Possible White Spot On My Angel Fish? Help Please!

[AngelPen]

Our tank has been up and running with no problems for over 3 months now. I don't know the exact levels of the tank, as we get it tested at the shop, until we can get our own kits, but they're quite expensive and we;ve just had car probs! Anyway all the levels were normal last time it was checked not long ago.

Tonight I noticed one of the angelfish has got about 3 small white spots on the top of his head and along the base of his top fin, maybe some more but they are too small! The one spot on the front of his fin base is the largest, although still small, and looks like it could be white spot, as it is raised up and similar to cotton wool looking. None of the other fish are affected. Is there another similar disease? If I treat for white spot and it's not will it harm the fish?

I will get some treatment tomorrow if that's what I need to do. Should I do a water change before treatment? Will any of our fish die? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as we haven't had to deal with any fish diseases before.

Also what would have caused this? We're worried we have done something wrong, and would like to prevent it happening again.

Thanks,
Penny.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

From your description, what you have is likely fungus. get some Maroxy by mardel and tread according to the directions. An alternative would be to use a salt dip on each fish that is affected.

 

[WILDER]

Whitespot looks like grains of salt on the fish.
Columnaris spots are bigger and can present them selves on the head, but they will have a circling of red around the outside of the spot, with a spot in the centre of it.

 

[AngelPen]

I've had fungus before on a goldfish, and that was a lot more fluffy looking. The spots on the angelfish are small so its hard to see detail, they are smooth appearence, and could be like salt grains now that you mention it.

I googled white spot pictures, and although the spots on there are bigger than my fish they do look like it.

Have just looked up fungus pictures, it definatly is not this, it doesn't have any "spike/fluff" bits coming out of the spot.

 

[WILDER]

Sounds like whitespot.
Take a look at this pic, this is what whitespot look like.
http/www.2cah.com/pandora/ich_bobjohnson.jpg

Read this though it dosn't sound like it just to be sure.
http/www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles/d...columnaris.html

 

[AngelPen]

Yes it looks like the white spot, although not as many spots.

Its just like a small white spot that looks stuck on to the fish!

So I think I should buy some white spot treatment then. Should I do a water change before treatment to try and get rid of the parasites? And if so how much?

 

[WILDER]

Glad you know now what you are dealing with.
Yes best to do a gravel vac and water change before adding the med.
Read instructions carefully as some fish can't tolerate the full dose such as scaless fish and neon tetra's.
Remove black carbon from the filter if you use it, turn temp up to 30.
Increase aeration as the high temp and med will reduce 02 in the tank.
Good luck.

 

[AngelPen]

Yes we have a black carbon sponge, I'll remove that and increase temp tonight.

We have neon tetra, so I'll make sure I read the treatment bottle. I don't think we have scaleless fish, but we have one algae shrimp, will he be ok?

Also what can I do to increase aeration? We already have an air / bubble pump in there.

 

[WILDER]

You will have to remove the strimp don't tolerate parasite meds.
The bubble thing should be fine just make sure they don't heavy breath as that will mean need more aeration.

 

[AngelPen]

Oh dear its a complicated process isn't it! I'm going to have to find something for the shrimp to live in then! We don't have any spare tanks!

I'll go to the fish shop tommorow and see if I can get something!
Thanks!

 

[WILDER]

I know tell me about it.
Check with the lfs to see if he has a whitespot med that fine with invertbrates.