Whitespot.

[Steve.]

Hi all, we have what we think is whitespot (well not us our fish, Te He) they are covered in...well, small whitespots, at first our neon tetras went down with it and we used a medicine called Interpet anti whitespot plus, following the instructions which are 1 dose of 10ml then leave for 4 days and dose again another 10ml (the 4th day was yesterday) It sounds fine so far but we have just noticed that our clown loaches and gouramis have now developed white spots also, so getting to the point can anyone offer any advice on this, as in another medicine to use, other ways of getting rid of this nasty little whitespot??

Fish in the tank are...

1 pleco
4 clown loaches
3 gourami (dwaft)
3 platy's
5 neon tetra

 

[CFC]

Interpet #6 is usually a very effective treatment, it is my medication of choice when dealing with whitespot (ICH).

I would do a 50% water change and run some carbon in the filter for 24 hours to remove the last course of the medication and then try again, only this time raise the temperature of the water up to 30 celcius as well to speed up the life cycle of the parasite. The parasite that causes whitespot can only be destroyed while in its free swimming form, once attached to a fish it is immune to any treatments that can safely be used on live fish so you have to speed its cycle up to get each cycst to divide and become free swimming again.

 

[sunflower]

I use King British White Spot Control (#5), 5 drops every 2 days and continue for 2 days after the spots have gone.

Only had 1 bout of White Spot (touch wood) but it worked well for me.

 

[Steve.]

Thanks very much for your advice, we will give it another go and let you know how things get on, once again thanks

 

[Steve.]

Please help.....

We have use interpet #6 (we have given two complete courses over the last few weeks) and still we have whitespot in the tank, not all the fish are infected (mainly the clown loaches and tetra's) but we found this morning a loach on it's last legs (well fins). we just don't know what do to next.

 

[Incitic]

I wish your fish a speedy recovery, hopefully they should be ok.

 

[kaz petts]

Unfortunatly Clown Loaches are suseptable to ICH for some reason.
I use King British WS3 white spot terminator. You put 1 drop per gallon every other day for the duration of the white spot and a couple of treatments after the spots have cleared off the fish as the white spot can live within the tank for a few days after dropping off the fish. It lives (I beleive) on the leaves of the plants and in the gravel. This is why your clown loaches have come down with it. It is highly likely that because you have been treating your mid and top dwellers the ich has dropped off them into the gravel and found itself a new host on your clown loaches because they are the nearest fish.
I did lose a clown loach to white spot some time ago (sorry to have to tell you this). I didn't catch it soon enough, I was pretty new to fish keeping at the time and didn't know the signs.
first signs of white spot are the fish flicking/rubbing as if irritated by something. They will rub on gravel or anything that is in the tank.
The normal causes of white spot seem to be stress and adding new fish or plants into the tank. It is wise to quaranteen any new fish for a couple of weeks to make sure they do not have any parasites, and as for plants, if you get any new plants it is a good idea to wash them thoroughly first.
I wish you and your fish all the best. I have to say I do find the King British WS3 white spot terminator very good indeed.
If you have a submersable filter you need to make sure that it doesn't have a carbon sponge or any form of carbon in it as the carbon will take out any medication that you are using and the whole process is pointless.

 

[Steve.]

Thank you for your comments, they are appreciated, After I posted this morning we shot off to our local fish shop and asked them what to do, they recommended we do a 50% water change, run a carbon filter for 24 hours and then use "waterlife protozin". they did say that the whitespot can live in gravel and loaches would be prone to infection from this, we will keep you posted as to how the fish go.

Once again Thanks