Sudden White Spot Outbreak

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PlasticGalaxy

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About an hour ago I noticed that my clown loach was covered in little white flecks ? Lo and behold, it's white spot. And some of my rummy nose tetra, as well as a few of my black neons, are infected.
I've ordered the treatment/medications and it will be arriving tomorrow, but is there anything I should be doing in the meantime? And how do I prevent outbreaks in the future? Pretty upset about this.
 

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About an hour ago I noticed that my clown loach was covered in little white flecks ? Lo and behold, it's white spot. And some of my rummy nose tetra, as well as a few of my black neons, are infected.
I've ordered the treatment/medications and it will be arriving tomorrow, but is there anything I should be doing in the meantime? And how do I prevent outbreaks in the future? Pretty upset about this
You can do a 80% water change + clean the gravel and the filter(if not cleaned in the last 2 weeks). Also, after you did the 80% water change, (make sure the water is and free of amonia and nitrates), raise the temperature to 30°C. The process might take a week or so.
Do not raise the temperature if you are going to use the medication though.
 
You can do a 80% water change + clean the gravel and the filter(if not cleaned in the last 2 weeks). Also, after you did the 80% water change, (make sure the water is and free of amonia and nitrates), raise the temperature to 30°C. The process might take a week or so.
Do not raise the temperature if you are going to use the medication though.
Alright, thank you so much.
 
Alright, thank you so much.
Perhaps this can help you out more:
If the fish has small white spots on the body, then it has white spot (Ich/ Ick). This is a protozoan parasite that affects the gills and covers the fish in small white spots. They eventually kill the fish if left untreated.

You can treat white spot by raising the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keeping it there for 2 weeks, or at least 1 week after all the spots have disappeared.

Before you raise the water temperature, do a 80-90% water change and gravel clean the substrate. This will dilute the number of disease organisms in the water and buy the fish some time.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise the oxygen level in the water.

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If the fish doesn't have white spots, then do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. Clean the filter, increase aeration and add some salt.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.
 
Heat is preferable to medication as all whitespot meds are rough on fish particularly scaleless fish like loaches.


Do a big water change and clean the bottom of the tank to remove as many parasites as possible. Refill with water warmer than usual, and turn the heater up to get the temperature to 30 deg C. Leave it there for 2 weeks, or until a week after the last spot disappears, whichever is later. Then turn the heater back down and let the temp fall. When you do water chnages during those 2 (or more) weeks, make sure the new water is at 30 deg C as well.


Whitespot gets into tank with infected fish or possibly decor from a shop tank with infected fish. When fish are stressed, it reduces their immune system and the succumb more easily to infections of all sorts. For example, a single clown loach will be stressed as they are shoaling fish - is the loach in the photo the only one?
 
You need to get together with @AdoraBelle Dearheart She has taken over her father's tank and has problems with him saying she's doing everything wrong.
The best part is, it was never his tank to begin with. I got my first tank for Christmas this year just gone and now I have a 170L tank that I personally maintain. This is just him thinking that his way is always right, and it's getting to be pretty troublesome!
 
You need to get together with @AdoraBelle Dearheart She has taken over her father's tank and has problems with him saying she's doing everything wrong.

My dad is becoming forum famous! :lol:

After the latest incident, when he unplugged the main filter without telling me, then fish began dying in big numbers the next day, he still doesn't seem to quite believe me that his unplugging the filter might have had something to do with it...
The best part is, it was never his tank to begin with. I got my first tank for Christmas this year just gone and now I have a 170L tank that I personally maintain. This is just him thinking that his way is always right, and it's getting to be pretty troublesome!

With my stubborn old man father whose tank I took over, I find it easier to just do tank maintenance when he's not around, whenever possible. Since he's retired and covid means mostly housebound, it's meant some late nights for me!

Otherwise I just tell him I'm doing maintenance, and ignore the grumbling. But that might be easier for me since I'm in my thirties and can boss him around a bit. If you're still a teen living at home, not so easy!

Gotta admit, it's hilarious to me that my dad is now famous on the forum for his stubborn ways!
 

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