Medicate Again? How Soon?

[Zoepop]

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Hi, Wonder if anyone can help please and advise if i should medicate again and if not yet how long should i wait???


Tank size: 240l
pH: todat 6.0 but it is usually about 6.4 varies from day to day but no idea why!!
ammonia: 0
nitrite
nitrate:10
kH: don't have a test
gH:don't have a test
tank temp: 26

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):
my fish were all fine but added four new corys and three adult congo tetra last week and my other resident fish have been looking a little off since then, no sign of any spots or anything (until about 30 mins ago!!) but the fish were flicking and just not looking themselves, my corys all looked quite lathargic and weren't doing their normal cory dance and just sitting on the bottom.

Volume and Frequency of water changes:
about 80l once a week

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: only chemicals added is the tap safe for the water changes

Tank inhabitants:
9 congo tetra (three were added last thursday)
10 prestilla tetra
2 bristlenoses
1 weatherloach (I know i should have more and the tank is a little warmer than ideal for him but i've had him for years in my cold water tank so when i upgraded to my large tropical tank i didn't want to loose him!)
6 rams
11 c. julli
4 c. bronze (just added last thurs)
4 c. maete
1 spotted talking catfish
1 SAE
2 apple snails
6 algae eating shrimp



Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):
three congo tetra
four bronze cory

Exposure to chemicals: not that i'm aware of apart from the meds


After seeing the fish just weren't themselves on saturday (two days after adding new fish, lots of flicking and sudden movements i decided to medicate using an antiwhitespot treatment. I used aSHa EXIT which is meant to stop all spot and velvet disease.

As i hadn't actually seen any fish with whitespot just just felt it was on the way thought I would do a half dose of the medicine as I didn't want to upset my corys too much as I know they can be sensitive to medication.
Well medicine was a three day course which had the last dose last night.

I also did a large 50% water change last night before adding the last dose of medicine just to try to help out a bit more.

when I came home today my new corys and one of the new congos are covered in whitespots, i've taken the corys out and put into a little tank but it isn't big enough for the congo which are fully grown so they'll have to stay in the big tank but i just noticed one of the prestilla tetra and one of my original congos are also showing small spots.

My main question is how soon can I medicate again or should I wait and see if the original medicine has any effect on the whitespot?

I know this is a hard way to lern my lesson that I should always quarenteen new fish before putting them in my tank

Sorry about the really long message and thank you if you managed to read it all!

Any advice or help would be much appreciated
Thanks
Zoe

 

[Zoepop]

Anyone? should i give another dose tonight??

Really don't want this to take off and don't know what to do!!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

If this is Ich, which could really do with a photo for more experiencd fish keepers than myself to see, I would suggest that you move the cories and any other medication sensitive fish to your quarantine tank. You can then treat the main tank at full doseage, while treating the cories (and any other sensitive souls) at a gentler pace in the QT.

Do the infected fish have multiple spots over them, like a sprinkling of salt? If so, this could well be Ich, but please do not take my opinion as gospel as I'm novice keeper of just two months

If it is Ich, Waterlife's "Protozin" medication seems to be highly praised, which involves treatment over six days.

If you are reasonably confident that your ill fish look like pictures that can be found using "google," you could turn you heater upto 30C and not medicate, while waiting for more input. This will quicken the life cycle of this parasite and the higher temperature tends to kill off most of the spores.

 

[the biffster]

you need to reduce your nitrites
that wont be doing your fish any good

 

[Twinklecaz]

I think she just got them round the wrong way, I think she means her Nitrates are 10.

 

[Zoepop]

I think she just got them round the wrong way, I think she means her Nitrates are 10.

yes sorry I did...a bit stressed yesterday as I was writing that thought my whole tank was going to be wiped out overnight! I'll correct the maain post!

things much the same as they were did another half dose of the med last night so rather than three full doses they have had four half doses the four corys that have been worst hit are in a little tank on their own again i gave them half a dose and i have done a 50% water change in both tanks this morning....

Just taken some pics i'll pop them on as soon as i can...

 

[Zoepop]

my little tetra with a white spot on his nose...

the female congo, a couple of my original males are now showing the smae sheen it's more a sheen of white over the top of their backs rather than spots, sorry about the pics she won't come to the front of the tank and when they do they're too fast too photograph!

my new corys not a good pic i know it seems to be more of a sheen around their fins than spots but they are really listless and just sitting in the bottom of their tank.

Sorry photo quaality isn't the best

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Zoe

 

[Defiance]

Hiya,

I'd use the Waterlife 'Medizin P' 500ml cost him (mate 5mins from me) £17.50 but will keep for 12mths easily and treat upto 12,000 litres !!!!

Just using it on a large fish tank (one heck of a weird triangular shaped mega gallonaged darn thick glassed tank)

We have been using 50% of the stated dosage, he has assorted loaches in the mix hence 50%, but we/he will dose daily

Started monday just gone, so later today will be day 5 of a 50% dosage regime that will last 15days, yep 15days, following and old guys advice, he only ever had clowns/yo-yo's etc etc so as we have extreme faith in him

Also from reading posts here and on some loach forums it seems more of a 'norm' to 50% daily dose for a min of 10-14 days

Well so far, with his fish all signs of salt have gone, as one would expect anyways knowing the ich cycle, all fish that had symptoms have stopped scratching/flicking

The colours seem to be getting brighter on the clown loaches especially

And above all, they seem a lot more active than they did monday morning lol

Only a suggestion but thought i'd pass it on

(did have an outbreak of ich myself months ago now, used some interpet stuff from pets at home that worked fine, but for value for money longer-term the waterlife range seems a better price especially if you go the daily/dose way)

Tony