Can Anyone Confirm If This Is Whitespot?

[shell685]

We have a 280L tank which was set up about 1.5 months ago.
3 weeks ago we added a few platties and 2 weeks ago we added 1 female and 1 male Pearl Gourami.

Yesterday I noticed on our female pearl gourami that she has something on her top fin and back fin.
It looks a bit like there is some white fluff stuck to her.

Ive tried to do a bit of research and read about whitespot, but im not sure if thats what it is.
I can't see any white spots on her body, although with her colours I dont think they'd show up all that well.

Ive taken a picture - it doesnt show it up very well but if you look at her back fin down the bottom and up the top you will see there is some white there.

Thankyou in advance!

Edited because I forgot the picture (sorry if its a little big)

 

[WILDER]

If the tank hasn't cycled you shouldn't have added gouramis very sensitive to water quality.
Can't make it out on the pics does the area look fluffy, whitespot would look like grains of salt on the fins.

 

[shell685]

Thanks for the reply.

The tank cycled for a month before the gouramis were added.
We went into the aquarium shop and asked advice on what fish we should add and when.
We were told we could add the gourami's.
Should we have waited longer ? - We relied on the aquariums advice.

Id say it looks more fluffy than like salt.

 

[WILDER]

Right if its fluffy you will need a bacterial med, increase aeration in the tank, good luck.
Check stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph, and get back to the board.

 

[fishdawg]

alwase check the internet before listining to your lfs. your tank needs to be cycled ( about 3 months) before adding sensitive fish.

 

[shell685]

Right if its fluffy you will need a bacterial med, increase aeration in the tank, good luck.
Check stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph, and get back to the board.

Thankyou - I will do this today.

alwase check the internet before listining to your lfs. your tank needs to be cycled ( about 3 months) before adding sensitive fish.

Im presuming lfs stand for local fish shop.
The fish shop we went to has a very good name and was recommended to us by several people, so I thought I would get good advice from there.

We wanted to put clown loaches in our tank but were told to wait another month or two before putting them in, and it was suggested to us that we could put pearl gouramis in now.

I thought that since these people do it for their job everyday of the week they'd know what they were talking about.

In regards to the internet - the major problem there is that everyone has different opinions.

I guess you learn from your mistakes though

 

[Inchworm]

Hi shell685

Welcome to the forum!

I'd agree with your lfs. Gouramis are good fish to add at the beginning and I've used them myself to cycle a tank. They are tough fish, but any fish can get run down and sick from poor water conditions.

If you don't have your own kits to check for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, I would suggest you get them. In the long run, they are a good investment. If your stats aren't at zero for both ammonia and nitrites, your tank hasn't finished cycling. This means you will probably want to increase the frequency of water changes and remove enough water each time to lower it. A longer, but slow cycle is easier on the fish than a fast one.

Whitespot (ich) looks like tiny grains of salt have been sprinkled on the fish's fins and/or body. Your fish appears to have a bacterial infection. See how the fins seem to be starting to break down? That's one of many different symptoms that can appear. Watch your other fish to be sure they are OK.

Since you caught the problem early (or so it seems) be sure to get the water parameters down to zero and you might want to try a little MelaFix. It's a mild antibacterial and won't interfere with your beneficial bacteria.

Please notice if there is some water movement at the surface of the tank to help with aeration and keep the temperature at no higher than 75 degrees F. during treatment. This will make the environment less hospitable for the harmful bacteria that is normally living in a tank and will only hurt the fish when they have lowered immune systems due to some kind of stress.

Another cause of stress for your gourami is an aggressive tankmate. If your other one is a male, and he is chasing her around the tank, this could be the problem. If so, you might need to separate them.

 

[shell685]

Inchworm - We do have a test kit and we tested the nitrate, ammonia and PH last week and everything looked to be OK.
I will do another test tonight.

A water change was done last week. Should we do another one this week ? or is that going to be too often?

We do also have a male gourami who does chase the female.
He doesnt do it all the time, but it seems he occassionally will get the urge so he'll chase her for a minute and then leave her alone again.

The water is moving in the tank - we have a tube which runs along the back of the tank with little holes in it which pushes the water around. (sorry - im not good with the techinal terms/names!)

All our other fish are Ok at this stage (we only have 2 platties, 1 sucker fish {from our previous tank} and the 2 gouramis).

Our tank is currently a bit more than 75 F. Its about 25 - 26 degrees which is about 77F.
What would you recommend we drop it to ?

 

[Mr.September15]

Head And Shoulders...

 

[scubadoo]

Inchworm - We do have a test kit and we tested the nitrate, ammonia and PH last week and everything looked to be OK.
I will do another test tonight.

A water change was done last week. Should we do another one this week ? or is that going to be too often?

We do also have a male gourami who does chase the female.
He doesnt do it all the time, but it seems he occassionally will get the urge so he'll chase her for a minute and then leave her alone again.

The water is moving in the tank - we have a tube which runs along the back of the tank with little holes in it which pushes the water around. (sorry - im not good with the techinal terms/names!)

All our other fish are Ok at this stage (we only have 2 platties, 1 sucker fish {from our previous tank} and the 2 gouramis).

Our tank is currently a bit more than 75 F. Its about 25 - 26 degrees which is about 77F.
What would you recommend we drop it to ?

Standard practice would be to change about 20-25% of you water on a weekly basis. Tanks' requirements vary depanding on the type of fish, how many and the effectiveness of your filters etc., but thats a pretty good baseline - you can increase or decrease depending on your water conditions.

It sounds like you have a spray bar arrangement - to increase the aeration, you can move the bar up so that it just breaks the water surface or keeps a good constant ripple on the top of the water.

Your tank temperature isn't far off the mark IMO, but you could stand to drop it another 1 - 1.5deg C while treating.

I'm sure you know, but clown loaches grow to be quite large - maximum of 12", but more likely 9-10" and should ideally be kept in groups of 4 or more because they are sociable. I can see that your tanks big enough for them, but just thought I'd add this in case your lfs had said tried to sell you some cute small fish.

 

[shell685]

I'm sure you know, but clown loaches grow to be quite large - maximum of 12", but more likely 9-10" and should ideally be kept in groups of 4 or more because they are sociable. I can see that your tanks big enough for them, but just thought I'd add this in case your lfs had said tried to sell you some cute small fish.

Yes, Ive read that they get quite big. The fish shop that we go too has them in 3 different sizes, but I have also seen quite a large one in an tank that the fish shop has set up. We were planning on keeping the fish we have at the moment (As posted above) and added 3-4 clown loaches and that will be it.
I thought that would give all the fish time to grow and the tank wont end up overcrowded.

 

[shell685]

Our pearl gourami has made a very good recovery. We have been treating the tank for a week now and all the "fluff" on her fins has gone.

We turned our tank temp down 1 degree, and I checked our PH, Nitrate, Nitrite and Ammoia and everything is spot on.

Thanks to everyone who helped.