Treating White Spot

[yabadaba]

Hi guys, I'm after a bit of advice please. I discovered white spot in my tank last week (possibly introduced along with some Cardinal Tetras I recently got). My lfs advised the Protozin treatment at half dose (because I have a couple of clown loaches and some Otocinclus).

I've now done the first 3 days treatment and am supposed to stop now until I add a final dose on the 6th day. But, I can still see a some white spot (albeit only a couple of very fine spots) on one of my loach's tails, so I'm thinking whether I should add an extra dose of medicine today and then move the final one to day 7. Does this make sense, or should I stick exactly to the instructions?

 

[jonnyf84]

Hi guys, I'm after a bit of advice please. I discovered white spot in my tank last week (possibly introduced along with some Cardinal Tetras I recently got). My lfs advised the Protozin treatment at half dose (because I have a couple of clown loaches and some Otocinclus).

I've now done the first 3 days treatment and am supposed to stop now until I add a final dose on the 6th day. But, I can still see a some white spot (albeit only a couple of very fine spots) on one of my loach's tails, so I'm thinking whether I should add an extra dose of medicine today and then move the final one to day 7. Does this make sense, or should I stick exactly to the instructions?

i would add another dose, infact i would keep dosing until a day after you can no longer see white spot on the fish as ich can only be killed when it is in its free swimming stage, have you increased the temp? If you are worried about the affect of the meds on your ottos and loaches then raising the temp is the safest bet, this will often kill ich without the addition of meds, if you do this increase to 85+, 90 max but make sure to increase aeration as higher temps reduce the amount of oxygen in the water.

 

[yabadaba]

Hi guys, I'm after a bit of advice please. I discovered white spot in my tank last week (possibly introduced along with some Cardinal Tetras I recently got). My lfs advised the Protozin treatment at half dose (because I have a couple of clown loaches and some Otocinclus).

I've now done the first 3 days treatment and am supposed to stop now until I add a final dose on the 6th day. But, I can still see a some white spot (albeit only a couple of very fine spots) on one of my loach's tails, so I'm thinking whether I should add an extra dose of medicine today and then move the final one to day 7. Does this make sense, or should I stick exactly to the instructions?

i would add another dose, infact i would keep dosing until a day after you can no longer see white spot on the fish as ich can only be killed when it is in its free swimming stage, have you increased the temp? If you are worried about the affect of the meds on your ottos and loaches then raising the temp is the safest bet, this will often kill ich without the addition of meds, if you do this increase to 85+, 90 max but make sure to increase aeration as higher temps reduce the amount of oxygen in the water.

Thanks for the advice - very helpful. I'll add another dose now and keep doing so until my loaches look clear of all spots.

I'd heard about raising the temperature, but was unsure how high to go, so on the basis that 26C seems about the max that is 'recommended' for the majority of my fish, I raised my tank temperature from 25.5C to 26.5C. That's about 80F, so looks like I should raise it a little further. I've also added an airstone to help maintain a decent oxygen level, though have only been running that during the night as I have a planted tank and i know from using a test kit that the oxygen levels were okay during the day, but really coming down overnight.....even before I raised the temperature. I'll probably now leave the air pump running during the day given the water temperature increase.

 

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i total agree with jonnyf84 if you treat how he has explained then the white spot will clear up in no time

 

[jonnyf84]

85F is the point where Ich can no longer reproduce, we raise the temp to speed up the life cycle of ich, this way it becomes free swimming sooner and can therefore be killed sooner so raising your temp to as high as your fish will allow is beneficial, most tropical fish can take 85 without a problem so long as there is plenty of oxygen but make sure any increases in temp are done slowly, 1F every 4-6 hours is fine. Adding tonic/aquarium salts also helps and yes its a good idea to keep the air pump running 24 hours a day until things are back to normal.

 

[backtotropical]

I would advise against adding an extra dose. The treatment has those instructions for a reason. Over-dosing meds can be dangerous and may even kill your fish.

I agree that you should keep dosing until at least 1 week after the whitespot has gone, but that doesn't mean adding extra doses in-between.

Protozin is a 7 day course. You have already done the first 3 days, so wait until day 6 as instructed for the next dose. Day 7 is the end of the treatment, so on the morning of day 8, do a large water change (maybe 80 - 90%) and start the treatment over again from day 1.

Continue this until at least 1 week after the whitespot has totally disappeared.

Raising the temp is a good idea too, just watch the oxygen content. Saying that, you probably won't have many problems at 26C.

Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers

BTT

P.S. I have moved this thread to our Emergencies section, where we deal with illness queries.

 

[yabadaba]

I would advise against adding an extra dose. The treatment has those instructions for a reason. Over-dosing meds can be dangerous and may even kill your fish.

I agree that you should keep dosing until at least 1 week after the whitespot has gone, but that doesn't mean adding extra doses in-between.

Protozin is a 7 day course. You have already done the first 3 days, so wait until day 6 as instructed for the next dose. Day 7 is the end of the treatment, so on the morning of day 8, do a large water change (maybe 80 - 90%) and start the treatment over again from day 1.

Continue this until at least 1 week after the whitespot has totally disappeared.

Raising the temp is a good idea too, just watch the oxygen content. Saying that, you probably won't have many problems at 26C.

Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers

BTT

P.S. I have moved this thread to our Emergencies section, where we deal with illness queries.

Thanks for the advice. So essentially, it's a case of continuing to treat until a few days after last last of the the white spot disappears from the fish, but starting a separate course of treatment, if required to reach that point, so as not to have a continually increasing concentration of the medication in the water. Before I read your reply I had already added a further dose, so I'm hoping the one additional won't cause any issues.