Questions About White Spot/itch

[loz_the_guru]

After some advice on here ive been treating a pair of clown loaches for white spot. Ive jacked up the temperature to 30 degrees, and have been administering half doses every 48 hours for 5 days now.

However, the spots on the loaches are both more numerous and larger than before. Is this normal? I was hoping by now it would have gone away completely, but it seems to have gotten worse!

None of the other fish seem to have been affected, I dont want my loaches to die though! Should I just continue as I am and hope for the best, or is there something else I can do (up dosage etc etc)

 

[Colin_T]

I would turn the temperature down a bit and treat daily or use a different medication. Many medications break down quicker in warm water and if you are using a half dose (due to the loaches being scaleless fish) then it could be there just isn't enough active medication in the water to kill the parasites.

Make sure you don't have carbon in the filter as this will remove the medication.

Make sure you treat the tank for the correct amount of water
To work out the volume of water in the tank
measure Length x Width x Height in cm
divide by 1000
equals volume in litres

When measuring the height, measure from the top of the gravel to the top of the water level. If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove them before measuring the height.

Before you treat or re-treat the tank do a 50% water change and complete gravel clean. This will reduce the gunk in the tank and allow the medication to work more effectively. It will also lower the pathogen count in the water and mean there are less nasties around to infect the fish.