White Spot on Pictus Catfish

[Le Fishê]

Hello, I have a pictus catfish and somehow it caught ich. I put it in a QT and did a 90% water change on my main tank + cleaned gravel and filter. My pictus catfish is the only one with white spots so that's why I removed it. In the QT I have raised the temp to 30 and I was wondering how long does it take for the white spots to go away?
And do the white spots stay on the fish even when the parasite is gone?

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

It may take around two weeks for white spot to go away. Be sure to do water changes in between treatment and keep the temperature raised and it should be gone soon.
Best of luck and keep us updated.

 

[Colin_T]

There is no point quarantining the catfish because the white spot parasites will be in the main tank too. Move the pictus back into the original tank and raise the temperature to 30C. Keep it there for 2 weeks or at least 1 week after all the white spots have disappeared from the fish.

The white spots stay on the fish for a few days before dropping off and sinking to the bottom. On the bottom the parasites divide inside the white cyst and after a few days they rupture open and release hundreds of new parasites into the water. This is the only time you can kill them, when they are free swimming in the water. If the water isn't warm enough during this time, then hundreds of parasites will survive and infect the fish.

There is more information about white spot at the following link. Post #1 and post #16 are worth a read.

What is ICH?

This is a common question that is often asked, what is ich and how is it recognisable and what causes it? The real term is ICHTHYOPHTHIRIASIS. OR commonly known as white spot. It is an extremely comon parasite that affects aquarium fish. It is highly infectious and potentially lethal and...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Le Fishê]

There is no point quarantining the catfish because the white spot parasites will be in the main tank too. Move the pictus back into the original tank and raise the temperature to 30C. Keep it there for 2 weeks or at least 1 week after all the white spots have disappeared from the fish.

The white spots stay on the fish for a few days before dropping off and sinking to the bottom. On the bottom the parasites divide inside the white cyst and after a few days they rupture open and release hundreds of new parasites into the water. This is the only time you can kill them, when they are free swimming in the water. If the water isn't warm enough during this time, then hundreds of parasites will survive and infect the fish.

There is more information about white spot at the following link. Post #1 and post #16 are worth a read.

https://www.fish [QUOTE="Colin_T, p...hforums.net/threads/what-is-ich.7092/[/QUOTE]

G

Didnt you read my thread? I said I did a 90% water change in the tank and isolated the pictus afterwards because he was the only one with the white spots. My main tank is already clear of ich.

forums.net/threads/what-is-ich.7092/[/URL]

 

[Colin_T]

Yes I read your thread. Just because no other fish are showing symptoms now, does not mean the white spot parasite is not in the main tank. If the pictus was in the main tank when it had white spot, there are probably still parasites in the tank, even though you did a big water change and gravel clean. There might only be 1 parasite left in the tank but it can infect a fish and in a couple of weeks time you have white spot on all the fish. This is why you leave all the fish in the main tank and just treat that.

If you want to keep them separate that is fine. But monitor the other fishes and if they start rubbing on objects or get white dots, you will need to treat them too.