Tetras With White Spot Disease? Please Help!

[Nastenka]

Hi everyone!

I'm a new fish owner and hence have so many questions right now that it scares me! Let me give you some background first. I have a 63litre tank to which I added my first fish on October the 30th (2 cardinal tetras, a bronze catfish, 3 guppies (2 males and 1 female, I now know this is a terrible ratio but the dudes at the fish store didn't tell me!) and 1 cherry barb). Since then I've been doing regular water changes (once a week or a little more frequently), changing about 15% of the water with a syphon (to get rid of all the crap from the bottom of the tank). I've been doing regular water tests and have had good results for two weeks now. I think the cycle has been established and the water is now safe for the fish.

So on Friday (the 4th) I went to one of my local fish stores (this is actually a chain pet store called "Pets at Home" in the UK" and picked out five new fishy friends to bring home - 2 female guppies (to help out my poor single female who is being continuosly pestered by the boys), 1 albino catfish, 1 black neon tetra and 1 dayglow tetra. I also got a load of new plants (the ones I had before that mostly died!). Everything was fine and they were all very happy and getting along. But just now (Saturday night, about 20 hours after they've been introduced into the tank) I noticed that the two new tetras (the black neon and the dayglow) seem to have some white spots on them, which weren't there before. They're very small - the black neon has two (one on top of his head and one on the bottom fin) and the dayglow has quite a few more all over her fins. They almost look as if they're stuck on, I at first thought they could possibly be grains of sand (I have sand as my substrate, not gravel). But I think that's just wishful thinking! I think you can just about make it out on the pic if you try hard enough. I haven't really spotted any other symptoms yet - like different swimming patterns, or fins getting stuck together, or flashing (though I don't know what that means!).

Anyways, I'm pretty sure it's the white spot disease. But my question is I'm not sure how to treat it. Everywhere seems to suggest something called "Quickcure", but I've read on some places that it may be too strong for tetras (and cat fish, actually). Also diluting salt, but again I don't think it's so good for the species I have from what I've read. I also have baby guppies in my tank (separated in a net from the adults for now) and am worried about how the whole disease/treatment will affect them. Can you please suggest what I could do? What treatment to use, how often, etc?

I think the parasites must be at the point in the cycle where they haven't broken and fallen to the bottom of the tank yet (I've been reading up!), so that means a good time to treat them should be about now, in anticipation for them to break out? My water temperature is at about 26 degrees C (I think raising it to about 27 should help with the treatment? How much is the highest I can raise to for my species?). I really don't want this to infect my other fish! They (and I!) have been doing so well! Please help.

Is it better to separate these two from the others before the parasites fall off them? I don't have another tank though (and unfortunately can't afford another one) so it'd have to be putting them in a jar without filters/heaters or something like that!!!

I'd really appreciate some advice on this as soon as anyone can answer. I'm very worried

Thank you guys!!

Oh, I should also mention that the black neon and the dayglow came from separate tanks, not from the same one.

 

[Alliecat420]

i've actually read ich can be brought on by stress.. you have several fish who need shoals and without that they can get stressed out and their immune system will weaken.. thus leading to diseases
the best way to get rid of ich is to increase tempurature and oxygen in the water (up to 1 degree a day until the tank is at 84) do daily deep gravle water changes and add one teaspoon of salt per gallon.. since you say you have cories.. i would cut the salt down a bit.. perhaps 2/3 of the original dose keep it up for a week.. then slowly bring your aquarium back to normal.. remember dont rush anything, adjust the temp slowly, and gradualy add the salt over a period of a few days.

i would also like to add that you should get a breeder trap for your babies or even better some java moss so they have adequate room to develop

good luck!!

 

[waterdrop]

Look for one of the frequent posts by oldman47. He always has a good link in his signature area (bottom of each post) to ich / white-spot treatment and knowledge.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

That does indeed look like ich on the fish's fins. There is an Ich Info link in my signature area to a place where the disease and its treatment are discussed in some detail. One of the best parts of the writeup is that it lets you understand why the statement that Alliecat has read about stress being a cause is absolutely untrue. I must admit that I have seen the allegation made many places and some people cannot be convinced, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, that they are wrong on that assertion.

 

[Nastenka]

Hi everyone!

