New strain of white spot

[stress]

Hi All hope you can help me,
I have a angel cat which seemed to have white spot not long after purchase
neons, gouramis,tiger barbs, cherry barbs, jumbo angel male and female guppies and some sunbursts in a 220l fully mature tank.
Started treatment with "ws3" 4 days later the problem is spreading the cat has gone to a slight grey and the "white spot", Ive been told by my dealer that a new strain of this white spot has become apparent very recently amongst breeders that is resilient to most treatments. Ive been told to up the dosage and monitor very closely Ive lost about 5 fish this week has anyone come across the "new strain" ?? Im from the teesside area if this helps.

 

[kat and james]

i haven't heard of this new strain, but when our fish had white spot it lasted for 3 weeks, and like you the ws3 appeared to not be working, and the fish did look like they were getting worse.. luckily we have a very good lfs it's only a small shop, but the owner loves the hobby as much as us, so he really cares waht goes on in your tank, and helped us throught the trauma!

anyways i was calling him everyday giving him the water stats and news of the fish. when the ws3 didn't appear to be working, he told us to up the temperature to above 80.. we went up to about 86.. it depends what fish you have.. platties aren't too kean on being too hot.. so i'd suggest checking that no one is gonna be completely intolerant of high temps.

after having done this, still nothing, and the pH test was reading a pretty big drop in pH, so we had to buy coral gravel, which increased the pH to 7.2 which meant that the medication was able to do it's work. (this drop was due to the bogwood, so buying something that would stabilise the pH made more sense than buying pH up besides the gravel is more natural)

we kept our temp high, until about a week after the white spot had gone, and all seems to be fine since then *touches wood*

i think that we were slightly overdosing the tank, by about 8 drops of ws3, but it didn't seem to cause any problems

if like us you didn't notice the white spot until it was fairly advanced then i think that it is harder to get rid of. we've had it once since then, caught it VERY early, treated and it's been gone by the next day.

hope this helps
let me know how you get one
good luck!

 

[stress]

i haven't heard of this new strain, but when our fish had white spot it lasted for 3 weeks, and like you the ws3 appeared to not be working, and the fish did look like they were getting worse.. luckily we have a very good lfs it's only a small shop, but the owner loves the hobby as much as us, so he really cares waht goes on in your tank, and helped us throught the trauma!

anyways i was calling him everyday giving him the water stats and news of the fish. when the ws3 didn't appear to be working, he told us to up the temperature to above 80.. we went up to about 86.. it depends what fish you have.. platties aren't too kean on being too hot.. so i'd suggest checking that no one is gonna be completely intolerant of high temps.

after having done this, still nothing, and the pH test was reading a pretty big drop in pH, so we had to buy coral gravel, which increased the pH to 7.2 which meant that the medication was able to do it's work. (this drop was due to the bogwood, so buying something that would stabilise the pH made more sense than buying pH up besides the gravel is more natural)

we kept our temp high, until about a week after the white spot had gone, and all seems to be fine since then *touches wood*

i think that we were slightly overdosing the tank, by about 8 drops of ws3, but it didn't seem to cause any problems

if like us you didn't notice the white spot until it was fairly advanced then i think that it is harder to get rid of. we've had it once since then, caught it VERY early, treated and it's been gone by the next day.

hope this helps
let me know how you get one
good luck!

[snapback]914757[/snapback]​

 

[stress]

Hi Kat James,
Still no change losing fish rapidly another 2, 1 last night 1 this morning its mainly the large neon, tiger barbs and cherry barbs the only fish that seems imune is the jumbo angel not a mark on her feeding well and full of colour (touches wood!!)
Ive upped the dosege and watching for any sign of the fish stuggling.
Im just a bit p****d off as my tank was a dream and i was very proud of it until I bought new stock from a large outlet and all hell broke lose!! not my normal supplier. All the tanks where very clean and well orginised but there was a very large turn over of fish.
Keep you all posted

 

[kat and james]

sorry to hear about your little babies . we only lost two fish with our bought of white spot.. how long have had it for? the angel should be fine, as they don't tend to be too susceptible to white spot, ours never showed any signs of the infection. what is your pH at, i know the ws3 wasn't working for us, because our pH dropped unbeknownst to us.
also waht is the temp at?
the instructions on the bottle say to make allowances for slate, bogwood etc in the tank but we didn't really do taht, we should have put 24 drops in (i think if we adhered to that ruling) but we dosed with 31 drops every other day.
i hope you get it sorted soon.
good luck

