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white spot disease.

kriso

By kriso
in Non-Fishing Chat

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kriso Newbie

kriso

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Hey guys,

i have 3 clown laoches in a aquarium and they have got little white spots all over them, has anyone delt with this before, i bought some water additive from the pet shop (its green stuff) which says will take care of the problem but i would like to know if this is a lenghty process or something that should clear up pretty quickly? has anyone used something that they can recommend to cure this?

cheers

kriso

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creature100 Newbie

creature100

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Use the green stuff (usually malachite green) you brought and raise the temperature of your tank for about 1 week to 29-30 C, this helps speed up the life cycle of bacteria that causes the problem. Loaches are particularly prone to whitespot as they are scaleless, as a result be prepared to lose a few. Also, because you raised the temp pf your tank you need to increase aeration with air stones etc or uncover your tank. Anything porous will absorb the treatment so be wary of this.

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QueenslandeR Newbie

QueenslandeR

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mate i would rase your tank temerature to 29-30 degrees and grab some aquarium salt from your pet shop and add it dissolved in water at 2 teaspoons per gallon of water in your tank, the loaches should look worse off at the start but should get better relativly quickly, i would keep the temp up for 10 days, even if the spots are gone. having an airstone going will help the process, hope this helps ;)

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Cowfish13 Newbie

Cowfish13

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kriso wrote:

cheers fellas will raise the temp tonight dont think the redclaw will like it but thats life, hes only $2 to replace the loaches at the size i have them are quite a bit dearer lol.

The Redclaw should be fine. They're found up north, so they would have adapted to the warmer temperatures

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Dazzamcgee Newbie

Dazzamcgee

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kriso wrote:

heres a pic for those intersted in what it looks like [img size=302]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/art_ich_01.jpg

:ohmy: thats a severe dose of white spot.....

White spot mostly shows up through stress and or contamination(ie adding something to the tank that is already infected).

It could take as much as a couple of weeks for the white spot to go. The bacteria that causes it has a long life cycle and the white spot is basically the eggs waiting to hatch so bump the temp up(like the others said) and watch the suckers fry as they hatch...:)

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Dazzamcgee Newbie

Dazzamcgee

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Oceandonkey wrote:

so the fish can actually survive it?

thats good to know a mate has a salt water tank and all of fish died when they got it, i assume he didnt know to do what you guys have discussed above.

Yeah the fish will survive the temperture change just remember to increase the temp slowly and inject plenty of oxygen into the water.

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creature100 Newbie

creature100

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For some reason loaches are more prone to whitespot, i have had similar cases where nothing else had it but the loaches. Also stress is not likely to be the cause of the outbreak although it may make particular fish more prone to infection, sudden drops in temperature bring the bacteria out of dormancy and so lead to an otbreak, the most common cause of sudden drop in water temp is water change with tap water that is much colder than your heated tank water. In winter i heat the water up that i am going to add to tank for water change. Unfortunately when you see the body covered in white spots it means that the infection is pretty well established as it shows up first in the gills (which is what ultimately kills infected fish = cant breathe) and pectoral fins. Get yourself some new clowns (pretty cheap these days) and make sure you heat your water during water changes. Just a note on clown loaches, most people think that they are a small fish, but around ten years ago i had one that was 30 cm long that i sold for $500!

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Dazzamcgee Newbie

Dazzamcgee

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kriso wrote:

never saw them attack each other and they all lived together in the tunnel the cichlid made at night time.

Theres the problem right there!

With out going into to much detail about fish behaviour it's pretty obvious that the loaches are mostly nocturnal feeders preferring to hide out as a school in "tunnels" and the alike. This is where it becomes the problem so does the Zebra it to prefers "tunnels" caves or any where theres a hidey hole for them to tediously build there nest from. Cichlid's (most) are very protective of there nests so when a school of neighbouring fish enters a cichlids nest in the middle of the night, well this is where it gets stressful for the intruders...;)

Clown loaches only protect themselves by forming large schools (safety in numbers) as do the silver sharks(they also use jumping to avoid capture much like a mullet) but Cichlid prefer to use shear force to scare off intruders usually fighting till the death. So with this in mind the cichlid had been harassing the clowns to the point where it had weaken the schools immune system allowing the white spot outbreak to occur.

Silver sharks and clown loaches originate from the same location in the wild (thinking Sumatra?)

Zebra Cichlids originate from South Africa!

So there(was) is abit of non compatibility in the aquarium.

White spot can be easily triggered in an aquarium simply by tapping on the glass!!(causes stress to the inhabitants)

I have personnaly experienced the same thing when I was keeping cichlids and upside down catfish together but I was lucky enough to see the non compatibility before it ended up much like yours:( .

Sorry to ramble.....

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