# Tropical fish - whitespot



## Stan193 (May 27, 2009)

Hi folks,

I had a realy bad whitespot outbreak and lost every fish in the tank early this year. I had some lovely fish, had a synodontis angelicus that was 25 years old,many others well into their teens and early 20's. Synodontis decorus, 4 clown loaches between 5 and 8", silver dollars, red hook and myleus schomburkhi, lots of other nice stuff and I lost the lot to whitespot.

I've kept fish for over 20 years and theyve had whitespot from time to time but i've always managed to treat it even if some times I lost a few fish, the majority survived.

This time it started with a clown loach having half or dozen or so spots, clown loaches are very prone to it so its often them that get it first. 
I started the treatment as soon as i saw the few spots. Its happened this way in the past and I got them cured in a few days without any deaths. This time it was different the treatment had no effect and it just kept spreading. I assumed the treatment was out of date and started using a different brand as the first bottle looked quite old. The second lot was the waterlife reserch stuff and still didnt have any effect. I was also increasing the heat at the same time, this took quite a while, the heater turned out to be on its last leggs so had to get new ones so i could get the temp up to 82°C or so to help with the treatment. Meanwhile the second treatment was'nt working, I phoned the local tropical fish shop and they said that I should have waited a couple of days between switching treatments as they can react with eachother. I got a tank of fresh water warming and dechlorinating and then did a water change. and continued treating after doing a waterchange. still it got worse. I phoned another tropical fish shop and he said there are some strains of white spot that are really difficult to treat. He sold me some eSHa Exit, he said if that doesnt cure it nothing will as hes had the same problem as I had and he found that to be the best treatment. He also let me take lots of water, like 25 gallons or more so I could do a big water change and then start on the fresh treatment. I was still warming more tap water all the time as well.
It finished off that I had to just keep adding more treatment but still the whitespot got worse and the fished mucus membranes were peeling off and they were just dropping like flies. I battled to save them moving them to hospital tank but there was nothing I could do by now.

Looking back I could have done things better from the start, heres what I would have done.

1. Immediately set up a hospital tank and taken the infected fish out as infected fish are a breeding ground for the desease and it will just multiply and infect the rest.

2 Give them the best treatment you can get, and buy it fresh. I think eSHa EXIT is supposed to be the best. treat both the main tank and the hospital tank following the dosage instructions.

3. Turn the temperature up to at least 82°F, this will make the spots come off the fish faster. When the spots come off they reinfect the fish like 1000 times over but if you have the treatment in the water it kills it when the spots come off so it doesnt re-infect. The treatment only kills the desease when the spots have come off. (theyre like spores that go into the water, only the spores can be killed not the spots themselves). Some say high temp alone can kill it but this will also kill the fish, they will be struggling for oxygen as it is due to the chemical (treatment) in the water and the hotter the water the less oxygen it can dissolve so you want to go as hot as they will stand it without killing them, see how much they are gasping, if theyre really gasping its too hot.

4. If any more fish show whitespot get them into the hospital tank, this way the main tank has the best chance. its worth sacrificing the worst case ones to save the rest but hopefully the ones in the hospital tank should pull through as well. 

5. When everything looks all clear continue the treatment as instructed, they normally give one more dose after its clear just to make sure.

Hope this is usefull to someone, whitespot is not normally such a big deal, its always just cleared up after I've given them the basic doses without the above faffing but I think its best to be cautious just in case it ends the way mine ended. Wish I'd done it this way but you live and learn.


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## ChloEllie (Jul 18, 2009)

im just going to add a little bit lol

follow the instructions of the medication UNLESS u have a knife fish then take off about 20gallons of ur original tank volume and then dose.

i made this mistake with a 2ft clown knife....i cant believe i overdosed my own fish. dont get me wrong, i always do research before i get any animal and especially my fish, but NO WHERE said how thin their scales were and they absorb meds real quick.


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## Stan193 (May 27, 2009)

Good point, fish without scales and I think fish with small fine scales are much more sensitive to the treatment. That was part of my problem, I kept synodontis and loaches that dont have scales at all and metynnis which have fine scales. The treatment poisons the fish, the dose amount is supposed to be enough to kill the whitespot but not enough to kill the fish.


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## Berber King (Dec 29, 2007)

I invested in a UV unit after an outbreak years ago,dont want to lose my big BGK!


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## Stan193 (May 27, 2009)

Whats a BGK?

I think fish lose their immunity if you have UV sterilisers though


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## The Chillinator (Jun 26, 2008)

Stan193 said:


> Whats a BGK?
> 
> I think fish lose their immunity if you have UV sterilisers though


It's a Black ghost Knifefish (_Apteronotus albifrons)._


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