danilada Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 Well as I have mentioned in previous post's, ive lost 2 fighters to whitespot. Am looking at getting another male but wont things to be perfect, so am hoping you guys can help a few details... *tank is 16L *has golden sand (from the beached, cleaned etc) *java fern and dwarf sag *heater 25'c normal temp of tank *a little jebo filter *maybe a baby bristlenoses if I chuck one in. The tank is brand new, only ever housed fighters and baby bristlenoses. But for some reason when I add a fighter they get white spot and die, now I know the 1st one was due to not taking the carbon out :oops: but its out completely now. But the second fighter still got whitespot, even after treating the water as the bottle recomended (wunder cure) does anybody have any suggestions that I could try? p.s both fighters look healthy when I brought them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 Did you ever do water tests? Whitespot is 99% due to poor, or wrong, water conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danilada Posted December 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 No I don't personally have a test kit, as im unsure which one to buy :-? :oops: But I know the Wainui water is pretty harmless?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael.qian Posted December 11, 2007 Report Share Posted December 11, 2007 you need to buy test kits for ammonia, nitrite and nitrAte, these are likely to be your problems. The tank needs to be cycled first, cycling is especially difficult with a small tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jn Posted December 11, 2007 Report Share Posted December 11, 2007 Danilada, its not about the water that goes in the tank.. its about what the fish wastes do to the water... they make ammonia (toxic), which eventually gets turned to nitrite (more toxic) which eventually gets turned to nitrate (toxic only at higher levels but feeds algae problems if left unchecked). So the tests are to see how badly your fish is polluting his tank. This is the 'cycle' you often hear people talking about.. the cycle happens due to the presence (eventually) of certain types of bacteria that feed on these compounds and break them down into the next stage. This takes several weeks for teh bacteria to establish, but once it does the conversion happens so quickly than none of the harmful components hang around long enough to harm your fish. One your tank is 'cycled' water changes are mainly to dilute nitrate, but in the early stages when a tank is 'new' the water changes must be frequent enough to dilute the toxic ammonia and nitrite. Also the wunder cure.. I don't think it explains very well on the bottle that to treat whitespot.. you have to continue treating until at least a full week after the spots are gone. It also helps to do gravel vacs becuase when the spots 'drop off' the fish they will hatch into heaps more parasites!! So you have to do like.. 1 treatment.. every day for what does it say no more than 3 treatments in a row? or 4? then leave it for a a few days... do a big water change (gravel vac!) then do it again.. 3 days...then wait.. and a whole cycle probably one more time to be sure!!! The meds dont' actually work on the 'spots'. That's the cyst stage....and imagine it's like a little wax bubble where the meds can't get in. When the spot 'hatches' they're at the free swimming stage.. this is when the meds work and is the reason you have to keep the meds up in the water for a long time.. until every thing has hatched and caught a dose of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsarmina Posted December 11, 2007 Report Share Posted December 11, 2007 hey danielle if you manage to come round tonight i will go through the test kit thing with you (its abput time i tested mine ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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