 

[stress]

Hi Kat James,
I am really gutted now, another 10 fish died today mainly the tigers.
In desperation I went to another shop in another town to see what they would say
They told me that my supplier where i got the tigers from had a filtration unit that combined all the 30+ tanks waste and water and cleaned it as one so there is always the problem of cross contamination the cat looks like it might be close to dying the angel and the gouamis are the ones that seem ok. He advised me to do a 50% water change and recomended I used protozin as he said a lot of the stuff on the market at the moment that used to be very good is having a weaker effect as parasites are becoming imune to some treatments. I really sick now as i have put alot of effort in to the tank a lot of care maturing the filter keeping my levels down no probs with alge and the fish had started to know when i was going to feed them. If I had known that they had a combined filtration system I would have never bought off them as there turn over is so high the fish arnt in the shop long enough to show problems.
Anyone else got any ideas I would take them on board gladly or any views on this Thanks

 

[stress]

Sorry had problem for about 10 days and ph is at 7.4 all other levels fine

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Protozin. I've tried other meds in the past but this seems the best. The one made by waterlife always does the trick for me and my tanks really do have a mix in them.
The other danger is your fish being open to secondary infection right now too.
Can only wish you the best of luck.
Hugs,
P.

 

[kat and james]

i'm so sorry to hear that you have lost more fish. i really don't know what else to say, i would listen to miss dib dabs and try the protozin, as the ws3 does not seem to be working out for you. perhaps you were advised correctly, and there is a new strain of white spot.
let us all know how you get on with the protozin.
good luck

 

[stress]

Hi All,
I bought the protozin while I was in the shop,
I did the 50% water change and added the protozin I dont think I overdosed but I lost 5 tigers in about 1 hr I dont know if this was down to the med or the water change??? (stress) the other fish seem calm but the angel has not been keeping still and sems agitated so I hope I havent over dosed I had used ws3 this morning put the shop keeper said as I would be doing a 50% water change it would be ok to start on the protozin the sunburst seemed affected the most kinda "fitting" at the top of the tank not nice to watch so I put her ( shes expecting) in a icecream tub with very slight protozin and let this float in the top of the tank she has calmed down alot since then.
And now for another problem the angel cat now seems to have a fungus growth a fluffy light brown colour?? is this secondary infection?? im hoping the protozin will sort this the other fish dont seem to have this just the "white spot?" .
I also keep lizards and im starting to think this would make a lovely viv (its a aqua one ar980)
Dreading getting up in the morning but my son seems ok hes only 6 but classes the angel cat as his fish so I hope it survives
Keep you posted

 

[stress]

Hi Again,
Lost another 5 tigers over night, the angel is looking a bit ill now no visual signs just hiding in the plants and very still I think I might of over dosed I put 6ml in it says 5ml fof a 150l tank mine is apparently a 220l so i put 6ml in to be on the safe side maybe it reacted with the ws3 that was left in the tank?? very sick now the cat is hanging on though.
Any ideas??

 

[stress]

Hi all,
Just a quick one a little ray of sunshine my son spotted 6 fry swiming around last night I think the guppie gave birth before she died so we seperated them from the tank and put them in some freash water fingers crossed. the death toll sems to have come to a stand still left with 1 angel fish 1 cat 2 neons 1 guppy 2 sun bursts and 2 gourmis (these seem to be the least affected through out this nightmare I think the protozin is starting to do its job

 

[kat and james]

thats great news.. well done guppy mummy!
i hope your luck is changing!

 

[stress]

Hi Kat,James,
The cat fish died but the fry seem to be doing ok the angel fish that seemed ok has now got some kinda fin rot but ive been informed that i cant start any treatment until 48hrs after the course of protozin has been completed that will be sat/sun. Any ideas??? I havent got another tank to put it in.

 

[kat and james]

if i were you i'd definetly take the angel fish out, you can pick up a smaller tank from things like the free ads for very little money, we've seen them in there for £8.
http/www.geocities.com/shtinkythefish/diseases/finrot.htm
this link may help you out a little, i just typed in fin rot into a google search and loads came up.
but fin rot is contagious, so i would remove the angel, also it is caused by stress, which makes sense, as this has been a very stressful time for both fish and parent.
if you cna't get hold of another tank, you could always seperate the angel, by putting her in a tupaware, and floating it in the tank, just means taht if the other fish don't have fin rot yet then chances are they won't get it.
hope taht helps!
i'm sorry again for you loss