Whitespot -- anything else I can do while waiting? :s

[Nini]

Hey all,

I think I've made a new record -- only had the tank for a week and everything has white spot -.- .. go me

Anyway, I've got some stuff from an aquarium that they use (they literally went out the back and got some from one of their containers and put it in a little container for me), and have put that in (half dose) and I'm up to day two (of 3).. The guppies had black eyes, were real mopey (fin was down) they were sort of hanging around on their own etc.. They seem to be a bit more perky tonight.. there's only one that isn't hanging around the top, and majority have lost the big black ring around their eyes (how creepy are their possessed eyes? O.O). There's one male who still isn't promising to live, but he seems to be just hanging in there. I'm not TOO worried about them though.. they're pretty and I enjoy having them in the tank, but my major concerns are my peps.

The female (6cm) wasn't too good for the last couple of days.. she was hanging around the top and not moving much.. she's since gone back to her spot/s on the driftwood and seems okay-ish .. a little slow but isn't stressing out too much.. The male (11cm) WAS great.. running around the sides of the tank sucking everything, and he had taken to sitting in the curtain of bubbles from the air stone (massage?).. For the last 20 minutes he's just sitting on the bottom, not attached to anything and slowly moving his mouth around with no fin/tail movements. I tapped my nails on the glass (lightly, I didn't want to give him a heart attack) and he didn't respond until I put the net handle in the tank and brushed it against him (again, super lightly, I just wanted him to move a little so I could confirm it wasn't the current in the water tricking me). He moved a whole 4-5 cm before sitting still again.

I've slowly lifted the temperature over the last 2 days from 26 to 28, and was planning on pushing it a little faster tonight -- but don't know if I should now. We have an airstone at one end of the tank bubbling into the current from the spray bar (which he was happily sitting in only an hour and a half ago, sucking the glass swimming back n forth, happy as anything). We half dosed the meds in hopes of not killing the peps, and I've ordered some protozin off ebay, but I don't think I'll see it until Wednesday at the earliest.. No local shops have any, so I paid an extra $10 for express post from NSW in hopes of getting it before the female (who was stressed all weekend) fell over on me. I didn't think I would have to worry about the male at all in the whole process, being bigger than her and everything... -.-

Feeling kind of useless watching everything suffer and not being able to do anything.. Is there **anything** else I can do to try and perk him up a little?

[PETFISH]

no wonder you got whitespot if you have only had the tank for a week, it wouldn't have cycled yet.

[Nini]

Oh.. I meant the fish for a week. It was fully cycled before I added fish. I didn't include non-fish time :3

[ssdiscus]

I would turn up the temp to 30C for a few days, just whack it up - don't bother doing it slowly, it's only 2 degrees. Protozin is very effective - Petcity keep it in stock. Many other products are good though. Good luck - whitespot/ick is usually very easy to fix - compared to other fish diseases.

Cheers,

Shaun

[Sulphite]

The first time I had Ich was when I moved all of my fish into a new cycled tank; I panicked and went crazy with temperature, lots of salt and harsh meds, which ended up causing more harm than good. I came to this forum and was recommended Protozin, and within 3 half-doses (not even a full course) all of my fish were happy and spot free. I did another 2 full courses at half-dosage after that and have never seen the likes of it since.

What I learned from this is once you find out that you have Ich in your tank just keep the temperature normal, cause as little stress to your fish as possible, and stick a few doses of Protozin in there. The worst thing to do is hit them with all the different methods of eradicating it that different keepers and breeders will recommend. In your situation you should stop (if you haven't already) your current meds, keep the temperature as-is, and wait for your delivery of Protozin. Generally speaking, Ich, if left to run it's course, will take a while to actually start killing your fish, with some exceptions (Clown Loaches get hit the worst), meaning you have enough time to wait for your delivery.

[Milwocky]

i have heaps of protozin left over from when i had white spot , the stuff its great! super effective! i can give you some tomorrow after work for free if you like bring a small container im at regents park

[Nini]

I've read that peppermints weren't keen on water temp higher than 28, so I didn't want to stress them out by roasting them in 30 :s That and the heater wasn't heating to the temp it was set to..made for an unintentionally drawn out process. I was hoping to have it 30 by today

The meds I got only say to put it in once every 3 days.. so tomorrow is the 3rd day.. It just worried me because everything went to the bottom and got super lethargic.. I only really heard about protozin yesterday, and had *no* luck finding any.. Apparently white spot is going around a fair bit at the moment -- something in the water, or something..and it seems everyone has managed to beat me to each shop to buy "the last" bottle before I get there.. (conspiracy, maybe?)

