Protozin in main tank..

[Tracey73]

I have 3 of my 4 discus with white spots/blotchy looking white parts on their fins and tails. Their fins and tails also look really ragged and split. I have had this problem for a few weeks, have tried the salt, have stabilised the PH but it has not fixed the white spots. Think its time for protozin :twisted: Is it ok to dose the main tank? I do not have that many buckets, airstones and heaters to pull them out the tank. I understand the tank will be blue :? I have corydoras, neons and mystery snails, will all of these be ok? and might sound stupid, but will the protozin stain anything in my tank, like the driftwood or background?
Thanks :)

[vyberman]

I have used protozin in my main tank without any problems. It says on the bottle that armano shrimp dont get along with it too well.
I was faced with a similar situation as i couldnt move either discus or shrimp out of the tank. So i opted to use it, luckily the shrimp seemed to be relatively healthy during the treatment.

However, If the infection is actually whitespot then you may have a bit of a battle on your hands. It was hellish trying to get rid of mine.
Since the treatment takes a week to administer that means you wont be able to change any water during that time. And since the parasite has a two week life cycle you will need to run it twice.

Mine kept flaring up each time i thought i had sorted it out.
So in the end i ran three weeks worth of treatments with a huge (80%) water change between treatments.
That finally sorted it out. (make sure you warm the water before adding it, whitspot seems to thrive on drops in temp)

Since then i have invested in a hospital tank. Now i dont know how i managed without it. It is far easier to clear whitespot with a hospital tank as you can leave your main tank empty for a good while which will deprive any parasites of a host to infest.

Although it may not be whitespot at all. When i was treating mine a couple of folk in here mentioned that their discus would get white blotches if the filter wasn't clean enough. So i would start with a thorough test of the water and take it from there.

P.S This advice is based purely on my limited experience. there are folk in here who know far more than i do.

[taksan]

Protozin will probably kill the snails but if its whitespot its really your only option.

[JoeDiscus85]

Ive used it and agree with Taksan, I had a whole colony of snails, Colltected all of the eggs myself and hatched them, Apple snails, Ramshorn snails and a few more unkown species of snail. I actually liked having them aroung but The protozin killed them off!!!! : (


Joe

[Tracey73]

Thanks for the warning! My apple snails are happily in a small 10 litre tank while I protozin my main tank, did not want to harm them, they are part of the family :lol: