Another Ich Topic

[LellowFish]

Long story short, I did my usual 25% water change this morning and went out for lunch. Came back and looked in on the fish as usual and what do I find? One fish has a small number of white spots on its fins/body and another has a couple of spots.

My question is what treatment should I get as I live in the UK and don't want to be looking for something that is only available in the US.

 

[WILDER]

Size of tank in gallons or litres.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

Are the spots the size of a grain of salt.

Anti whitespot med by interpet, or protozin by waterlife.

 

[LellowFish]

It's the tank in my sig, my only one.

Water stats are all fine and yes, they are.

 

[WILDER]

Sorry.

I would get the meds I suggested.
Make sure you can use the full dose of whitespot med as sometimes you have to half dose with neon tetra's.

Good Luck.

 

[LellowFish]

It's okay, thanks for the info.

That's one thing I was worried about as I've read that Tetra's are kinda fragile when it comes to meds. Should I start with half and if it's not making much differance, up it to the full dose?

 

[WILDER]

Yes try half dose first. it can take longer to get rid of whitespot at half dose.
Good Luck.

 

[LellowFish]

Thanks Wilder. I could only get King British Whitespot treatement so I hope this works. Starting to treat it tonight.

 

[WILDER]

Good Luck.

 

[LellowFish]

Thanks again!

 

[grumpysteve]

usually with whitespot treatments they only kill the parasite before or after the the actual white spot has appeared, i had a problem with a couple of upside down catfish that were riddled with it, it took a months worth of re-treating before the whitespot cleared up. bare this in mind if it doesnt work straight away.

i've also heard that slowly raising the temperature of the tank (over 24 hours, up to max(?)) kills the parasite, but don't take my word for this!

 

[LellowFish]

My tank temp is already at 28 degrees C so it can't really go much higher. Bang goes the heat treatment. But the King British seems to be doing the job. Far less white spots than Wednesday so hopefully it should clear up soon!

 

[WILDER]

I would try and get the temp up to 30.

Glad there already an improvement.
Good Luck.

 

[LellowFish]

Would the Neons be able to cope at that temp?

I'm kind of waiting for something to go wrong with this...It seems too good to be true that it's already going away when I only used half the dosage yesterday (next dose tomorrow). But I'm a sceptic.

 

[OldMan47]

Don't let up on the treatment as soon as the spots are gone Lellowfish. That would be the way to end up treating for a month like GrumpySteve did. You always continue the treatment for several days after the spots are gone or you get to start all over again. The only time that any medication works on ich is when the parasites have fallen off the fish and before they infest the next fish. While they are free swimming and looking for a new host, they are vulnerable to the medications. The raised temperature is intended to speed up the life cycle of the parasites so that they are exposed to the medication sooner.

 

[grumpysteve]

whitespot alone rarely kills fish, its more the fact that when the cysts burst they are open to infection. keep an eye on water quality and you should be fine

i just re-read my last post and a part of it wasn't clear...... the treatment is only effective either before the cyst has appeared or when the parasite is free swimming. while the cyst is there the treatment won't do anything, you shouldn't worry too much about this though as the treatment will be killing the parasite at either of the other 2 stages of its life, if the white spots are going it means the cysts are bursting, and the free swimming parasites are being killed by the meds.

like i said though, you might have to re-dose, just do a 50% water change before you start the second dose

"Don't let up on the treatment as soon as the spots are gone Lellowfish. That would be the way to end up treating for a month like GrumpySteve did"

i didn't stop treating. i was away for a few days (my son was being born!) and when i came back the upside down cats were covered in the cysts, it took a month for it to clear up