White Spot.....

[H. Houdini]

Hi people,

This morning I noticed some white spots on a female swordtail in my 250litre. On closer inspection, I thought maybe it was just some colouring I hadn't noticed. Then, looking at other fish to be sure, I noticed one of my clowns with one white spot on his back. Again, it didn't seem enough, maybe an air bubble that had got caught on it. However, I noticed one of my juvenile swords is COVERED in white spots. I can't see them on any other fish, though I have looked for a quite a period of time.

The tank has been up and running for about 2 months after an upgrade. It is planted, but I'm not adding anything as it is low tech, however........

I lost one clown earlier this week. I hadn't seen it for a few days, and my god it was emaciated. I didn't post on here because it was clear that it wasn't eating properly and was completely on it's last legs (apart from that, it had no other signs of illness, was fully coloured and had no white spots, missing fins etc etc etc). I was feeding them algae wafers every evening after lights out and the occasional courgette and blood worms (though they did not really get near the blood worms because of the mollies and barbs).

Ok, so I had a pipe in the back of the tank, but they were stupid and didn't use it in the conventional way. They dug behind it and lay there. Unfortunately my substrate was not sand and I was terrified of an outbreak of ich. So, assuming this loach became trapped and therefore had a problem, two days ago....... out came the pipe and the substrate, replaced with something much more fine and soft called aqua substrate+.

Now I have ich! You couldn't make it up!

Water stats:

Ph 7.5 (the new substrate lowered it from about 8)
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm (big water change with the substrate change, though I retained about 50% of the original water)

I have turned up the heating to 30, put some air stones in............ and sent my better half off to find something for the ich. (she's come back with "tropical MFC")

How do I dose with the loaches I know they are sensitive, and as it is clear that a few of the fish have it, possibly coming from the new substrate, I think it'd be pointless to remove them and treat, it'll be safer to go gung ho and do the lot. What would people suggest?

Harry

(Stocking is in my profile)

 

[stevethescot]

my last out break i half dosed the tank but it will take longer to eradicate and require more than one treatment time. but with the temperature up it will stop the protozoa reproducing

 

[WILDER]

The clown loach might have had skinny desease.
Has he always been abit thin.

 

[H. Houdini]

The clown loach might have had skinny desease.
Has he always been abit thin.

Thanks Wilder.... To be honest I never noticed it being like that before, but like I said some of them did have a tendency to hide under the pipe I provided.

On the other hand the mollies and barbs, even though I was dropping the algae wafers in 30 mins after lights-out, were going mental over them. I never knew how much the loaches were actually getting, hence courgette from time to time.

Truth is, this isn't my problem now, the white spot is.

I've dosed the stuff I mentioned above (it says 5 drops for 10 litres, so I dosed for 230, the tank being 250). Any advice on this, or am I already doing the right thing?

Harry

 

[WILDER]

What ingredients are in the med.
I would medicate the whole tank.
Don't forget to increase aeration and remove black carbon from the filter if you use it.
Best to half dose with clown loaches as they are sensitive to whitespot meds.

A link to clown loaches.
http/www.bollmoraakvarieklubb.org/artikl...own%20loach.htm

 

[H. Houdini]

What ingredients are in the med.
I would medicate the whole tank.
Don't forget to increase aeration and remove black carbon from the filter if you use it.
Best to half dose with clown loaches as they are sensitive to whitespot meds.

A link to clown loaches.
[URL="http/www.bollmoraakvarieklubb.org/artikl...own%20loach.htm"]http/www.bollmoraakvarieklubb.org/artikl...own%20loach.htm[/URL]

I put two airstones in and upped the temp to 30 immediately after I noticed the white spots.

It has methylene blue, green malachite (I think, gotta translate that myself) and formaldehyde.

The woman in the LFS (local petshop really) is quite good and doesn't give out rubbish. She said that she had used it herself on loaches and we should be more worried about the BN.

Back to you...

Harry

 

[WILDER]

What ingredients are in the med.
I would medicate the whole tank.
Don't forget to increase aeration and remove black carbon from the filter if you use it.
Best to half dose with clown loaches as they are sensitive to whitespot meds.

A link to clown loaches.
<a href="http/www.bollmoraakvarieklubb.org/artikl...own%20loach.htm" target="_blank">http/www.bollmoraakvarieklubb.org/artikl...own%20loach.htm</a>

I put two airstones in and upped the temp to 30 immediately after I noticed the white spots.

It has methylene blue, green malachite (I think, gotta translate that myself) and formaldehyde.

The woman in the LFS (local petshop really) is quite good and doesn't give out rubbish. She said that she had used it herself on loaches and we should be more worried about the BN.

Back to you...

Harry

I wouldn't use the full dose.
I would try half dose.
If you already added the full dose and they ok leave it. If they act weird dilute the med down with a water change.

 

[H. Houdini]

You're a star, thank you. Also, a great read. I'd done a lot of research, but I'll bookmark this, again, thank you!