White Spots

[Bluebeard]

hey do you all know how to cure white spots and what's the cause?

i do know how to solve it for freshwater tank but not salt water.

my guess for the cause is

1) water dirty

2) sudden change of temperature

is it correct?

most important, how to cure the white spots ah?

[hongqixian]

hey do you all know how to cure white spots and what's the cause?

i do know how to solve it for freshwater tank but not salt water.

my guess for the cause is

1) water dirty

2) sudden change of temperature

is it correct?

most important, how to cure the white spots ah?

That's about it. The fish is stressed. If you want and it's serious, put it in a quarantine tank and slowly lower the salinity to 1.009 (I'm not joking). This should be done over a course of weeks so as not to stress the fish further. The fish can osmoregulate (control the concentration of fluids in its body) but the white spot parasites cannot and thus cannot live and reproduce. Leave it like that for 3-4 weeks.

Note that this only works for whitespot, not velvet.

Alternatively, you can try copper treatment in a quarantine tank for a few weeks. Do not use any calcium containing rocks/sand as these retain copper. However the prolonged use of copper may lead to liver damage.

Anyway, feeding garlic-extract soaked foods may help. There are a few other treatments but they don't spring to mind at the moment.

P.S Marine ich parasite(Cryptocaryon irritans) is different from freshwater ich parasite(ichthyopthirus or something like that).

[Bluebeard]

hey thanks!

[ong]

That's about it. The fish is stressed. If you want and it's serious, put it in a quarantine tank and slowly lower the salinity to 1.009 (I'm not joking). This should be done over a course of weeks so as not to stress the fish further. The fish can osmoregulate (control the concentration of fluids in its body) but the white spot parasites cannot and thus cannot live and reproduce. Leave it like that for 3-4 weeks.

Note that this only works for whitespot, not velvet.

Alternatively, you can try copper treatment in a quarantine tank for a few weeks. Do not use any calcium containing rocks/sand as these retain copper. However the prolonged use of copper may lead to liver damage.

Anyway, feeding garlic-extract soaked foods may help. There are a few other treatments but they don't spring to mind at the moment.

P.S Marine ich parasite(Cryptocaryon irritans) is different from freshwater ich parasite(ichthyopthirus or something like that).

Main caused is stressed and to solve it, water temp., environment (space, fishes combination etc) play a key factors. Lower the salinity is one of the method to kill the white pot or ich/ick but this will depend on what type of fishes. For some, is not advisable. Copper treatment is not advisable as what Hon said, prolong treatment will caused liver damage for the fishes. To me the best method I still said the garlic treatment. I treat garlic soaked food for my fishes every two days. The fishes love it!

[bawater]

i do the same, but instead of garlic(i tried & they didn't eat anythin soaked in it) i increase feedings- 2 heavy feedings rotating foods, dry tetra marine pellets,veg flakes, small prawns roughly minced,frozen bloodworms,frozen brineshrimp,live brineshrimp- sometimes some frozen mysis shrimp & only recently a sprinkle of tetra bits-nothin more than is gobbled up.

Takes a little longer to cure(abt 7-10 days). usually only my tangs & tomato clown gets it but i feed whole tnk.

i keep salinity levels@1.020/1.021. Invertebrates seem fine abt it(mushrooms,leathers,bubble,anemones& button polyps)

[dfstan]

how about freshwater dip ? is this method effective ?

btw, how about curing fish with marine velvet ?

[hongqixian]

i do the same, but instead of garlic(i tried & they didn't eat anythin soaked in it) i increase feedings- 2 heavy feedings rotating foods, dry tetra marine pellets,veg flakes, small prawns roughly minced,frozen bloodworms,frozen brineshrimp,live brineshrimp- sometimes some frozen mysis shrimp & only recently a sprinkle of tetra bits-nothin more than is gobbled up.

Takes a little longer to cure(abt 7-10 days). usually only my tangs & tomato clown gets it but i feed whole tnk.

i keep salinity levels@1.020/1.021. Invertebrates seem fine abt it(mushrooms,leathers,bubble,anemones& button polyps)

Bawater, what anemones you have and for how long? Interested to know. What lighting are you using btw?

dfstan,

I think that velvet can only be treated with copper, a weird antibiotic(will check it out for you) and just luck. Prevention better than cure anyway!

[hongqixian]

Velvet (amyloodinium) can be treated successfully with copper only at an early stage or Chloroquine diphosphate . I don't know where to get it but if you want more info about velvet you can go to the about.com saltwater forum and do a search for posts in the past 6 months. Search for the keyword velvet and From : TERRYB102 .

www.saltaquarium.about.com

[dfstan]

thanks hongqixian.

unfortunately, my fishes passed away few weeks ago, even after using copper. also tried freshwater dip but unable to revive it. i think my current tank is infected with ich and velvet, which wipeout all my fishes. damn sian. Changed 80% water and been running my tank for almost 2 weeks without adding any livestock. Now my tank is shrimp tank. surviving are 2 cleaner and box shrimp. Btw, do you know if there is any kind of test kit to detect ich or velvet ?

[hongqixian]

thanks hongqixian.

unfortunately, my fishes passed away few weeks ago, even after using copper. also tried freshwater dip but unable to revive it. i think my current tank is infected with ich and velvet, which wipeout all my fishes. damn sian. Changed 80% water and been running my tank for almost 2 weeks without adding any livestock. Now my tank is shrimp tank. surviving are 2 cleaner and box shrimp. Btw, do you know if there is any kind of test kit to detect ich or velvet ?

Sorry to hear about the deaths. Velvet kills swiftly. I mentioned that hyposalinity treatment (including freshwater dip) doesn't stop velvet so it probably just stressed the fish more.

No test kit lah, but the surefire way to ensure that ich is not present anymore is to leave the tank fishless for at least 3-4 weeks. Ich requires a fish host to continue its life cycle. Velvet I think at least 6-8 weeks. A few months would be safer, then you can have time to plan the new fish to stock the tank with and maybe add more crustaceans in the meantime. They will flourish without predators.

What are box shrimp? Boxing shrimp?

[dfstan]

6-8 week ? so long ? how to wait so long ? my tank coming to 2 weeks w/o fish. only invertebrates. Do you think i should try to add just 1 or 2 fishes this weekend ? Does ich or velvet survive by hosting to invertebrates ? i read somewhere that invertebrates are immune to it. any comments.

yes, referring to boxing shrimp....

[hongqixian]

That's funny, my post didn't appear. Anyway, dun be so 'kan cheong' to add fish lah, or you might end up with more dead fish.....

Invertebrates are not attacked by ich/velvet germs but can carry them in the water.