advise on white spot please

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Amsterlona

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Hi I purchased some fish last Saturday. I didnt realise they had them till it was too late and they were in my tank they had white spot. I started white spot treatment on my tank as soon as the shop opened the next day.Using WS3 original. I was hoping that this would stop my fish getting it as I started treatment very early. My Gouramis have now got it and a couple of my neons too. But has affected my dwarf gouramis pretty bad. Ive risen the tank temp slowly starting yesterday.Ive removed about 80% of the gravel. I'm treating everyday at around the same day every day and doing a gravel vac too. What else can I do I'm so worried I'm going to lose my fish. Please help me
 
I would not use any chemicals to treat them as most Ich treatments will mess with the nitrogen cycle. Slowly raise the temp to about 86-88 F and after a few days the ich will start dying off. leave the temp up for a week or two while doing more frequent water changes/gravel vacs.

Depending on if you have live plants and if you have any species of catfish, you can try adding some aquarium salt as well. If you have live plants or catfish, don't add salt as it can be harmful to them.

Add an air stone or two if you already haven't. Warmer water, and probably the meds you have been using, deplete the water of oxygen which will stress the fish out further and possibly end up killing them.
 
You have started treatment, using WS3. You either need to continue this, following their instructions, or do a couple of major water changes to remove as much of the medication as you can and then use another treatment (I'll come to that). On no account combine different treatments, this can make things much worse.

Any treatment will cause stress to fish, but when one is dealing with disease it becomes necessary to achieve a cure. The most effective treatment is the one that not only deals with the issue effectively but minimizes additional stress to the extent this is possible. I've never used WS3. The ingredients in WS3, according to their website, are malachite green, acriflavine and quinine sulphate. These are not easy medications for tetras particularly. I would myself use salt and heat. If you do a couple of major water changes (70-75% of the tank volume, vacuuming the substrate thoroughly) to get rid of WS3, you could move to salt and heat. I'll explain the process.

Leave the substrate (what's there now, just clean it well). Raise the temp gradually (use the water changes partly, depending what the present temp is--you do not want too much of an increase suddenly) to 86F/30C. Get to this temp within a day. no more is needed. Make sure you have very good water movement, with good surface disturbance; increase the filter to achieve this, or add airstones. At the same time (after all the water changes), begin adding salt. Use regular Aquarium Salt. Do not use table salt, marine salt or rift lake cichlid salts. Add 2 grams per liter; 1 level teaspoon is approximately 6 grams, so this would treat 3 liters. Take into account the displacement of water by substrate, wood, rock, etc. This is usually 10-15% of the tank volume. Dissolve the salt completely and pour in the salted water. Add it gradually, over several hours.

Maintain the heat for two full weeks, then turn down the heater and let the tank cool gradually on its own back to the normal temperature. If you do a water change after the first week (you should), add salt for only the water replaced. Do another water change at the end of the second week, 60-70%. This will remove much of the salt, the rest will disappear with future normal water changes.

Byron.
 
I just responded to this enquiry in another thread, here
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/advise-on-white-spot-please.444426/

It is best to keep a topic together in one thread so all of us know what has been said/done. You could ask a mod to combine these.

I've also suggested heat/salt. I did the mthod I lay out with well planted tanks and didn't lose any plants. I've also used this with catfish (cories, whiptails, farlowella) and loaches, on Neale Monks' advice, and never lost a fish. As with any treatment, monitor the fish's behaviours after you start and if there are signs of problems, be prepared to do a partial water change. I wouldn't expect issues from the fish mentioned in the other thread (neons, gourami) but I've no idea what else might be in this tank.

Byron.
 

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