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HI, I noticed a week ago that two of my guppy males had one spot each on their tails that looked exactly like the photos of whitespot that I have seen. I treated straight away with Protozin as directed. They had the last dose yesterday. The white spots are still there but not so bright. Does that mean the "grains" dropped off but left a white mark behind?
If so will the marks go eventually, or does it mean they are still infected.

What do I do now? Assuming the treatment has worked when should I put the carbon filter media? Or should I wait a few days to see if the ick re-occurs?

Hope you can help.

well to be on the safe side, change meds and treat for 1-2 days.

I am recently having the same problem as you are. I treated for ich and most of the spots went away accept for a few outlines of where some spots were. They are slowly going away but I left my medication in the tank for a few days after my final dose. I am using rid ich + which doesnt harm filter bacteria. When your done the treatment do a 40% water change and run some carbon for a week or so. If you want you could treat with Melafix and Pimafix as a preventitive one you get the ich med out of the tank.

Keep treating the ick for three more days. I have had reappearing ick with my cichlids that proved to be deadlier than the initial infection. Good luck!

When you use Melafix and Pimafix togther, do you do a full dose of each at the same time?

I dont have any other treatment that wont harm the filter bacteria and the tank is only just cycled.. If I am going to treat again with Protozin should I wait 7 days from the lend of the last treatment and should I do the water change first?

Thanks

shiftingsands

Have a look at this thread I posted there is infomation there that will help you.

There is one certain way to stop Ich gettig into your tank Via the water. Store it for one week with all the necessary additives. Ich requires a host and as there is no host in a water container the Ich just dies.


[link=Ich White spot]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/General%20Freshwater/59949.html?200507090755" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link]

Keith

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Thanks Keith, very informative link and thanks to you all.

Well its a week now since the last treatment and there is still no sign of the ick re-occurring. I delayed the carbon in the filter and water change in case it rared up again, but it hasn't.
Am I home and dry?
I want to put a couple of the males from this "ex-ick" tank, back into my community tank, do you think it is safe to do so, or should I wait a while longer? I am concerned that putting them in a different tank may stress them and start the ick off again? This is what I plan to do in "ex-ick" tank unless you dont think would it be a good idea:

1)Put in the carbon filter
(how long do I leave that in for, and can it be re-used another time after a good wash?)
2) Do a 20% water change but instead of adding fresh water take water from the community tank and use that instead - to accustom them to the different water? Is this a good idea or not? All the fish in the community tank appear 101% fine. I hope I am not being too OTT, I couldn't bear to lose any more fish through doing something stupid.

Both tanks have all 0 readings for Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates. I guess the plants are soaking up all the Nitrates?
There is a .2 pH difference between the tanks.
Thanks

Last edited by shiftingsands at 15-Sep-2005 05:35

I would wait a few weeks (minimum about 10 days) to let the fish settle a bit before moving them. Ich or any illness is a sign of stress, let them deal with the stress of whatever was wrong before, then illness, then medication before you subject them to more.

Carbon is a good idea, can be reused again.

Instead of changing water with tank water from the other tank, I would just use tap. Your tanks sound similar enough that there won't be a lot of stress when you move the fish anyway, so doing a water change with clean water is more important.

For your pimafix/melafix question (sorry it wasn't answered before), you dose them both full strength at the same time. They are pretty difficult to OD and fish respond well to them.

Chris, I'm not sure why you would suggest switching meds. There is no reason to switch meds toward the end of ich treatment, in fact it would probably cause more harm than good unles you mean something like melafix but you didn't give any details about that. That post was really not helpful at all.

The remaining faded spots you saw were just wounds that were healing, the white spots from ich are actually not the parasite at all but tiny wounds caused by the parasite burrowing into the skin. They can take some time to fade after the parasite has been killed. Melafix speeds the process and prevents secondary infection.

Thanks. So far so good - no re-occurance yet.

One last thing, how long should I leave the carbon media in the filter and when I take it out will the filter still be full of "good bacteria" or will it need seeding again?

You should leave it in for at least four or five days, and by the time that rolls around the carbon will have been used up. Activated carbon needs replacing often, especially when it has been used to remove medications. In my opinion, it should be replaced weekly even when there are no additives in the water that need soaking up.

The carbon can safely be removed without a minicycle occuring.

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