White Spots?
- Thread starter newby2tropicalfish
- Start date
White Spot (Ichthyophthirius)
A parasite that we will all encounter whilst keeping fish.
As an adult it is embedded in the skin of the fish causing irritation, your fish will probably be glancing off rocks and plants to alleviate the itching.
The parasite will feed and grow on the blood and skin cells of its host for a few days until it is fully grown.
It then bores its way out of the skin and drops off into the substrate, it then forms a cyst which then goes through rapid cell division until about 1000 young are released into the water to start the whole process again.
The whole process takes just five days at 27C.
There are cases where the parasite actually lies dormant in the skin of the fish and will not emerge until it is ready, making eradication quite difficult.
The best time to kill them is when they are free swimming and looking for a host.
Treatment must be external and aimed at the free swimming stage hence the need to dose again after a few days, suitable cures are widely available. 8)
Go to your LFS and be sure to tell them you have Clown loaches.
A parasite that we will all encounter whilst keeping fish.
As an adult it is embedded in the skin of the fish causing irritation, your fish will probably be glancing off rocks and plants to alleviate the itching.
The parasite will feed and grow on the blood and skin cells of its host for a few days until it is fully grown.
It then bores its way out of the skin and drops off into the substrate, it then forms a cyst which then goes through rapid cell division until about 1000 young are released into the water to start the whole process again.
The whole process takes just five days at 27C.
There are cases where the parasite actually lies dormant in the skin of the fish and will not emerge until it is ready, making eradication quite difficult.
The best time to kill them is when they are free swimming and looking for a host.
Treatment must be external and aimed at the free swimming stage hence the need to dose again after a few days, suitable cures are widely available. 8)
Go to your LFS and be sure to tell them you have Clown loaches.
I have had this disease and so will everyone else probably unless your tank is perfect. But anyways, there are a wide veriety of ways to treat it, like the way Josh mentioned by adding salt and increasing the temperature. There are also medications you can get but be careful because some are dark blue or red and can cause your stuff to stain. Read the back and look at the color of the medication first. HTH. ;D
[quote author=ryanp14 link=board=freshwatergeneral&num=1003001045&start=0#6 date=10/16/01 at 12:30:09]
I have had this disease and so will everyone else probably unless your tank is perfect
[/quote]
I've had sick fish plenty of times over the past 5 years. I've had dropsy, fin rot, swimbladder disease, skin flukes, and bacterial infection on injuries but I've never had any fish with ich. ???
I have had this disease and so will everyone else probably unless your tank is perfect
[/quote]
I've had sick fish plenty of times over the past 5 years. I've had dropsy, fin rot, swimbladder disease, skin flukes, and bacterial infection on injuries but I've never had any fish with ich. ???
The salt and raised temperature cure works. No need for meds for ich. Clowns and cories can handle 1 tablespoon/5gallons without distress. Most live plants can too. If you go this route keep the salt at this level for at least a week after all the spots have disappeared.
Remember, you have to add back enough salt to keep the concentration up when you add new water due to water changes. If you top-off during this time, don't add salt.
I might get flamed for this, but table salt is ok, as long as it doesn't have anticlumping agents, kosher salt is ok, "fish" salt is OK, and pickling salt is OK. The iodine in tablesalt won't affect the fish for the short duration it's used in the application.
Remember, you have to add back enough salt to keep the concentration up when you add new water due to water changes. If you top-off during this time, don't add salt.
I might get flamed for this, but table salt is ok, as long as it doesn't have anticlumping agents, kosher salt is ok, "fish" salt is OK, and pickling salt is OK. The iodine in tablesalt won't affect the fish for the short duration it's used in the application.
Well, I'm gonna get flamed too then, because you're absolutely right. Table salt is just fine. Yes, it does contain Iodine, anti-caking agents, and a few other chemicals, but they're in such low concentrations that your fish would be pickled in brine long before they reach toxic levels.
You can use "fish salt" too, it's just more expensive.
Josh
You can use "fish salt" too, it's just more expensive.
Josh
