Icky Ich!

[DJ Day 1]

the past couple of days, i've had fish dying for "no apparent reason". i noticed one small white spot on a single tiger barb. obviously, my first thought was white spot disease, so i decided to closely watch the general health of the fish. first thing this morning, i looked at the fish and they're all covered in white spots and their fins are slightly rotted - so my initial idea is evidently right.

i tried to feed them, but they weren't interested at all, so i simply removed the food debris.

to treat the white spot disease, i'm using a treatment called "anti white spot plus", which is made by a company called "interpret". although the instructions are clear enough, i'm still left with a few questions:

1) if i've misdiagnosed the problem, will the white spot treatment cause the fish any harm?
2) should i wait until after the treatment is finished before trying them with food?
3) could i have done anything different to prevent white spot disease?
4) could they have already been infected before i bought them?

 

[drobbyb]

1. They will still be ok depending on the fish. Some fish you can only use half dosage.
2. Once the "white spots" are gone from the fish, they may eat.
3. and 4. Not really. White spot is a parasite, so it usually comes in with the fish.

Make SURE you treat for the FULL period. Once the cysts are off the fish, white spot is still in your tank. It has a life cycle, and once they are in the larval stage they are free swimming and almost impossible to detect. The most common mistake people make is not treating past the cyst stage, just to have it resurface later on.

Things that will help with treatment: Turn up your heater to 28 to 30 C. Heat speeds up their life cycle so that the meds can kill the parasites faster. Add extra aeration as the higher heat lessens the water's ability to hold oxygen.

 

[DJ Day 1]

thanks 4 the advice and the speedy response mate!

 

[Monty-2010]

Just before you start the treatment i'd do a 50% water change to get rid of some of the water born parasites

 

[DJ Day 1]

good thinkin! i'll do that before the 2nd dose on saturday

 

[DJ Day 1]

unfortunately, i didn't diagnose white spot early enough. it killed the last of my fish off on friday night. feel quite bad about it, but we live & learn.

i've cleaned the whole tank out and threw away most of my ornaments to start again from scratch. currently cycling both tanks and i'll be adding plants to it next weekend - any advice on plants that are easy to keep and wont get destroyed by the barbs i'll be stocking the tank with after the cycles complete?

lastly, would it be a good idea to treat the water with the white spot meds just in case there's still some of the parasites alive?