Question I Asked Ebay Seller About Loaches And Whitespot

[AndyOleszczuk]

Last night I asked an ebay seller who had advertised some Botia Kubotai about whether these loaches were susceptible to whitespot/ich as much as Clown Loaches. I asked the question out of curiosity because of the death of my 4 Clowns this week and I would like to have loaches again but not the whitespot.

Below is the response I recieved and I just wondered what everyones comments on it were ?. Do you agree or disagree ?.

Question Asked:

Are these loaches prone to whitespot like Clown Loaches ?.


Response From Ebay Seller:

"Hi, they say clown loaches (and this applies to all breeds of botia) are susceptible to white spot because botias are scale less fish. However, the truth is if you have white spot in a aquarium all fish in the aquarium will contract the parasite and die if untreated. Tetras although having scales would be the first to perish.

It?s sort of an old wives tale IMO.

I can assure you though that all of our fish are disease and parasite free having undergone 2 months of quarantine prier to sale, and as a precautionary measure all of our fish are treated for 2 weeks with water lifes white spot control (possibly the only treatment still 100% effective against white spot which has become highly resistant to many of the treatments on the market over the past few years.)

Hope this answers your question."

 

[WILDER]

Stress why clown loaches get whitespot.
Clown loaches are only scaless on the head region, they do have scales on the body there that small you can't see them.

http/www.bollmoraakvarieklubb.org/artikl...own%20loach.htm

Taken from the above link.
The scales of the clown loach are small and difficult to see, which made some aquarists claim that it was "scaleless", which is incorrect, however it does not have scales on its head.

 

[LisaLQ]

all of our fish are treated for 2 weeks with water lifes white spot control (possibly the only treatment still 100% effective against white spot which has become highly resistant to many of the treatments on the market over the past few years.)

Hope this answers your question."

Get's my back up for just saying that. No medecine is 100% effective, in my case (as I said on your thread the other day) the Waterlife whitespot (I'm assuming he's meaning Protozin?) control did absolutely sweet FA for all of my fish despite 2 or 3 courses of it.

I dont like it when folks make promises/sweeping generalisations like that - it only leads to disappointment lol.

Ps. I'm really sorry to hear that they died

 

[AndyOleszczuk]

Thanks Lisa

 

[Bignose]

But the meat of the answer is correct. If one fish in a tank has whitespot, you should assume that every inhabitant has whitespot, and the entire tank needs to be treated. This is why it is ineffective to just take out the affected fish and place him in quarantine. By the way, with any new fish, guaranteed disease free or not, you should quarantine them yourself before placing in your main tank. At least three weeks, maybe longer. But again, the ebayer's response was correct. Loaches and barbs have a bad reputation for showing ich early, but it is just like people. I am willing to bet that you know someone who seems to catch every cold/flu when it comes around, and you probably also know someone who seems to never catch the colds/flus. In terms of ich, loaches are the people who catch every cold. It is just variations among species. Loaches don't spontaneously generate ich organisms, they are just a little more susceptible to the parasite than other fish.