Help With White Spot And Platys

[amanda8beechwood]

I'm not sure if I've posted in the correct section but I'm really worried about my three platys. We've just bought a new tank and they've been in there for about 2 weeks. We bought a book on diseases to know what to look out for and then about 5 days ago they started acting weird and scratching and when we turned the light on we saw quite a few white spots on them. We treated them with King British WS3 as soon as we noticed and then treated them again today. They are absolutely riddled with the white spots, is this normal before they drop off, will they die, have we caught it too late. Also, one of them looks really miserable and keeps hiding in the corner and one of them keeps gasping at the top of the tank. Also, where do I get the test tube thingy to test the water. Its my husband's tank and I don't think he's thought this through before buying or maybe I'm just being paranoid as I've got attached to the fish x

 

[*Fishkies*]

Okay here is a LINK to the pinned topic at the top of this forum titled Treating Ich/whitespot. Read through this and hopefully it will help. According to the medication you used, i take it you are in the UK, so I cannot offer any advice on medications as I am not sure what all you have avaliable in your area exactly.

Do you have areation in the tank?
What type of filter do you have running?
How big is the tank?
Are platys the only thing in the tank?

 

[amanda8beechwood]

Hi there, thanks so much for getting back to me. Yes I've read that link already but to be honest there was such a lot of information it kinda went over my head and I couldn't work it out. What is areation. It is a jewel tank which came with the filter and temperature thing and pump and everything with it. The tank is 70litres big and yes just three platys in there x

 

[*Fishkies*]

Aeration would be something that provides oxygen in the tank. Such as a bubbler or air stone. Take a look at this LINK here. This shows you what aeration is and what the different air stones look like. Now this is only an example as i'm not sure what is avaliable in your area.

However some good medications for treating ich would be as follows.

CopperSafe By Mardel
General Cure By Aquarium Pharmaceuticals

Also scroll down to the near bottom of the link below and you will see a few more medication options for your fishies!

LINK

This was also taken from within the pinned topic at the top.

 

[amanda8beechwood]

Thanks for your reply again. Yes we have bubbles. I've just got back from the gym and it appears that the white things are starting to come away from the fish now but my black platy is being pecked by my orange one, is the orange one pecking the things off it or attacking it, the black one looks really poorly x

 

[amanda8beechwood]

Please help me someone, I don't know what to do, the black one looks really really poorly now, it is struggling to swim, it just seems to be floating around the tank and the white one keeps pecking it, but its as if it is pecking the white spots of it, but it seems to be causing the black one distress. I can't bear it. I don't know whether its in pain or the white one is trying to help it

 

[*Fishkies*]

If you can isolate him isolate him and put him in a quarentine tank!

Or even just put him in a net for now, so that he is not being "bitten" or picked on. This will stop him from being stressed for the moment till you could isolate him.

 

[amanda8beechwood]

My husband thinks its going to die, all we have is a sciv that we can put it in but it doesn't even seem able to swim at the moment and looks half dead, is it likely to recover

 

[*Fishkies*]

It is hard to say, as cannot see the fish in person.
What is a sciv? (sorry to ask, but i don't know)

The fish has ich?
Is it breathing hard?
Do you see any other physical problems?

 

[amanda8beechwood]

A sciv is like a draining type instrument looks like a net though small holes in it. We think its dead, no movement at all, its gills are stuck open and mouth. I feel terrible like I've killed it. Will the others die? They still have the white spots but seem ok apart from that. Thing is this fish seemed a lot healthier than the orange and the white platy yet this one is the one that has died. The remaining two definitely have white spot but apart from the odd gasp at the top of the tank are swimming normally. It was the white one that was pecking the black one.

 

[*Fishkies*]

A sciv is like a draining type instrument looks like a net though small holes in it.

Ah okay, thanks for explaining.

think its dead, no movement at all, its gills are stuck open and mouth

yeah that's usually what they look like when they die.

The others should be okay as long as they are being medicated.

When you say the "odd gasp" do you mean your fish are gasping at the top of the surface? If so lower your water level so that when the filter water pours out it creates bubbles/some noise, this will provide water movement in the tank. It may seem like you need more water movement.

 

[amanda8beechwood]

Thanks so much for your advice, it was just the orange one really, I don't know if it was gasping or not, it was just going to the top of the tank and opening and closing its mouth really, it didn't look particularly distressed but that's since the treatment that its done that x The lady at the fish shop who gave us the treatment said not to treat more than twice yet it says on the actual treatment bottle you can do it five times and then do a 10% water change so that has confused us. We have treated twice now over 48 intervals like on the instructions but the remaining fish still do have white spots and are still scratching themselves x

 

[mommyof2bettas]

ich is very pesky, treat with the medicine, add some aquarium salt, and raise the temp. If the fish are gasping on top they might be suffering from high ammonia sice I don't think you cycled the tank.

 

[WILDER]

This is a good article on whitespot.
Good luck.
http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml

 

[amanda8beechwood]

Do you mean because we've got a new tank that it hasn't gone a full cycle, we can't raise the temperature more than 25 can we as it says in our book that platys can only take between 24 and 26 x