Possible White Spot Outbreak

[jonnyf84]

hi all, i'm struggling with my new set up, all the water parametres are perfect yet i keep losing fish, after the tank was cycled i added 5 danio's 4 of which died over night (no sign of disease), then i added 2 gourami's one died 2 days later (causes unknown) and the other a day after that from a fungal infection. now i have a bristle nosed catfish and yesterday i added 6 wagtail platys.

Now it's a bit difficult to tell as bristle noses are speckled but i think it has white spot, there are a few spots on it that seem to stick out a bit, and of course i'm worried about my new platys. I had a disasterous outbreak of white spot in my cold water tank and was adviced to use WS3 (is this correct?) but i caught it too late and they all died. If this is white spot then i think i have caught it early, can someone please please tell me in detail what i should do now? Thankyou so much for any advice you can give and sorry for the long winded post.

Jonny

PS. I wont be able to reply to any threads until around 2pm today.

 

[WILDER]

Whitespot will look like the fish has been sprinkled in salt, also the spots will be the size of a grain of salt.
Columnaris spots are bigger and can have a red tinging to them.
Where is the fungus on the fish and does it look fluffy in appearance.

 

[jennakid]

hey..
a while ago. i bought a black mollie.
and it started to get white spots on it. they looked kind of fluffy.
i thought there was something wrong with it. i didn't know what though.
it ended up dying.
then at the pet shop once i saw a black mollie again with white spots on it..
i don't know what causes them though..
xo

 

[WILDER]

Where were the white spots on the mollie did they join up to form a cluster of berries or look like a cauliflower.
Columnaris spots read this link.
http/www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles/d...columnaris.html

 

[jonnyf84]

Whitespot will look like the fish has been sprinkled in salt, also the spots will be the size of a grain of salt.
Columnaris spots are bigger and can have a red tinging to them.
Where is the fungus on the fish and does it look fluffy in appearance.

hey wilder, eh the fish don't have any spots that look like grains of salt yet but 1 of the plattys was flicking gainst plants, maybe the catfish does on its head but its hard to tell as it is speckled naturally. the gourami with the fungal infection died last week. i'm going away for the weekend and won't be able to keep an eye on them, should i get my housenate to treat with ws3 as a precaution or wait till i get back? i made a massive mistake and turned down the temp by 1 degree but forgot to plusg the heater back in and the temp dropped 10 degrees F whilst i was at work, the temp is back to normal now (78F) but could this be the cause of my problems?

 

[WILDER]

Check your water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
A big drop in temp can cause whitespot, columnaris to swim bladder.
Is is possible to load a pic up of the sick fish.

 

[jonnyf84]

Check your water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
A big drop in temp can cause whitespot, columnaris to swim bladder.
Is is possible to load a pic up of the sick fish.

Hi, thanks for your reply.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 15
PH 7.6

Pic not possible i'm afraid as my digi camera isn't a good one and the spots are barely visible, if indeed they are spots. My platys have been acting a bit strangely, they have been swimming up and down on the glass, not flicking against it but just swimming straight up then staright back down for long periods of time (10-20mins). All are feeding well, one does have a white bit around its eye, too big to be ich, maybe its a natural marking, i will try and get a good picture and post it. Any ideas whats going on?

 

[WILDER]

Stats are good so it isn't bad water quality.
Don't like to say add a med till we know what we are treating for.
Swimming up and down the glass can be a sign of stress.
The spots or blemishes do they have any red around the edges, or in the centre of the spots.

 

[jonnyf84]

I can't get a good picture, its just coming out blured because of the glass. How do people get such good pics of there fish??? Under water cameras?

no theres no red around them. why do you think they are stressed, is it because they are in a new tank or more likely my stupid mistake with the temp drop?

 

[WILDER]

Well if the temp drop fast it can cause stress and have out breaks in whitespot, columnaris to swim bladder.
Shine a torch on them with tank lights out to see if that makes a difference.
If whitespot is left untreated the spots can start to join up to cause a patch.
Velvet sometimes can look like a fish has been dusted in talc.

 

[jonnyf84]

no that didn't work, its just a crap camera. Yea i had a terrible outbreak in my cold water tank, and they were covered but this isn't anything like that, a few spots on the catfishes head but i can't tell if they are natural markings or not, platys are just generally behaving wierd but no visible spots, one might have a fungal infection though. I think the best thing to do is wait until i get back on Sunday night and see if they have deterionated, do you agree?

 

[WILDER]

I would of expected the fish to look irratated and flicking and rubbing with whitespot.
Columnaris can present itself on the head region the spots will look like a greyish white colour, but alot bigger than whitespot.

 

[jonnyf84]

no the spots aren't big. One of the platys is occasionaly flicking on plants, its flicking on one specific gill only but no visible white spots.

 

[WILDER]

Ok it down to you if you want to treat for whitespot, I can't see the fish so have go on what you say.
I would raise temp to 30 for now.
Increase aeration in the tank.

 

[jonnyf84]

would it be wise to raise to 30 after i have just got back to 26 after my temp crash, if so should i leave it at 30 until i get back on Sun night? By the way thankyou so much for your help.