WHITE SPOT ?

[Ray.M]

I think I have an out break of white spot.

One of the discus has a lot of little 'white spots' on the body and the fins.
White spots also appears to be on the rummy noises as well.
This has occurred after a 20% water change yesterday!!!
See photo below:
http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/xx245/Ray_M_bucket/IMG_3404.jpg

This is a community tank with discus, rummy noses, cardinals, german blue rams, corys, whip tail and peppermint bn.

Can anyone confirm and advise on the treatment please ? 280L tank.
If I need to treat the tank I will most likely remove water to 140 litres
Dosage rates in gms/litre or mls/litre would be good & if safe for all the fish.


As always, thank you for your help
Ray

[Merrilyn]

Ray, here's a treatment plan I wrote out for a forum member some months ago. You will need a hospital tank, or be prepared to move the whip tail and peppermint bristlenose to another tank, because they won't appreciate the medication at all. I think with some of the meds, you can treat scaleless fish at half strength, but do read the instructions carefully.

White spot is usually caused by the fish getting chilled, so make sure that your heater is still functioning properly

That discus has quite a serious case of white spot, so try to get the meds as soon as possible. White spot is fatal if left untreated.




Okay, now here's a plan to follow, and hopefully that will fix your problems.

1. Remove fish from main tank to clean hospital tank, which should be bare except for a pot for the fish to hide behind.

2. Turn the temp up to 32 degrees and add a white spot cure from the aquarium shop. There are lots of good brands, and most of them will turn your water blue.

3. Leave your fish in the hospital tank for 10 days, following the treatment instructions on the bottle. You need a heater and an airstone in there. A filter isn't necessary, because you'll be doing daily water changes.

4. While your fish are in the hospital tank, do a big water change and thorough gravel vac on your community tank. Turn the temp up to 32 but don't add more salt. We want the tank to be vacant of fish for 10 days.

The life cycle of white spot is such that it will die in the main tank without any host fish, that's why we leave it vacant for a week. The increase in temperature will speed up the life cycle of the white spot, and without a host, the little parasites die quickly.

In your clean hospital tank, as the cysts fall from the fish (they normally fall into the gravel, where they mature and burst open, releasing hundreds of free swimming parasites, all just waiting to jump on a fish and so the whole cycle starts again), they will be removed when you scrub the bottom of the tank, and removed with your daily water changes .

That way, we break the life cycle of the parasite, and remove the cyst before it's had time to hatch. The white spot medication in the water will kill off any free swimming cycts that have escaped the cleaning.

Feed your fish normally during this time, and be dilligent with your daily water changes and vacuuming the bottom of the tank.

Your fish should be completely cured within 10 days.

Keep us posted.

[Ray.M]

Hi Merrilyn,

I have too many fish in the community tank to move them all as my QT tank is only 80L.
If I remove all the plants can I treat the main tank only ?
What percentage water change do I do ?
Will the medication kill the bacteria in the filters ?
Can you recommend a particular medication ?

Thanks,
Ray

[Merrilyn]

By all means, remove the plants to another tank during treatment. It's really important to thoroughly gravel vac during treatment because the egg capsules fall to the bottom of the tank and should be removed before they have a chance to hatch.

It's been a long time since I've had to use white spot cure, so not sure what brands are available, but most of them are based on methylene blue. Your aquarium shop should know a good brand.

The bottle should give you directions on the percentage of water you need to change. From memory, it's won't knock your bio filter around too much but again, check the bottle.

[Ray.M]

Thanks Merrilyn.

[Greggy]

The most effective white spot medications usually contain a mixture of Formalin and Methylene Blue. Apparently they work more effetively when combined than on their own.

I had case of white-spot in my 6x2x2 community tank and managed to clear it without removing all the fish to a hospital tank, so its very possible, but a hospital tank is the better option. You'll find with a large tank the amount of medication to add is quite alot, but luckily the meds are relatively cheap. Some things will stain blue for a while but not the glass or gravel.

Don't use less than the recommended dosage. You should go as hard as possible and concentrate on saving your discus. If you lose some Tetras etc then that should be seen as 'collateral damage' - yes thats a cruel way to look at things but you need to hit the white spot hard... give it an inch it will take a mile and you'll be fighting it for months. If you must save the fragile fish then net them and place them in a hospital tank and follow the steps as advised above. You may have to lower the dosage but I would caution against a 1/2 dose... perhaps reduce to a 3/4 dose as if the fish are tough they will make it. Personally I didn't even lose a single Khulie Loach, BN, Cardinal or Rummy Nose Tetra when I dosed at 100% dose rate but then again my fish were all very healthy at the time.

Remember the medication is only effective whilst the parasite is in the 'swarmer' phase of its life cycle, so keep the temps up at 32C and follow the directions on the bottle. The combination of medications and the high temperature will be very effective.

It's actually quite an easy disease to treat once you get the knack of it.

Cheers!

Greggy

[ILLUSN]

white spot can be cured with heat ans salt if you worried about the other fish, 32C for 2 weeks with a good dose of salt (1tsp/L)

add the salt slowly 1st 1 tsp every 4L then up the dose every 12hrs or so till you hit the mark.

[Angelman]

white spot=Ich? I have never heard it called white spot..thou it does make sense. If its Ich were talking about..any temp over 86deg F will kill them all by its self.no salt needed.very rarely they can live over that temp..
When I first got back into fish keeping 3 years ago I was always getting ICH due to poor care and lack of knowledge. I never use meds to treat this unless its a very bad case as the meds can sometimes be harder on the fish then the Ich. I turn up the temp only..After learning my lesson and lots of reading I found you get Ich or white spot when you have poor water quality or add fish without QT. A small temp drop should not cause an Ich breakout..your fish must have had a lowered immune system due to some other problem with your tank In my exp. Check your water quality!!!Step up water changes..do massive gravel cleanings during the treatment and they should recover fine. But I would be more concerned how they got it...I have mostly large tanks and the water going in the tank is cold straight from the tap and I never get Ich anymore..2.5 years now doing this without a Ich breakout.. Always use a QT tank for 6 weeks BEFORE adding fish to your tanks... Thats the best advise I ever got..has saved me lord knows how much greif...
Good luck with them.