Advice On White Spot On Clown Loach

[steveclark1983]

Hi,

Just recently started off my 1st tropical aquarium. Last night I noticed that one of the clown loaches I have had 3 white specks on it. One on the fin and one either side of the body. Ive been out to buy treatment for white spot this morning. Just before I set about putting the treatment in I could not see the white specks on the fish. So I've a couple of questions that maybe someone could answer.....

I've read that white spot infects the fish, falls into gravel then bursts reinfecting the fish. So would they disappear off the fish when they fall off ?

I read on the actual treament bottle clown loach can develop white spots due to poor water quality is this something that would disappear over night?

Can I run the treatment course just to be safe? Will this be ok for the fish?

Just to add amonia, nitrate, nitrite and ph levels are all at recommended levels,
30 gallon tank
have 3x 2 inch clowns and 3 Zebra Danios
Temp is at around 27-28C

Thanks in advance

Steve

 

[bagu]

right

in the niceest way possible your tank is far too small for clown loaches, but its up to you if you want to upgrade later

when you say recommended levels what are they?

did you cycle the tank?

the treatment will be fine, but it will spread all over them burst, and reinfect over a short time period. I say gravel vac and add the medication.

got any piccies?

sorry to sound rude mate ^^

 

[nmonks]

Clown loaches are notoriously sensitive to whitespot/ick medications, so you have to be careful. I'd always recommend using salt and heat rather than copper- or formalin-based medications. Over the short term at least, clown loaches have a good tolerance of salt, and at the amounts required, there's much less risk of causing them harm.

Start by raising the thermostat to 28-30 degrees C. This speeds up the life cycle of the parasite. Then make up a solution of non-iodised salt in a jug of warm water, adding 2-3 teaspoons of salt per gallon of water in the aquarium. Once dissolved, dribble this into the outflow from the filter so it quickly mixes.

Leave the tank running "salty" for the next couple of weeks. By then you should find the white cysts have burst, and the salty water will kill the free-living stages of the life cycle (see my article at Fish Channel for the details).

Afterwards, do your normal water changes to flush out the salt. Incidentally, the salt level used is very low, and won't harm filter bacteria, plants, etc.

Cheers, Neale

 

[steveclark1983]

right

in the niceest way possible your tank is far too small for clown loaches, but its up to you if you want to upgrade later

when you say recommended levels what are they?

did you cycle the tank?

the treatment will be fine, but it will spread all over them burst, and reinfect over a short time period. I say gravel vac and add the medication.

got any piccies?

sorry to sound rude mate ^^

lol no probs mate im new to this so all advice welcome.
Yeah will be looking to upgrade when we move but this was biggest tank we could have at the moment it was just to get started and in practice. (should be within 6 months)
Levels are as follows
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
PH levels are at 7 or neutral
Nitrate lower than 5ppm (off the top of my head will retest and post again)

If by cycling you mean getting the good bacteria in the tank then i believe so. I had the tank with no fish in it for approx 1 week and used a product called stress coat to remove chlorine etc, then the following day treated with stress zyme+ to encourage live bacteria. I then added the zebra danios after about a week/8 days then the clowns about a week later. The water levels were good when the fish were added. I perform a 25% water change each week. The tank is now 4 weeks old.

When you say piccies of the fish or total setup?
Pls be brutal if needs be as like i say im new to this and have just followed advice of my local aquarium centre.

Thank again

steve

 

[marcan]

nmonks is right. Raise the temp and add some salt.

Btw, if you use ich treatment, always use half dose with clown loaches.

Good luck

 

[steveclark1983]

nmonks is right. Raise the temp and add some salt.

Btw, if you use ich treatment, always use half dose with clown loaches.

Good luck

ok ive started using the ich treatment . Ive used half recommened dose ( .5ml per 15gl) Ive raised temp 1degree every couple of hrs (To 28-30C Ive heard this speeds up the cycle of the ich to kill quicker) and will add salts as soon as i can get to the shop tomorrow or should i not use this in conjunction with the ich treatment? Thanks for all the advice and any more is welcome. Cheers guys/girls

 

[tqfan]

i have the exact same problem atm with my tank/clown loaches.

i have 2 clown loaches, but one is much, much worse than the other, and tbh, i thought it would be dead today, however it's still alive, but struggling.

we went with the salt and heat method, but atm there's no change. the more poorly loach has a wound on it's head, where it looks like the skin has peeled off. the white spot is everywhere, even on it's eyes.

i was watching just a little while ago, wondering if i should put the poor thing out of it's misery.

the other one, seems to have little white spot, but is breathing heavy (it's mouth is going all the time, i assume this means it's breathing heavy). the other is also breathing like this.

both usually hide and are shy, but are now swimming out in the open, and aren't bothered by our outside movements (usually they would hide if we even looked at the tank, lol), they both seem to be sticking together though, as always.

i've attached a pic of the worse one, sorry if it's bad, i've no idea how people get such great pics of their fish!

we've no idea what happened, where the white spot came from, none of the other fish in the tank have it. we did think one of the cherry barbs had some spotting on it's tail, but the next day it was gone, so we're not sure if it was white spot or not.

we've done 2 water changes and added salt each time. the salt instructions say 1 tablespoon for every 19 litres, but i read online somewhere not to add as much as the instructions said, so i only added one the first time, and the second time upped it to a tablespoon and a half.
using an online tank volume calculator, my tank is around 86 litres. should i be putting more salt in? will it harm the other fish in the tank?? (red honey gouramis, cherry barbs, neon tetras, mountain minnows, bristlenose plec, and catfish)

i do hope they don't die, as we've recently setup a bigger tank, which has one clown loach in, and we were going to move these 2 to be with the other.

any thoughts?

 

[nmonks]

Do understand neither salt nor medications kill the parasites on the fish. All treatments work on the free living stages only, hence the extra heat is used to speed up the life cycle.

In severe cases, as in the case tqfan is dealing with, you'll almost certainly have to deal with finrot or fungus afterwards. The white spots are cysts, and when they burst, that damages the skin, allowing infections to set in. When fish die from whitespot, this is often the reason.

Cheers, Neale

 

[tqfan]

hi, thanks.

there's so much info available online, and in the books we have, and they mostly say the same thing, but as far as i can see, none mention how long it takes for the cysts to burst. i may, however, be missing that when reading, as i've read so much!

i assume all cysts will burst? therefore allowing the fish to hopefully get better. or is it just assumed that once the fish has white spot, it will die?

 

[nmonks]

All the cysts will burst. How long this takes depends on the temperature, ranging from about three days at 28 C through to three or four weeks in a coldwater aquarium.

There is no reason at all a fish should die from whitespot. It's one of the easiest diseases to spot early on, and if caught quickly, it's easy to treat.

Cheers, Neale

 

[tqfan]

my loach died overnight it was in a very bad state, though, and i had expected it to die before now.

i just don't get why the cysts weren't bursting, the temperature is up, it was at 84 at one point (but not for that long). unless they were and then reattaching to the same fish...

now i will concentrate on the other loach, although i'm sure it's not going to be it's normal self, it's just lost it's mate! it was even still with the dead one today. it only seems to have a few white spots on it's tail, so hopefully it will heal right up.

when it does, i'm sure we will move it to our other tank, beside our other loach. will they take to each other? the other loach is about 15 months older.

i've only had one other outbreak of whitespot and it was on a guppy or two, and methylene blue did the trick with them. i guess loaches are that bit different though!
thanks for all the info.

 

[nmonks]

Looking at your photograph again, I'm a bit concerned about that pink patch on its head. Loaches are prone to burning themselves by leaning against heaters, so check that isn't possible here. Heater guards are a cheap way to stop this, or else use a heater that goes outside the tank, e.g., in the filter or sump.

As I did state before, ick medications can be toxic to loaches. There's a reason people use the salt/heat method when treating them. Do review the needs of clown loaches: they are NOT easy fish to keep.

Cheers, Neale