Thank you for your help. I'm now treating all of the fish and hopefully they'll be back to complete health in no time I think the fact that I noticed it so quickly makes the treatment easier. But that'll teach me about not putting my fish in quarantine first (though to be honest I just didn't know about that).

The fish babies are in a breeding trap, by the way. It's a net one, not a plastic one, as I think the water circulates better in that. And I think it's a fairly decent size for them, from what I can see. They are two weeks old now. Just wondering if anyone can advise me when they'll be big enough to release into the main tank and give to a shop (I have too many)? And when do I start feeding them the same as the adults etc? How soon do the males and females need to be separated?

Thank you all again. I'll keep you updated!

 

[kiriyama]

Had white spot in my tank very early on , to many fish , bad water quality etc , I kept the lights off and upped the temp to 28c although I have heard some people going to 30c. Try to get as much surface agitation as possible to get oxygen in there . I used Interpet anti white spot 6, if using this or similiar remove any inverts you have as these treatments tend to have a lot of copper in them. Follow the medication all the way through to completion, regular water changes and when changing water dose only for the amount of new water going in. It is supposed to be safe to feed when treating but I didn't for the first few days because I didn't know. After treatment I used carbon in the filter to remove the remainig meds, you can also purchase polyfilter which is expensive but removes the harmful copper and stuff...
Hope you get it cleared soon, it's not a nice thing to have to watch but can happen in any tank to any fish keeper.......Good luck.....

 

[Nastenka]

Thanks, Fishaholic

I'm actually using the same Interpret Anti-White Spot 6 treatment as you did suggested by my LFS (as I think some of my fish are too sensitive to salt), and am following the instructions given to me at the shop - treat on the 1st and 4th day with the carbon filter removed and no water changes, do a water change on the 7th and replace the carbon filter. Does that sound about right? What happens if I still see any white spot after this? Do I just need to repeat it straight after the water change? Or do the fish need a little time to recover?

By the way, my infection definitely did come from the LFS. They noticed the white spot in the two tanks I got my tetras from on the same day I did. It's good to know it's not my water, etc. And hopefully it shouldn't affect the future of the tank too much!

Thank you again

 

[kiriyama]

THink it took over 2 weeks for all of it to disappear but I hav heardof it taking longer , I just kept repeating the process, I never lost any fish to it, phew

 

[OldMan47]

Be sure to treat that tank for several days after all signs of the whitespot are gone. The parasites are only vulnerable to the medication while in the free swimming state, which means the last of the spots needs to release its contents, the parasites then need to develop and finally they will become free swimming and vulnerable to the treatment. That takes about 3 days at 30C and longer at lower temperatures. I would guess there is no way you will be done with a full treatment in just 7 days, and anything less than a full treatment is a waste of time, the parasites will be back.

 

[Nastenka]

Be sure to treat that tank for several days after all signs of the whitespot are gone. The parasites are only vulnerable to the medication while in the free swimming state, which means the last of the spots needs to release its contents, the parasites then need to develop and finally they will become free swimming and vulnerable to the treatment. That takes about 3 days at 30C and longer at lower temperatures. I would guess there is no way you will be done with a full treatment in just 7 days, and anything less than a full treatment is a waste of time, the parasites will be back.

Yeah, that's the part I'm nervous about. I know you can only kill them when they're in the free swimming stage and it seems a bit difficult to make sure you catch them then! I did my first treatment on Sunday, yesterday I noticed that most (probably all) of the white spots were gone from the tetras that had it. My temperature is at about 27-28 degrees, so I figure it will take about 5 days for them to be free swimming? I'm supposed to do the next treatment on the 4th day (Wednesday), which seems about right, though not late enough to get all of the parasites to the free swimming stage. I was told to not do a water change before the 2nd treatment, but not sure if that's a good idea? And then after that, how long should I wait to do the next treatment (I was only told 2 at the LFS)? And I should definitely do some sort of water change before the 3rd treatment presumably? This is so difficult! Aaaaah!

 

[OldMan47]

If you have a treatment that lasts for 4 days at a time, use the treatment on day 4 after the last treatment, which is after the last spots were seen and then let it sit without a water change until at least 4 days after that treatment. By allowing the treatment to work for the 4 days, it should catch the free swimming stage. If you are not sure that all spots have been gone for the 4 days, do a quick water change at the end of the 4 days and dose again right away. You do not want the parasites to have a chance to swim to the fish in untreated water.