Ich!

[Laurabhspt]

Noticed yesterday one of my swordtails had some white spots and was behaving odd, clamped fins etc. I’ve bought some white spot treatment and going to do a big water change and tank clean today. However, about to start and she is now COVERED in white spot. Completely covered. Do I remove her and treat her separately as well as treating the main tank or is that pointless now she’s so far gone anyway?

 

[Colin_T]

Treat the entire tank with the fish in it. The parasite is in the main tank so you need to kill it there.

The spots on the fish can't be killed yet so start treating now and in a few days the spots will drop off the fish and it will look like it's cured. It isn't. The parasites are now on the bottom of the tank reproducing so keep treating for a week after all the spots have gone.

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To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

There are 3.785 litres in a US Gallon
There are 4.5 litres in a UK gallon

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these before measuring the height of the water level so you get a more accurate water volume.

You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating with chemicals or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working. You do not need to remove the carbon if you use salt.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.