What To Do About Whitespot?

[TekFish]

What do I do?

I've been using a medication with Malachite Green, it says it will get rid of ich in a week, but it hasn't.
I've also got a Bristlenose Plec but the medication is safe with all fish.
I've increased surface tension and heat by a few degrees to 28'c.
I wasn't sure on how much salt to add, I've seen places say a Tablespoon per gallon but that seems a massive amount to me.

I don't want to be rude but only please reply if you have dealt with whitespot before, recommendations on alternative meds, [because this one doesn't seem to be working] would be most helpful, guidelines on salt wouuld also be helpful, and can someone tell me if this is regular salt like table salt or sea salt or aquarium salt?

Thanks, TekFish

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I had an evil Ich outbreak in my 48x12x15 back in February, it came from nowhere or so it seemed, all because I was guilty of not observing my secretive nocturnal synos regularly enough...

I used full strength Protozin, doing a "day 1" dose after a ~80% water change (because this would be the last one until the Ich was gone).

I increased the salinity by 0.25g/l on days 1 and 2, I did not dare go higher because the tank had salt sensitive fish in there including a Weather Loach, without such fish I belive you can gradually raise the salinity to 3g/l. I used Sainsburys Coarse Sea Salt, but I'm sure there are cheaper suitablke alternatives out there, I simply had no experience of using salt with fish and I needed to act quickly. Make sure the salt is properly dissolved in hot water, then stir in cooler water to temp match your tank.

Initially I tried to attack the disease with heat, raising the temp to 30C, but this hit my poor growing Synodontis decora group hard (heat and meds further reducing the oxygen saturation potenital of the water). I ended up with a comprimise 27C.

I cut back on feeding big time, because I did not want to mess about changing water in the middle of treatment, one small meal a day.

Spots seemed to have vanished by "day 6" on the fish, but I left things as they were unitl "day 13" and then did two ~50% water changes (with no salt, to gradually lower salinity) on the next two days.

I then had to hope everything was ok, I was going on holiday for five days and was leaving food portions for a family member to add with no fishkeeping experience. Thankfully, all was well when I returned and we had some new Ilyodon xantusi arrivals to boot!

Months later, I still beat myself up about that horrible week, losing Steatocranus "dad" was heartwrenching as was the six Synodontis decora I had raised from tiny 3cm babies to chunky 10-12cm teenagers and losing one of my Synodontis nigriventris.

 

[TekFish]

Hmm..

So I need to:
-Raise the temp as high as possible
-Continue with meds
-Add Salt
-And wait...

Hmm.....QUESTION TIME
Are Bristlenose Plecos sensitive to salt?
Are meds from NT Labs any good?
How much salt should I add to a 200L tank?
How long will this take?

EDIT: I've also noticed a larger white spot under his dorsal fin, towards his tail, any clue as to what this could be?

Have also raised temp from 26'c to 30'c over approximately 10 hours.
Have re-dosed medication.

Interestingly, the male gourami is the only one affected, the female and my pleco show no traces of whitespot which leads me to assume it's being killed as it enters the water.

TekFish