Possible White Spot

[moochy13]

i think i might have whitespot, im not sure as ive not seen it before.

a couple of my fish have the spots on their fins, but i cant see any on their bodies. i noticed this about 2 days ago, but was hoping it was just grains of sand as one of my plecs kicks lots of sand up when he digs all over the other fish, however they're still there. i havnt noticed any flicking yet.

the water is all good as usual, temp i think is about 26 at the moment. if it is white spot, i think i know where it came in from and unfortunately my other tank will have to be treated aswell. however i know turning the temp up is good practice, but there is a shrimp in the other tank. and even worse hes taken to living in the juwel fitler box.

so does this sound like whitespot then ? turn teh temp up and get some treatment. i saw a king british one reccommended in another thread.

so yeah, still whitespot depsite only being on the fins and no rubbing or flicking ?

 

[karin]

ICH looks like small grains of sand and usually starts on the fins. I would raise the temps to 30 C and watch the "sand" and see if it multiplies or infects other fish. Or if you start seeing flicking. Then be ready to hit it with an ICH medication. I say wait because of this... if you have cichlids especially, sometimes injury to the fins can cause a white spot on the rays of the fins. It is like scar tissue. I have them on my angels and first thought I have ich but just watching the spots are still there after 4 months and no ICH so... raising temps is precautionary and you will know soon enough if it is ICH.

Shrimp will do fine with the higher temp. Increase aeration though as higher temps rob the water of oxygen. You can do this with an airstone or lower the water level so your filter causes more agitation of the water.

I have tried several non-toxic methods and none of them worked for me with my ICH outbreak several months ago. I used a formalin/malachite green medication (pretty common for ICH) and my amano shrimp survived 2 weeks of treatment. All I have to say is do the full dose and do not stop early, Many people don't follow the directions and then quit when they don't see spots and then it comes back and may be more resistant to a second treatment.

Hope all this helps.

 

[moochy13]

hi thanks for the reply. the spots are on my rams, but also a couple have appeared on 2 of my emporor tetra and a red eye tetra. my plecs could well have some, but they're constantly digging and its impossible to tell whether they're covered in sand or ich.

i went down the lfs and the guy asked me if i had any catfish, then got myaxzin (or whatever its called) for me to use. i had read about scaleless fish not liking certain treatments, so im hoping he gave me the right stuff. the dosage is 9ml once a day in my 130l tank. he said use it for 4 days in a row, then miss a day, then use it one more day. on the bottle it just says 5 days in a row. why was the guy suggesting a different method ? and should i listen to him ? ive turned the temp up, and willr emove soem more water. i have also removed the black sponge from my filter, assuming its the carbon one.

 

[moochy13]

ok so ive turned the temp up to about 28/29 now, and treating with the proper dose of myaxzin once a day. however ive just noticed my biggest and best sterbai cory is not breathing, no gill movement. hes still alive and swims off if i go near him, but im a bit concerned. my water stats are fine, only difference in the last 2 days is changing the temp and adding the treatment for ich.

 

[karin]

Hi.

I don't know about the treatment you mentioned. Thing is with ICH follow the treatment to the end as directed. Probably okay to do either method, bottle or lfs guy. I would leave the treatment at the end for a few days and not do a water change. ICH can kill fish so hang in there. Higher temps are not preferred by corys but should not, by themselves kill them. My corys all lived through the ICH treatment as did my BN.

Good luck. It is frustrating but you'll get through this. Do as much airation as you can.

 

[moochy13]

well ive just netted a pretty much dead ram aswell. so yesterday i lost a sterbai cory that was ill for a while, today i lose a ram that looked healthy until i saw it about 10 minutes ago, and ive got another cory whos not really breathing. im changing 25L of water (130L tank), and dropping the water level as low as i can dude to the position of the filter nozzle

pretty sure i have whitespot now, so will carry on going with the treatment. just hope no more fish die.

 

[moochy13]

well, couldnt see anything visually wrong with the ram. although im not sure he was ever completely healthy, he hadnt really grown and didnt bulk up much since ive had him. either way hes dead now, i can only hope it was because he was already ill and all my other fish will survive because theyre healthy.

my temperature is at 28/29. im concerned about putting it up further due to the effect it had on my cories. the higher temp has made them all very lethargic. whwen i changed the water, cooler water went in and they perked up for a bit, now the tank is back to temp they've calmed down again.

 

[danilykins]

Does all ich look like sand? If so, mine doesn't look like that.. its fluffy like fuzz, I would say mine has a fungus? But now its on his head and on his belly a bit, but doesn't look like sand

 

[karin]

If you are doing a medication I think the temp of 28/29 is fine. Good luck. Sorry about the Ram.

 

[moochy13]

well i finished my treatment today, and im glad to say i cant see any signs of whitespot. however i have lost 3 fish in the process, im sure it was no coincidence to having meds in the tank and higher temp at the same time. i lost a sterbai and a ram, but they didnt look 100% healthy anyway, so i wasnt too surprised. however i also lost a small striped raphael catfish. this was very much a shock, and im well gutted. the med was given to me specifically because it was catfish safe, so i can only assume it didnt like the higher temp in the tank.

anyway, last question is should i be replacing the carbon filter sponge i took out to use the meds, or can i just leave it out ?

 

[Skins]

I would be inclined to use the carbon, this will help remove the meds you have used.

Keith.

 

[fish48]

a very good treatment/ protozin for whitespot& fungus made by waterlife it works fast and no need to higher temp.

 

[moochy13]

except its not suitable for catfish

i have just got back from the lfs, having a chat about my whitespot, and i mentioned the dead raphael cat. first thing he said was "i hope you didnt use protozin, that will kill it without fail".

does the carbon have any other benefit ? im not even sure what its in there to do. i'll have to put a new one in so i wont get any bacteria benefit from putting it back in, not until it gets colonized again anyway. good idea about helping remove excess med though. my water changes are quite efficient though, and i cant see how any left over med can be harmful.

 

[endlessendlers]

Hi. Sorry to hear about your losses. Sometime ago I had ich in my platy tank which is also home to a feathetfin squeaker and clown plec. I used Protozin which was very effective and didn't do any harm to my catfish
So in my experience Protozin is fine with catfish.

 

[AstonN24vantage]

Does all ich look like sand? If so, mine doesn't look like that.. its fluffy like fuzz, I would say mine has a fungus? But now its on his head and on his belly a bit, but doesn't look like sand

it can also be cloudy/milky looking eyes. ive only had ich once with sand looking grains. the other 2 times was only cloudy eyes.