New fish has white spots pls help

[Al1ce]

Hi, I Purchased a new fish yesterday just to make up for numbers, and today its covered in white spots, all my other fish are fine, so I can only assume it’s a water difference from the tank water it was in, if it’s ich I have white spot treatment, but not sure if to use it with all other fish ok, and also I have a guppy fry in there so want to make sure it’s ok with them, I have posted a pic if anyone can advise pls thanks

 

[Essjay]

Yes, that's whitespot aka ich. It was probably infected in the shop tank before you bought it. If this fish has it, there are probably whitespot parasites in the tank now.
First do a water change and hoover the tank bottom well. Then increase the temperature to around 30 deg C/86 deg F and add aquarium salt at the rate of 2 g per litre or 7.6 g per gallon. Dissolve the salt completely in some water before adding it to the tank. Keep the temp up and salt in the water for 2 weeks. if you do a water change, add enough salt to treat the amount of new water.


This is why quarantining new fish is recommended.

 

[seangee]

Slowly increase your tank temperature to 30C and keep it there for at least 2 weeks after you see no sign of ich. Ich cannot survive in that temperature but the eggs can. So it is important to keep the temp up to allow all of the eggs to hatch and die. Keep doing your regular water changes during that time, making sure the new water is at the same temp as the tank.

No need to do anything else.

 

[seangee]

FWIW my post crossed with @essjay. Its not conflicting or disagreeing. Salt is an optional extra

 

[Al1ce]

Yes, that's whitespot aka ich. It was probably infected in the shop tank before you bought it. If this fish has it, there are probably whitespot parasites in the tank now.
First do a water change and hoover the tank bottom well. Then increase the temperature to around 30 deg C/86 deg F and add aquarium salt at the rate of 2 g per litre or 7.6 g per gallon. Dissolve the salt completely in some water before adding it to the tank. Keep the temp up and salt in the water for 2 weeks. if you do a water change, add enough salt to treat the amount of new water.

thanks for confirming this I have some Interpet white spot treatment pls see pic, should I use this alone as don’t like using the salt as it messes with my water, will my fry guppies be ok with it?

This is why quarantining new fish is recommended.

 

[Al1ce]

So I have just removed the carbon filter and all rocky ornaments from tank as per instructions, is this really necessary? As says needs treating again after four days, so all seems a bit bare an no filtration, just for the new fish, just don’t want my new guppy fry affected, how do I quarantine new fish I assume u need new tank for this, also do I need to sterilise this equipment before putting back in tank, I have never had problems with new fish from dobbies but used a high street one and to be honest Lister drive tanks looked like they needed a bit of rTLC won’t b going there again

 

[seangee]

They mean to remove the carbon from the filter, not the entire filter. Carbon will remove the medication from the water and render it ineffective. If you use the heat method suggested by @essjay and myself you do not need to remove the carbon.

 

[Al1ce]

Yes I removed the carbon I mean, but what about ornaments do they need sterilising ? Incase any eggs on them or will they just die being out the water? Thanks

 

[Essjay]

Keeping the tank at 30 deg C for 2 weeks will kill all the parasites wherever they are.

If you are using heat or heat and salt, you don't need to remove the carbon, but if you use medication you do have to remove it as carbon adsorbs medication. Heat, with or without salt, is safer for the fish.

Do you have any other media in the filter?

 

[Al1ce]

Keeping the tank at 30 deg C for 2 weeks will kill all the parasites wherever they are.

If you are using heat or heat and salt, you don't need to remove the carbon, but if you use medication you do have to remove it as carbon adsorbs medication. Heat, with or without salt, is safer for the fish.

Do you have any other media in the filter?

I have mineral rocks in the filter with carbon mesh, and also I have filter pads in the back section of the tank I have removed all these, it says treat again after 4 days then do a half water change, thanks for the info, none of the other fish are affected just this 1 and it looks pretty bad, was thinking if it doesn’t clear up il just seperate it from the others until it’s clear an treat that one only.

 

[Essjay]

The danger is that one of more of the spots fell off this fish after he was put in the tank. If this did happen, all the fish are at risk. You could try moving the new fish to a separate tank and using a medication in there, but keep the main tank temperature raised for 2 weeks without treating it just in case.

 

[Metalhead88]

These guys have ya covered.Temperature is most important as it will speed up the life cycle of ich and stop if from reproducing.

 

[seangee]

The danger is that one of more of the spots fell off this fish after he was put in the tank. If this did happen, all the fish are at risk. You could try moving the new fish to a separate tank and using a medication in there, but keep the main tank temperature raised for 2 weeks without treating it just in case.

This is really important. Once you put the infected fish into the tank all the others will end up with ich as the spots will have fallen off. That is why we did not recommend isolating the fish as there is little point. If you do raise the temperature the new ich will die before it attaches to fish so you won't see it.