platies

[b.c.f.c]

well on monday i noticed my platies mainly and a few other fish had white spot so i added some white spot cure and all the fish with it were then ok except for my 2 male platies. they still have it on there tales.i did a water change this morning and they look a little happyier and ive left the light off thinking they may be stressed . should i add more white spot cure?should i leave them for a day or so to see how it goes?any info would be great thx

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

White spot can take a long time to treat as the parasite that causes it can only be treated in the stages of its growth when it is not visable on the fish; it should say somwhere on the medication that you are using when to add more med and do things like water changes.
With the medication i've used in the past for whitespot you do a 50% water change after 4 days before adding a smaller amount of med than before; you have to be careful when doing water changes with medication as it changes the level of med already present in the water making it more difficult to accuratly deal out medication in the future in the tank; if you overdose the fish on medication it can kill them.
It may take up to 3weeks before the desease disapears and even then i would wait at least a fortnight after that before buying nay new fish as the parasite has a habit of coming back after it has been rid of.

 

[b.c.f.c]

so is there no need for me to leave the light off? and do i need to do more of a water change becus i only took about 30% of the water out this morning?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

No there is no need to turn the lights off but depending on what your water tank temp is, raising it a bit can help speed up the whitespot parasites growth stages allowing the medication to work faster and more effectivly.
With the water change thing i would work out how many gallons roughly of water gets taken out in a 30% water change in your tank and then add the medicine accordingly(but a little watered down even so) so you don't overdose on the medicine as whitespot medication tends to be quite powerful stuff; if you work can't work out the measurements exactly its better to under-medicate a bit than to over medicate the fish.
I would check on the medication packet how often you should do water changes while medicating the tank but if you can't find it i would advise doing a 30% water change every 4/5 days using less and less medication each time until the fish are cured.
Good luck