whats the best way to recover from white spot?

[matt147]

Hi , My tropical tank had some problems recently when I introduced a new fish into my matured tank (3 years), I got white spot on the new fish ( a betta ) I instantly treated my tank with the king british white spot treatment and followed the instructions and my betta seemed fine after 3 or 4 days so stopped treating.

A week went by and I decided to do a water change 25% which I usually do every couple of weeks thought it would be good as my nitrate was highish and thought that the white spot had been cleansed.

How wrong could I be...
The white spot came back on my plecs and one of the tetras so I treated again and several days later then the next day disaster all dead but the betta?

I personally think that the water change was the worst thing I did because it diluted the treatment and the white spot came back?

Ok to date the fish I had in my tank : 2 plecs , 2 angels , 2 tetras , 1 betta all dead except the betta which I belive caused the incident. Why is he ok and all the others dead has he got a imunity or somthing?

I need some advice on how to start over I was going to let the tank sit for a few weeks or so with the treatment added left in with the filter/heater on i have turned the light off and airiation.
Then drain my tank completly and let the tank dry up for a few weeks to kill the white spot parasite then restart my tank and cycle my filter.

My tank is a 75ltr tank with a biolife filter/heater
my water quality is amm 0
nitri 0
nitra 40/50
ph 7-7.5

Any help gratefully received

 

[Nauplii]

wow they all died just like that! when i got whitespot i was treating it but most of the fish died gradually but not like that.
Water changes should really be done every week.

Just a suggestion but you could try highering the temp. a llittle in the tank when medicating. It should help..

I am sorry about your loss

 

[sylvia]

Leave everything running. Gradualy raise the temperature to 84 deg F. Your betta should be able to handle that but if he looks distressed lower it slightly and bring it up more gradualy. At this temp. the white spot will die. Keep the temperature high for a week. If the fish isn't doing well because of the high temp (though, as I said, the betta should be ok with it as long as you do it gradualy) then lower it sooner but not too quickly and not too low. You don't need to treat for whitespot during this time but you can if you want to. IMO it just stresses the fish out more. Leave the tank with no new additions and watch if the betta gets whitespot after you've lowered the temp. If after a month he's still ok, you can add new fish but make sure you quarantine them first so they don't introduce more disease. You can treat them with the king british whitespot thing as a precaution when you first get them - especialy if you can't quarantine. However, keep the treatment up for at least a week after the symptoms have gone as whitespot is in the water even if you can't see it. Removing the water and drying out the tank wont elliminate whitespot. If you have plants, keep in mind that they get whitespot too so you should remove and dispose of them to be safe (though the increased temperature should kill the white spot off completely your plants may not like it and taking them out to re-introduce them later simply isn't an option).
Another option you have is to take the betta out and put it in its own tank/bowl and treat it with the king british treatment. Then raise the temp in your tank to 90 deg F. Within a week all the whitespot will be dead. Lower the temp again and add fish. However, you will need to re-cycle the tank most likely and you can never re-introduce the betta in case he is now carrying it (unless he never shows any sign of whitespot after several months in which case it should be safe).

 

[NickT]

the high temp only increases the life cycle it doesn't kill it. @75f the parasite can live for up to a month (27 days) at 84 the life cycle is speed up so it only lives for 3 days. if you treating for ich the only time the meds are affective is in the first stages of its life when if is free swimming. i rely don't want to go into detail but you can learn more about ICH by searching on the forums or on google. personal i don't think ICH killed you fish. it may have been a secondary infection cased by ICH or the ICH cold have been caused by something like fish TB.
sorry about your loss sometime these things are not preventable.
on top of upping the temp use something like "cure ICH" or any other treatment that contains malachite green and formalin. HTH

edit: ICH can lay dormant for a long time. even if you drain the tank it wont be killed off without a weak bleach solution or better yet don't drain it and just treat the tank.

 

[matt147]

Can you posion the fish by overdosing on treatment?
I simply followed the instructions on the bottle but im wondering should you do more water changes or does this not matter?
Anyway heres what im going to do with my tank:
Leave for a month with temp at 84f for first week and treat the tank once a week , keeping the filter going etc...

Then clean out the tank and do a 50% water change add all new filter materials and monitor all levels for 2 weeks.

then if alls well possibly introduce some new fish but put treatment in just before the new fish go in.

And monitor the newbies for a month.
Then stop treating.

 

[sylvia]

That should be ok but watch for any more signs of ich (though I doubt you'll see any after all that) and be aware that changing all your filter media (if that's what you plan to do) will probably cause a re-cycle and you'll need to wait for the beneficial bacteria to catch up before adding new fish.