Tailored White Spot Treatment Plan. Help?

[Kenpachios]

I recently purchased a pictus catfish and introduced him to my 250ltr community tank (1 Red tailed shark, 1 clown loach, 2 peppermint bnc, 3 angelfish, assorted danios). 30min later I noticed white spot (which I hadn't noticed before due to its rapid movement) on the catfish and isolated him for treatment but unfortunately still died.

I had hoped that he wasn't in my community tank for long enough for the parasite to spread but today (10 days later) I noticed my clown loach has a few white spots on his tail.

The typical solutions do not seem to be an option...
-Unfortunately my hospital tank is too small to hold all the fish while the parasite cycles out of the community tank
-Cant use salt due to clown loach
-Removing all plants and ornaments for effective gravel vac is not an option due to 20kg rock that cant be moved.
-Medicating the whole tank would be expensive and not guaranteed to work due to having to use half dose for clown loach + using meds on all the other fish worries me
-Can medicate clown loach in hospital tank but the parasite will still be in community tank

Help, what should I do?

 

[Wills]

Hi I would recommended upping the heat in the tank to shorten the life span of the whitespot and also get hold of Waterlife Protozin - I use this when whitespot breaks out, it is often unavoidable so dont worry too much. I have a pair of Agenisous catfish which like your Clown Loach is a "naked" fish and are sensitive to meds but seem fine with the full dose of this - however you can just as easily use a half dose with good results. It wont damage your filter at all and will pull you out of this problem

The problem with ich is that it spreads around the tank and gets in everywhere so if you dont treat it properly it can come back at a later date should the fish get stressed later on.

Hope that helps

Wills

 

[Kenpachios]

Hi I would recommended upping the heat in the tank to shorten the life span of the whitespot and also get hold of Waterlife Protozin - I use this when whitespot breaks out, it is often unavoidable so dont worry too much. I have a pair of Agenisous catfish which like your Clown Loach is a "naked" fish and are sensitive to meds but seem fine with the full dose of this - however you can just as easily use a half dose with good results. It wont damage your filter at all and will pull you out of this problem

The problem with ich is that it spreads around the tank and gets in everywhere so if you dont treat it properly it can come back at a later date should the fish get stressed later on.

Hope that helps

Wills

Thanks! That helps. Do you know what the active ingredient in Waterlife Protozin is? I don't think I have ever seen the brand here in Australia but what I do have is Science Products 'White Spot' 3 Day Treatment with 37mg/mL Formaldehyde and 0.32mg/mL Malachite Green. Do you think this will work?

 

[Prime Ordeal]

You have to treat the whole tank, there's no other option. The science products treatment is eactly what you need but be aware that it can knock out the filter for a short while so you need to monitor ammonia and nitrite while you medicate and make water changes (with replacement meds) to keep the toxin levels low. You also need to oxygenate the water very well and keep all lights off as malachite green is rendered ineffective by light.

 

[LongS]

I am having a similar problem at the moment, (my thread is somewhere near the top). I have a catfish in my community tank. My loach is the only fish to show signs of whitespot in there so he has to get treated i cant even quarantine him.

I have read and been told by people on this forum that they have treated loaches with salt and although they don't like it too much, it was worth doing because the medicinal treatments knock out the filter (probably doing more damage).

The problem i am having is i am not sure whether to treat my catfish too. They all need treating so i am thinking i may have to bite the bullet and just use the salt and raised temperature for ten days regardless.

I am heading over to a catfish forum to speak to the experts. It may be worth your while going to a loach forum and speaking to the hotshots there?