Worst Whitespot Outbreak Ever

[SouthernCross]

Hi,

My 450 litre tank is having the worst whitespot outbreak I have ever had and I am losing fish

I dosed it with a med I have successfully used before on Friday night, everyone still alive. We realised we never took the carbon out (although it was very old carbon cant be sure how absorptive it was anyway) and then did a 50% water change and redosed the tank last night (Sunday night).

have woken up Monday morning to three dead (large-ish) clown loaches, one dead guppy, everybody else except my cories gasping at the surface and one angel on its side. . I have turned the aerator right up.

Tank stats are fine, this is an established tank and I have checked them regularly.

The fish's fins are encrusted with the stuff. We have remaining two severums, two angels (soon to be one I think ) Two acaras, one very juvenile and I think the culprit who brought it in two weeks ago, four cories, two white skirt tetras, about four kuhli loaches. And one ram, who surprisingly seems to be faring the best.

Would trying to salt bath them individually work at this point? If so, what are the exact concentrations I need to use for this? (In litres please)

We have turned the temp up but its winter here at the moment and honestly the heaters are struggling to get it much above 27 - 28. Am going to go get a higher graded jager heater tonight.

Is there ANYTHING else I can do at this point???

I am about to go change a bit more water and put the carbon back in in case the problem is the med. Should I abandon the med all together and work on temp and water changes?

help pleas.e

 

[ShinySideUp]

Hi,

My 450 litre tank is having the worst whitespot outbreak I have ever had and I am losing fish

I dosed it with a med I have successfully used before on Friday night, everyone still alive. We realised we never took the carbon out (although it was very old carbon cant be sure how absorptive it was anyway) and then did a 50% water change and redosed the tank last night (Sunday night).

have woken up Monday morning to three dead (large-ish) clown loaches, one dead guppy, everybody else except my cories gasping at the surface and one angel on its side. . I have turned the aerator right up.

Tank stats are fine, this is an established tank and I have checked them regularly.

The fish's fins are encrusted with the stuff. We have remaining two severums, two angels (soon to be one I think ) Two acaras, one very juvenile and I think the culprit who brought it in two weeks ago, four cories, two white skirt tetras, about four kuhli loaches. And one ram, who surprisingly seems to be faring the best.

Would trying to salt bath them individually work at this point? If so, what are the exact concentrations I need to use for this? (In litres please)

We have turned the temp up but its winter here at the moment and honestly the heaters are struggling to get it much above 27 - 28. Am going to go get a higher graded jager heater tonight.

Is there ANYTHING else I can do at this point???

I am about to go change a bit more water and put the carbon back in in case the problem is the med. Should I abandon the med all together and work on temp and water changes?

help pleas.e

I'm not an expert but to be on the safe side I would do a big water change (maybe 80%), remove the carbon and retreat with the medication to the correct dosage for the new water -- make sure the medication is suitable for clown loaches, some are not. Something has gone very wrong so you need to get it to a known condition sharpish.

 

[SouthernCross]

Ok - my husband and I are absolutely kicking ourselves, but we seem to have killed the clown loaches by not doing a half dose, as it recommended on the bottle. As I said before, I have used this med in the past (when I didnt have clown loaches - I knew the dosage off by heart and just dosed as normal not thinking of the loaches ). This is in combination with not turning the airstone up higher (I thought how it was would be enough), and I think the other fish were struggling so badly with oxygen deprivation due to the med. We are gutted that our carelessness has cost us our loaches, and had I not been quick enough this morning, almost the whole tank. I guess cos we had the carbon still in on the Friday night the first time we dosed, it removed enough quickly that it wasn't harmful.

Fortunately, my kuhli loaches all appear to be accounted for. Kinda amazing that five inch clown loaches couldn't handle it but these little guys could.

The on-its-side angel has made a miracle recovery. I think his problem was the oxygen.

So what I've done, I did about a 20 - 30% water change this morning, and put the carbon back in to get out the last of the med since it might have been affecting the kuhli's as they are also loaches obviously. I am going to put the new heater in tonight and crank it up to 30 degrees (its about 26 - 27 now - have it set on 32 but won't get any higher).

My med recommends re-dosing every three days - in the past I have dosed for 1 - 2 weeks past not being able to see any spots to ensure I got them all. I will do this every three days, but I will dose at half dose, like I should have in the first place. I will also do a 20 - 30% change every day. I will keep the airstone on max and keep the water slightly lower so theres more filter turbulence.

Is anyone an expert on the benefits of a salt bath? Should I try that for the worst affected fish or do you think the process would be too stressful at this point for them?

Only benefit has been some of the fish appear to have reduced spots as opposed to last night. Some still with quite a lot. Hopefully the med knocked out all the current free swimming parasites at least...

I am wary of doing too big of a water change due to it being winter here and struggling to keep the temp of the water up also. I did a 50% yesterday before I dosed and it dropped it to 21 - 22, even with me adding several kettles. Its just too big a tank to fill without the hose.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Fingers srossed you have turned the corner, I know the horrid expereince of losing fish to what I thought was Ich too well, from back in February.

For future reference, carbon that has been in a tank greater than ~1 week is to be treated as just another bit of bacterial media, it loses its adsorbing properties very quickly.

If you have not already, increase the aeration, even if that means lowering the water level to get the filter output above the waterline and creating serious splashing. Warmer water holds less oxygen, which is then further reduced by meds.

Don't forget the spots will naturally fall off fish anyway as part of its life cycle, keep the tank medicated for at least 7 days after seeing the last spot.

Also check the meds instructions, some Ich meds like Protozin are active for a number of days, so if you remove water during the treatment you need to replace a pro rata amount of meds that was lost too.

 

[SouthernCross]

Good to know about the carbon - thank you.

Yep I have my airstone going at full blast and the water level lowered. Its amazing to see how quickly they have bounced back from something so simple as low oxygen.

Have just installed an Eheim Jager 300 heater rated for a 600 litre. Can actually see the heat radiating off the thing so hopefully I can get this temperature higher, stable and maintained now. The AquaOne 300 I had was just not cutting it, and was only rated for 300 or so litres, 300 is as high as they go! Many people told us it would do the job, which was the case in the warmer months. Wish I'd just paid the extra money and got the Jager in the first place.

 

[ShinySideUp]

Good to know about the carbon - thank you.

Yep I have my airstone going at full blast and the water level lowered. Its amazing to see how quickly they have bounced back from something so simple as low oxygen.

Have just installed an Eheim Jager 300 heater rated for a 600 litre. Can actually see the heat radiating off the thing so hopefully I can get this temperature higher, stable and maintained now. The AquaOne 300 I had was just not cutting it, and was only rated for 300 or so litres, 300 is as high as they go! Many people told us it would do the job, which was the case in the warmer months. Wish I'd just paid the extra money and got the Jager in the first place.

Not to teach your grandma to suck eggs but now you have a more powerful heater beware of over-temperature, there is a fine line between high temps to kill Ich and a higher temp to kill fish.

Hope you are clear soon.

 

[SouthernCross]

Yep I am keeping a very close eye on it. Currently sitting at 29, I have never run it at over 30 in the past to treat ich.