Does ONE white spot make WHite Spot?

[stephend]

I bought three clown Loaches just over a week ago. They looked perfect, but I noticed this evening that one of them has a distinct white spot on it's head.

Do you think I should start with White Spot remedy immediately? No signs of it on other fish...

Cheers,

Stephen.

 

[WILDER]

Does the whitespot on the head look like a grain of salt, or a larger spot with red circling to it, tank size in gallons would be good, how many fish and which type, plus water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph.

 

[IMCL85]

You should read the life cycle of ich. And specailly loach r really easy to get ich specially apply with clown loaches. 1spot can spread to 100+ spot in a matter of time usually a weeks or so. And you should begin treating them asap. Its better you remove the sick one asap before it get to the other. Use a q tank and treat him with heat or medication. Medication apply in half dose is suggested as clown loachse seems very sensative to medicine due to there scaless body. Good luck

 

[WILDER]

Don't starts med yet we don't no yet what the fish is suffering from, also if a fish has whitespot treat the whole tank.

 

[xxSarahxx]

Agree with Wilder, need to know exactly what it is otherwise the fish will stress out the fish for no reason and may end up giving them the wrong med.
Again, need water stats, pH, nitrite, nitrate, amonia, temp, size and exact fish and other animals in the tank.

 

[stephend]

The white spot looks exactly like a gain of salt - no red. The tank is 50 US Gallons.

My stats are:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite: <0.1
Nitrate: 8 (prior to the 25% water change I did last night)
pH: 7.5
Temp 26.8ºC/80.2ºF

My tank is stocked as per my signature below.

Unfortunately I don't have a q'tank (yet).

Cheers,

Stephen.

 

[WILDER]

You have a slight nitrite reading there so do a water change before you add the med, read instrucions very carefully as whitespot med have to half dose with clown laoches, you will need a 90gal tank when the clown get bigger.

 

[WILDER]

http/www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ich.php

 

[stephend]

My nitrate is approx 5ppm since doing a water change last night (is that okay? My Nitrate test kit suggests that only when the level gets up to a whopping 110 do you need to think about water changes to bring it down).

Cheers,

Stephen.

 

[WILDER]

Nitrate is fine, its the 01 nitrite that want's fetching down with a water change before you add the whitepot med, good luck.

 

[stephend]

Gotcha - sorry, didn't read you post close enough!

Thanks for your help. I'll let you know how it goes. The page you linked to suggested a weeks treatment min - does this sound about right?

Cheers,

Stephen.

 

[WILDER]

Depends as it sometimes can take two rounds always best to go a week longer just to make sure it has gone, good luck.

 

[stephend]

Thanks again. I'll post my results in a week or two (sooner if it doesn't go to plan!).

Cheers,

Stephen.

 

[tttnjfttt]

When I had a fish with one spot of ich (he came home that way from the LPS, so i have no clue when it began) I treated him very quickly. I think that i stopped medicating him after four days and it never came back. However, it was also a betta so i was able to leave him alone in a container with no substrate.

Good luck! It should be easier to treat because you caught it earlier

 

[stephend]

Just a quick update if anyone is interested, I treated the tank on half the recommended dose (due to having Loaches). The spots disappeared and re-appeared on maybe four or five of my fish, before disappearing altogether.

I think I treated them for just over a week, and had the temperature a litter higher - about 28.5°C. I never got more than one or two spots on any fish at any one time, so I was quite pleased.

Many thanks for your help with this.