Whitespot! Cannot Shift It!

[rick5988]

Hello everyone, having some real bother with white spot. It's affected my clown loaches and my silver shark, I've treated it with Sera-Med Protozol 2-3 times now, and done a 75% water change last night, raised the temp in the water to around 28-29. But I cannot shift it! Am I doing something wrong here? Cheers people!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

When I had Ich in one of my tanks back in February, I used Protozin and did not change any water (while cutting back on feeding a lot to just one small portion per day) until 13 days after the initial Protozin dose. Because I added a little salt (0.5mg/l, could not dose higher because there were some salt sensitive fish in there), I then did two 50% water changes over 3 days to gradually remove the bit of salinity.

 

[rick5988]

When I had Ich in one of my tanks back in February, I used Protozin and did not change any water (while cutting back on feeding a lot to just one small portion per day) until 13 days after the initial Protozin dose. Because I added a little salt (0.5mg/l, could not dose higher because there were some salt sensitive fish in there), I then did two 50% water changes over 3 days to gradually remove the bit of salinity.

Cheers mate.

I've got some salt handy, I'll use that. I can't understand why after dosing these fish with these meds, that they still are flicking on things and show a lot of white spots visible, it's like I'm fighting super-ich Haha. Another thing mate, I've raised the temp on my heater to 30, but my thermometer is only showing 25-26, will this not be killing off the ich?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Beware of using the salt without input from an experienced Clown Loach keeper, I only added salt to mine in small amounts after a visit from two experienced fishkeepers who were buying fish from another tank of mine.

I suspect you want more heat then 25/26C, my Juwel heaters often "underheat" like your one appears to be doing when set at 30C. Unless you had good reason not too (like I did with riverine fish that normally live in sub-tropical water that is oxygen rich), aiming for a true temp of 30C will speed up the Ich cycle and get them to the free swimming form quicker (the only phase where the meds can kill the protozoa). I ended up settling at 27/28C, because my synos were showing obvious stressing at the temp increase by trying to swim at the water surface in the line of fire of the external filter.

Makes me wonder if your Ich problem, which Clown Loaches are prone to, is due to you thinking your heater was really heating to at least 24C when it was actually lower?

 

[rick5988]

Beware of using the salt without input from an experienced Clown Loach keeper, I only added salt to mine in small amounts after a visit from two experienced fishkeepers who were buying fish from another tank of mine.

I suspect you want more heat then 25/26C, my Juwel heaters often "underheat" like your one appears to be doing when set at 30C. Unless you had good reason not too (like I did with riverine fish that normally live in sub-tropical water that is oxygen rich), aiming for a true temp of 30C will speed up the Ich cycle and get them to the free swimming form quicker (the only phase where the meds can kill the protozoa). I ended up settling at 27/28C, because my synos were showing obvious stressing at the temp increase by trying to swim at the water surface in the line of fire of the external filter.

Makes me wonder if your Ich problem, which Clown Loaches are prone to, is due to you thinking your heater was really heating to at least 24C when it was actually lower?

The Ich started when I introduced the loaches. I couldn't really tell you about the temperature of the water, I visited my LFS and they told me not to worry about it, saying that the temperature will be right, but there can be all sorts of factors affecting it, but it usually sits at 24 degress,I'm only using one of the magnetic strips, which I can't see being very accurate, I'm gonna have to move to the digital ones.

Have you ever used a salt bath? I'm reading up on them and people are saying they are an effective treatment.