Urgent Help Needed!

[superman1]

Hello

my fish are dying from white spot. currently i have had a sun faced damsel and a emperor cardinal die.
how do i treat them. i know u can used meds but i have shrimps and crustaceons in the tank.

sstocking is in my sig below. the only new addition was a cardinal which had been in the tank for a week with no signs of problem..
i did a large water change of 80litres yesterday and all stats show fine. stats were fine before..

one of the yellow tail damsels and engineer goby currently show white spot. all others seem fine.

thanks

 

[seffieuk]

Set up a small emergency container - can be a plastic box - fill it with the salty stuff, heater and powerhead and transfer the fish in to that to treat them

Seffie x

 

[Gallagher]

Id try a FW dip

 

[superman1]

Id try a FW dip

whats an FW dip...

ill try and catch the engineer.. this can be a pain as it hides behind the rocks..

wish me luck.. once i quarantine.. do i just dose as normal.. and wait..

 

[seffieuk]

get some medication and dose that white spot away

Seffie x

 

[Gallagher]

Id try a FW dip

whats an FW dip...

ill try and catch the engineer.. this can be a pain as it hides behind the rocks..

wish me luck.. once i quarantine.. do i just dose as normal.. and wait..

oh sorry fresh water dip http/saltaquarium.about.com/od/hyposalin...t/ht_fwbath.htm

 

[kj23502]

that engineer can't be treated the same. His skin/scales are diffrent and copper is bad for him, I think. I'm like 75% sure this is the case. Do some research on here and wetwebmedia.com. WWM WILL have the answer if you can't find it here. most gobies cannot be treated w/copper b/c of this reason. includes mandarins, clown gobies etc too. Like I said I'm really sure that I've read this, but it would do well to clarify it.

 

[ben1987]

fresh water dip wont really do anything against white spot

they need treating with copper away from the main tank.

 

[superman1]

helllo

well i got myself a 80 litre tank earlier on today as a qurantine tank..
i have decreased the salinity of the water in there to 1.020 and have treat with a white spot medication and have placed the infected fishes in there (the ones i could catch) with a filter running and heater.. ever so often i will check to make sure the water isnt getting ammonia..

shall i feed less.. i also have the engineer in there but tested the water for copper and it doesnt even show on the chart.. .my little clown died last night

r.i.p
clown
emporer cardinal
sun faced damsel

the engineer looks pretty bad so hopefully he can be saved..

 

[Gallagher]

aww sorry for the loss

does a fresh water dip really not do anything about ich??? i thought that it killed off the parasites because the fish can stand FW for a little while but the ich cant


y dosent it work

oh and this may help superman http/www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

 

[superman1]

thanks for that.... just a quick update,,

i have the infected fishes in the QT tank and all seem to be doing well... ive dosed the correct amount as stated on the bottle and brought myself a copper test kit... now the copper test kit isnt even showing any copper in the water..

is this correct... should there be a certain amount of copper in the water that i should aim for..

im gutted about my fish but i think i will plan something else regarding stocking.. dont want to go through losing expensive fishes...
one cardinal cost me £26, the clown was £25 and the damsel was £12..

just out of curiosoty what would u guys stock if u had my tank..

 

[mark1979]

i feel so sorry for you mate,this is my worst nitemare when i get mine setup!!

did you buy all your fish from the same LFS? if so and if they are a decent place,they may well sort you out.

i did read that whitespot needs a host ,and if you take all stock from the tank,lower the salinity and up the temp,they die off. this may not be an option as it takes a couple weeks i think.

i would get 6 blue chromis or something similar,to get a nice school going on. thats what im doing!!

 

[seffieuk]

really sorry for your loss, it makes you feel quite sick doesn't it when you lose fish like that. Ben had an awful time with ich, he decided in the end to leave his tank fallow before restocking

Seffie x

 

[AK77]

Ah that sucks!!

Do you have all the fish out of display tank and in quarantine? Do you have corals in your tank?

If it were me, I'd raise the temperature up to 28c (keeping an eye on corals if you have them) to speed up the life cycle of the parasite. Without a fish to act as a host, the parasites will die within a few days, leaving your display tank free of ich without the need for chemicals. Raising the temperature up this high will lower the oxygen content of the water, so I'd also put an airstone in the tank for the duration too.

If you don't have one, it might be worth investing in a vecton UV sterilizer or even better, an ozone generator. These will sterilize the water, killing parasites. The ozone will also help with dissolved organics if you connect it to a protein skimmer.

You can pick up an ozoniser for under £30. You could run this on a quarantine tank too, if you tee off of the unit and ensure all your fish are whitespot free before putting them in the display tank. If you haven't used O3 before, read up on it. Its a very useful addition to a setup BUT it can be dangerous if you over dose it, nuking your tank and also harmful to yourself.

I ran one on my 3ft tank after some of the fish got ich. I never had a problem afterwards. Well not until I overfilled my tank and the seal burst at the bottom of it (And my tank was upstairs in my bedroom lol) . Had to sell everything and I'm only now just getting back into the hobby.

Hope your other fish pull through!!

 

[seffieuk]

IMO ozone is not for the newbie, can be very dangerous.

The UV is a good idea but most of us would not run it full time after the ich has gone



Cryptocaryon Biological Cycle

The Saltwater Ich or White Spot Disease (Cryptocaryon) parasite has 4 distinct phases in its life.

1. Tomont Stage
Trophonts which have burrowed into the gills & formed cysts, protected by gill mucus.
Trophonts can live in the cyst embedded in the gills almost indefinitely.
No effective treatment at this stage

2. Trophont Stage
Tomont cysts have been discharged from the gills.
Can survive for 6 to 10 days in the cyst.
Hyposalinity (Osmotic Shock) and some chemical treatments are effective in exploding the cyst and Tomites.

3. Tomite Stage
Parasites (Tomites) discharged from the Tomont cyst and become free swimming.
Tomites can survive for 1-2 days before they must find another host.
Hyposalinity (Osmotic Shock) treatment effective in exploding the Tomites.
Many chemical treatments effective at this stage.

4. Trophont Stage
Tomites which attached to the fish's gills feed from the host, grow, form a cyst and become dormant.
Tomites which attach to the fish's surface feed from the host, grow, detach from the fish and go to the Trophont Stage 2.
Hyposalinity (Osmotic Shock) treatment effective in exploding the surface cysts.
Some chemicals effective in treatment of surface cysts at this stage.


Stage 1. A vast majority of Saltwater Ich outbreaks occur when new fish are introduced into an aquarium. The stress generated by capture and shipping is one of the main causes of the cysts in the gills being released, generating Trophont Stage 2.

The gill mucus encasing the Cryptocaryon parasite in the Tomont Stage 1 renders most, if not all treatments, virtually ineffective at this stage.

Hyposalinity (Osmotic Shock Therapy) and chemical treatments are most effective when the Tomites (the actual parasites) are most vulnerable, during their free swimming stage. Hyposalinity literally explodes the Cryptocaryon cysts in Trophont Stages 2 & 4, exposing the Tomites to both chemical and further Hyposalinity treatments

Stan & Debbie Hauter


Seffie x