I've had the fish for JUST over a week now, well it's been about 2 weeks for the big pep and just over one for the female, and she was the last addition (but the one I was most worried about on Sunday).

I'm not going to re-dose the stuff I have though, it should be "finished" doing whatever it does by tomorrow, so when the protozin gets here (hopefully) tomorrow afternoon I'll start that. I don't think I'm going to see it before Wednesday though.. I just don't want to lose the male pep while I wait He's never this dead-looking.

[Milwocky]

the best way to beat white spot is to understand how it works give this a read CIR920/FA006: Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (White Spot) Infections in Fish, id also do a decent water change before you try a new med

[Nini]

Milwocky, I really appreciate the offer, but I have no transport after about 1pm, so it would turn into a giant fustercluck for you. Thanks though

I've read a bit of info on it, so I have a basic understanding of how it likes to destroy my fun of "easy-keeping" fish.. I don't think I've stumbled on that page yet, so I'll have a read in case there's anything extra I should know.

I've just gone all "super-protective, worried mother" on the peppermint.. I'm not ready to have fish die on me yet, I haven't even had a chance to forget to feed them!

I'll definitely do a water change before adding the protozin when it gets here.

[liljohn_83]

it sounds like your on the rite path so as for sompthing els you can do , go on qldaf to pass the time , good luck with it all

[Nini]

His face is so sad.. I just want to cuddle him .. obviously that would give more problems than solutions.. so ..

[Nini]

.. Is it normal for them to get red spots .. the same size, shape etc as the white spots? Has he just scratched when I wasn't looking? or is it something else that I need to fix? The others are still the white-y type colour .. The back of his tail and his "butt" have quite a few red spots on them..

There would be a picture but my phone is dead flat and I've only just plugged it in

[Nini]

First casualty: Male guppy He wasn't good all day, the others managed to perk up and eat something.. he just wasn't interested.. Poor little guy.

[chickadee]

Ive heard its best to keep the lights off also whist treating for whitespot ect.

[Shanoz]

Lights off and heater turned up to 30 degree's works a treat!

[Yoshi]

is the red spots gold or red. if it is gold then it could be what i had which was valvet.

because the meds will probs kill off all ur good bacteria u need to watch ur ammonia spikes. and if it starts going up add a ammonia blocking conditioner (the one i has removes chlorine and binds the ammonia or something like that) until your filter is running correctly again.

correct me if i am wrong though.

[Nini]

The guppies have only white spots still.. but they're not going away <.< Day 2 of protozin today, after a big water change etc before day one started yesterday..

It was the large male pep who got the red spots -- but it was only on half of him.. I had a closer look at him yesterday when I pulled him out of the tank (RIP little fella) and they're just white spot, but red? I'm assuming he scratched too much or something.. The others are still full of energy and eating and stuff, so I'm not sure. All I know is he was fine, then went downhill fast.. and we lost power in the early hours of the morning, and we woke up to a dead pep.. Frustrating. We have 4 tanks and a shrimp tank, and he's the first fish we've lost to disease... and all the other tanks are healthy ~touch wood~. We've lost other fish before, but that was because of an underfed oscar, who is waiting to move into a 5ft tank (poor little rummynose didn't stand a chance), and there was an algae eater sniping fish when we weren't looking.. Oscar is behaving since we learned he wants MORE food, heh.

The heater is struggling to get the tank past 28 degrees.. I've had it turned up to 31 for the last 24 hours, and the tank is still only at 28. I put a towel around the filter to keep the heat in, but it's just not able to get it up there (which I'm kind of peeved about because it's for a 60L tank, and mine would be around 55.. )

I can't see any gold spots, Yoshi (I checked after reading your thread for the 100th time).. I've heard protozin SHOULDN'T (again, touch wood) kill off bacteria, but yeah.. keeping an eye on that too..

Hey chickadee and shanoz, I noticed you both said to turn the lights off -- is there a reason for that? The tank is in the lounge room/kitchen area, so it would be lit up from the tv/lights etc anyway.. is it a stress reduction thing or something?