Our fish have white spot or ich or ick or Ichtyophthirius what ever you want to call it.

We have been to the LFS and got malachite green and formalin which we added to the tank 48 hours ago the problem is we are not sure if we should do a 25% water change before we add the next dose of malachite green which is due to be added today.

We changed the water last Friday.

If it is white spot then it is best to use Whitespot cure instead. I have read in other helps that this is the best.

Yes, do a water change syphoning out of the gravel. This apparently removes loose cysts that are witing to hatch from the gravel.

Raise you temp, to about 28oC, this helps the life cycle of the white-spot speed up.

Increase your air supply to the tank, as the warmer water has less oxygen content.

Just because you can't see any white-spot, hopefully, during the treatment, don't stop the treatment halfway thru.

Go the full distance.

But what caused the white-spot to occur???

If you can alliviate that, maybe you wont run the risk again of loosing all your fish.

Alan 104

From what I have been told and read the white spot was probably caused by stress, basically the move from the LFS to our new tank.

There are no instructions on the bottles except for the dosage so how long should I continue the treatment?

I am also worried that some of the sites I have looked at say that the treatment that the shop has given us could be harmful to neons, glowlights, guppies and catfish which are the fish we have in the tank

I think the fish that had it has died it looked a bit sick yesterday and didn't eat and now today we can't find it at all it seems to have disappeared.

Woops MM, I've just seen your MAJOR error,

The fish you got from the LFS probably had whitespot already.

What you didn't do, was to put your new buy, into quarantine.

What is quarantine?

It's where you keep the new fish away from your main tanks, including

nets, syphons, cups, anything. Just NO CONTACT at all until you are sure the newbies are healthy.

But where do I quarantine the newbies?

In that spare tank that you have for that reason.

Doesn't have to be a huge tank,

BUT,

it does have to be set up with the same parameters as the main tank.

When it's not used for the Q. station, use it for breeding.

Just control your urge to buy unless your Q. tank is available.

It can also be used as a hospital tank.

Goodluck

Alan 104

I guess another tank will have to be the next purchase

Why didn't someone tell me that setting up a tropical fish tank just before Christmas was a really bad idea lol :roll:

Better than not setting one up at all MM

Alan 104

Oh No. You now are about to catch MTS (Multiple Tank Syndrome) Not by Want but by NEED.

mork and mindy where did you get the fish from it is very rare to get a bad fish from either wet pets or animates they know what they are doing and do it very well, and one of the employees (owners daughter i think) at tabithas is in the p nth aquarium club. It could be that you didn't acclimatize the fish properly

One thing i learnt that was bad was floating the bag in the water, as a bag holds such a low amount of water the temperature fluctuates way too fast, and as the fish have been to the toilet in there the amonia content with the quick heat jump will posen them (or stress them giving them white spot).

I also come from palmy so if you need any help feel free to pm me and ask and i can come around and lend a hand

i sometimes placed a few drops of whitespot cure or ammolock in the tank just to keep the disease out. is this a good idea?

I personally don't like to do that shiuh as I feel the fish may build up an immunity to whatever you have added. Never add anything to your tank unless you have to is my motto.

ok....but the fish is living happily at the moment disease free

But if your conditions are good they should be doing that without the meds anyway! What proof do you have that the meds are responsible?

shiuh hope you took your cough syrup and asprin today

i sure did...haha

It could be that you didn't acclimatize the fish properly

We followed the instructions from Wet Pets, placed one cup of tank water into the bag and left it for 10 minutes then used a net to remove the fish from the bag and put it in the tank.

When we went into wet pets to get the medicine one of the girls there mentioned they treat their tanks every three days to keep any white spot at bay but I don't like the idea of adding anything unnecessarily to the tank. After the first treatment the white spots on one fish didn't change and the fish has died well we think it has it has just disappeared and even after the water change and gravel vac never showed up so maybe it ascended lmao

The other couple of fish who just had one spot on them seem fine the spots seemed to disappear after the first treatment but then reappeared 2 days later just before the second treatment and are still visible but don’t seem to be slowing them down.

I have no idea how long I should keep up with the treatment I don’t want to treat them if it isn't necessary but I don’t want sick fish either

I think it was easier having babies than having fish lol

Also thank you Dan for the offer to come around and check them out I might just have to take you up on that if my stress levels get any higher or my fish get sick again

Oh the kids school had a gala today so we are now a two tank family it is only little but should be ok for a quarantine tank lmao now we just have to get a second heater and all the other paraphernalia

no worries about the offer always happy to help another fish keeper out. congratualtions on the new tank addition hope things are working out better for you now

Hello M&M how did u go?? Usually treat for a week, or 1 extra dose after spots have disappeared.

net to remove the fish from the bag

I wouldn't reccomend that, the net can take the slime coat off the fish, opening them up to infections.

A tip, always look at the fish you want to buy, if there are any signs of twitching, spots, sores... stay clear. If tanks are on a system, check out the fish in other tanks.

Frenchy