Getting Shot Of Whitespot

[johnnyjtaylor]

My 15 gallon tank has a real nasty case of whitespot which wasnt cured by the meds(protozin) . It contained 13 neons which endured 3 seperate courses of protozin to no avail and the poor little buggers died one by one . I can only imagine that the shoddy lfs where I got the last neons had half treated their tanks over a period of time managing to make themselves a bomb proof strain of whitespot which they then kindly pass on to their customers.
What I now need to know is can the whitespot survive in the tank with no fish to live on and if so how long?? AND If it can how do I kill it off from the tank or do I need to scrub/boil everything in there and ditch the plants???

cheers Johnny

 

[PaulEbs]

Hey johnny, my advice would be to start the cycle over again, clean everything out. The bacteria might be free-swimming or in your gravel, so if you just re-rinse everything, boil the gravel once more, and cycle the tank all over again it should be alright..? Wait for others opinions though, as this is just what I would do.

 

[Majjie]

I'm struggling with some cardinals at the moment and white spot combined possibly with fungus infection. I'm using Interpet's Anti Whitespot Plus.

Theoretically, if you leave the tank empty of fish for at least 7 days at a slightly higher temperature than normal - all the whitespot parasites should die. They have to have fish to live on.

There's an article in Practical Fishkeeping this month, though, that mentions a resistant strain of Ich. - so it's just possible that this might be more difficult to get rid of

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Ok thanks for advice I guess Id better boil and scrub everything to be on the safe side. Do you think the plants would be ok with just a rinse or should I isolate them in something with no fish for a week or so

 

[Majjie]

Can't really help with disinfecting - never had to do it - but I've read that dilute bleach is good. You add only enough bleach to the water so that you can just smell the chlorine. It has to be pure household bleach (nothing that smells of pine or lemons ) and leave it for 30 mins.

There's disadvantages though:

bleach is nasty - wear gloves and don't get it near your eyes or mouth
organic material de-activates bleach - so rinse plants under the tap first
bleach is also very toxic to fish and any other living thing - so rinse very well afterwards

And bear in mind - I've never tried it myself

 

[andywg]

Just leave it empty for a week or so, without a host to live on Ich will die. the 7 days will give time for all the different life cycles to get to the free swimming one after which they will die.

This page has the best info on Ich I have ever seen:

http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml

 

[Bignose]

Hey johnny, my advice would be to start the cycle over again, clean everything out. The bacteria might be free-swimming or in your gravel, so if you just re-rinse everything, boil the gravel once more, and cycle the tank all over again it should be alright..? Wait for others opinions though, as this is just what I would do.

100% agree with andy on this. Please read up on what ich is it is not a bacteria, it is a protozoa. It cannot survive at tropical temperatures without a fish host for more than 3 to maybe 5 days. If the tank is fish-free for a week or longer, it cannot have ich. The plants will also be ich-free. But, you may not have a cycled tank, if you has one in the first place. To keep the tank cycled, you could add ammonia everyday (or several times each day) to keep the ammonia consuming bacteria alive.

If you read that link andy posted, it will have several tips on how to defeat ich again.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Cheers for that. I'll give it prehaps 10 days then to be sure the nasties are dead and then Im going to put my female bettas in it (they're in a 10 gal at moment so 15 should seem like a mansion to them!). As for cycling I just keep spare bits of filter sponge and one of them air powered sponge filters in my other tanks to have instant cycling when needed
Thanks again for the advice Im real happy that I havent got to pull everything out of the bloody thing!!! 8)



cheers Johnny