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we have an outbreak of whitespot in our 15g tank. we are treating with meds, but sadly have lost 2 barbs and a loach already. we now have 3 barbs and 1 loach left and they arent looking good.
we reckon we will lose them within the next few days.

my question is, if this happens, whats the best way of moving on. do we empty tank, clean it and start over, or just do a partial water change????

any advice appreciated

thanks

make that 1 cherry barb and a loach remaining, this came from nowhere on monday and has wiped out the tank. we are assuming the other barb will go soon as he is heavily infected and not sure about the loach.

assuming we lose all occupants how do we treat the tank and how long do we leave it before attempting to restock it?

can believe how fast this has taken all the fish, any advise appreciated.

White spot doesnt really need a tank tear down as it cannot survive without a fish host. Keep up the medications but if you do lose these guys let the tank run empty for a week to 10 days. Then test your water and see if you need to re-cycle the tank.

^_^[hr width='40%']"Has someone taken your faith? It's real, the pain you feel.
The life, the love, You die to heal.
The hope that starts, The broken hearts...
I’ve got another confession my friend, I’m no fool.
I’m getting tired of starting again, Somewhere new."

Did you raise the water temp gradually while you were medicating? Also, loaches have to take half doses of ick meds otherwise it will harm them. I've had 2 cases of ick in my 55g and treated it both times, without meds, by gradually raising them temp to 90F over a few days times. To keep it from coming back, I keep the temp at about 80F at all times.

Sorry for your losses. Good luck.

><>Dani<><

we have increased the temp to 28C, as we are pretty much resigned to losing the one remaining barb should we remove the loach to the 75g? will a loach carry whitespot, he isnt showing any signs at the moment. but dont want to risk an outbreak in the main tank.

Last edited by hembo666 at 19-May-2005 17:41

I would leave the loach where he is. Simply moving a fish can cause enough stress to bring on ich.
Real sorry you lost so many, it's always worse when you're medicating and trying to save them .

^_^[hr width='40%']"Has someone taken your faith? It's real, the pain you feel.
The life, the love, You die to heal.
The hope that starts, The broken hearts...
I’ve got another confession my friend, I’m no fool.
I’m getting tired of starting again, Somewhere new."

update: we lost the loach last night. just one remaining barb now.

so in a week we have gone from having no sign of a problem, to losing 2 loaches and 4 barbs. didnt realise it killed that quick.

The problem with white spot is that the treatment works only when the parasite has dropped off from the fish. The meds will actually kill the parasite when it is free swimming. Increasing the temp shortens the life cycle and make treatment more effectively. However, one must be very careful when using meds. Loaches are very suspectible to white spot and using meds you have to use half the dose since they are very sensitive fish. Large doses actually can kill your fish. I found out in using salt (not table salt because it contains iodine - some mention the use of rock salt) which can be dosed accordingly to treat white spots. frequent partial water chnages is a must at this stage. Vacuum the gravel so as to collect as much as possible parasites which had dropped off from the fish. If using meds one has to be very careful because because from my experience with white spots I never managed to cure loaches. Other fish managed to survive. I used ICH Guard II for loaches which is supposed to be safe for them but it takes longer to have effect. Instructions always tell you to use it for two doses and will eradicate the problem. It never works because the life cycle takes 15 days at 28-30 C and you have to be very lucky when using the dose actually when the parasite is free-swimming. I think there is a good artcile on this site regarding treatment of white spots. In case you do not find I will try to find a thread and post it.

well we have one barb left. he is swimming about, has some white spots on him, but seems better than any of the others did. trouble is he looks lonely now

for the time being do not put any fish in the tank. In the future try to buy a small tank and use it as a quarantine tank for any fish that you purchase. This the best way to avoid spreading the disease. Another thing, if you are using a tank without heaters try to put one so as not to allow any fluctuations in temp. Do not be tempted to put more fish because the fish is lonely!! If you add more fish I think you will be lonley because you will end up losing everything. What is the temp of the tank?

wouldnt dream of adding more fish while we have the disease, im not completely stupid.....and that is our quarantine tank.

update:last one died last night, so now we have an empty tank. we are away for a week after bank holiday so are going to leave it running empty until after that, then reintroduce a couple of cheaper fish

im just curious...what kind of ich med ur using??? i had just an ich outbreak...but i didt lose any fish after treatment??? im surprised that barb, a hardy fish, succumbed to ich that easy...but if it was a heavy infestation...i wouldnt be surprise???

another thing...what changes u made before the outbreak happened so that we could learn next time??

we treated with protozin. the fish did get it bad, as i say within a week they all looked fine, then they were gone. they were all covered. the change we made before was adding 2 yo yo loaches,so whether they brought anything into the tank or stressed the barbs too much i guess we will never know.the 5 barbs were hardy, we had them for 6 weeks and cycled the tank with them, but guess the addition of loaches was just too much