They are in general quite active and usually school together.
So anyway, I was at the local Petco (national chain animal store) and I saw more clown loaches. These loaches were less than half the price of those at Denny's Pet World, so I got four more of them. I saw a white spot on one of them, a sign of Ich disease, but I considered it as a trick of my eyes and introduced them in my tank in spite of the doubtful half of me asking me to return them.
Lo and behold, after a few days, I notice white spots all over my bala sharks. This was at about 10:00pm in the night, so I observed closely and yep, it was a sure sign of ick. There was not much that I could do as all the pet stores where I could buy a medicine were closed. So, I quickly emptied my tank of all the decorations and saw that only four of the clown loaches were to be seen. Where did the other four go? Since I never saw any aggressive behavior from any fish towards the clowns (plus the clowns were way too fast for all the other fish in the tank), I was forced to the conclusion that four of them succumbed to the disease and their dead bodies were eaten by the other fish.
Anyway, all night I tossed and turned, waiting for 9:00am to strike and yep, I arrived at the store right at 8:59am and waited outside the store for one minute. As soon as I got the medicine I was looking for (Rid-Ich+), I was with the cashier. "How are you doing?", the cashier asked, "Not so good.", I replied, "You can see what I am buying!" "Is it what I think it is?", she asked and turned the bottle around and a sigh of pity escaped her lips. "I had my fish catch Ich once, I medicated them, but only one survived, I was so happy when the one fish survived", she exclaimed. "Oh well", I thought. "Good luck", she said and I was out of the door. Reaching home, I carefully read the instructions. 5 ml per 10 gallons, I measured carefully and poured in. (I disconnected the activated carbon based filter to ensure the medicine did not get cleared from the tank.) That was on monday morning. Monday night I did a 10% water change and added enough medicine to make up for the water change. Today, another 10% water change.
Well, most advice on the Net seems to say that many fish succumb. Don't expect much. Some are more encouraging than others. Anyway, since then, the bala sharks seem to have lost most of the spots and the remaining loaches seem to be recovering too. Experience people on the Net seem to say, "don't get complacent if/as you seem improvement. The medication must be given for 14 days. If you stop medication in the middle, the disease will return and wipe all the fish out." Thus, I am pretty careful about right now. 10% water change it is, all the way. So, lesson learned: Never ever buy fish from a discount fish store where you can clearly see that the tanks are not clean and if in doubt, trust the doubting side. It is not worth it, trust me.