White Spot kills half of my tank following new arrival

I am sure it is a common thread and I have been researching and just would like to investigate why me why them, why. I know the straight answer is I should have a quantaine tank, but I have not been using one and it has been fine for the past 6 years


Haven’t been so depressed for a while. I have been keeping fish for years and I have never experienced anything like this.
I have bought two new fishes and introduced to my established 120L tank following the usual declimatlisation process. On Day 2, I have spotted white spot on the new arrivals, so I treated the tank with King British WS3, at Day 4, the white spot has gone and I thought that’s it and dose another one to finish this chapter. Day 5, 20 other fishes now have white spots, Day 7, 15, yes 15 have died! Now I only have the 2 new fishes and 10 fishes left…

spoken to the LFS owner and he said it is nothing to do with his fishes, it is to do with my poor water quality; and also the formula dose for King British WS3 is too strong and it kills my fish…

anyway, I am now in absolute despair and still not sure how many will survive in coming days…..

Any thoughts welcome

thanks

 

First off, I want to say how sorry I am. My fish is ill right now and if she dies I think I'm done buying fish for now, if not forever. It is so hard to take care of such fragile creatures. And to watch them go after you put so much careful care into making sure they're ok. It's hard to feel like it's not your fault. But even if you make mistakes, having a successful fish tank for 6 straight years clearly means you know how to take good care of them.

As for the treatment, I will try my best. Have you tried using anything milder? I know that sounds counterintuitive as ich is killing your fish, but sometimes stress has killed my fish faster than the actual disease. Maybe general cure? Or ich specific meds? Are there any singular remaining fish that DON'T have ich? Because at this point, even if all else has failed, try quarantining them to see if they can be saved even if the others don't make it.

Also, try turning up the water as high as your species can cumulatively handle. Some types of fish can't take a lot of heat. But if they can, turn the heat up as high as is comfortable for them. Ich can't survive in hot water very easily, and usually, if it's over 82 or so it won't last long between hosts. Make sure your water is clean (test it please) so the disease won't thrive.

If they're rubbing themselves on rocks to itch themselves or rub off the white spot, as they often do, have you made sure your decor isn't sharp? Take out anything that may hurt them to rub themselves on, that way they won't get secondary sores or cuts.

If you don't have a planted tank, aquarium salt always seems to be good on my fish's stress levels. So do wonder shells.

Of course you already know this, but in the future if you rebuy fish after this sad affair, maybe quarantining them would be best... especially if they are sick upon arrival but we live and learn and it is okay.

And if all else fails, you did your best. That LFS person sounds like a piece of work. All of the love and luck for your fish.

 

thanks, as a second thought, the rest of my fishes have already get used to the water parameters. the new arrivals have white spots, if I don’t use the WS3, would the rest of the fishes still survive?
Obviously it is now too late

 

It is hard to say. The main ingredient of that medication is malachite green. That's pretty infamous for being dangerous play with, as it is a strong dye that can be fatal by itself in high amounts. Depending on how much you treated, it may not have been the best move. However, it is advertised as an ich treatment, which it is safe to say you needed, so I think your choice is very understandable.

I would switch to a lighter medication moving forward, hopefully one that has a different active ingredient if possible (I have not researched if every ich medication features malachite green). I've even read that methlyne blue can have limited success with ich, and I know that that is a weaker dye that is less hard on your fish.

I would say research and pick one thing that is lighter on your fish and stick to it. Too much med switching may stress them all to death.

This said, there is no way to tell if they would have survived if you had chosen different meds. I wouldn't stress about the past as there is no going back and you only did what you could.

 

Malachite Green is known as the most effective treatment available for Ich / Whitespot disease.

WS3 is the most economical formula containing Malachite Green that I have found. I have a big tank so this is important. It also has acriflavine and quinine sulphate.

You can find other brand formulations of Malachite Green e.g. with formalin which is said to be good.

I have used WS3 successfully at full strength on sensitive fish (Clown Loaches) and at up to triple strength in one stubborn case.

Otherwise, I used it in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.

Ideally start using it at the sign of the first white spot.

Fish are stressed when newly imported and moved to your aquarium from the store and are more susceptible to disease.

Some people have reported good results with raising the temperature or adding salt but I have not tried this.

There are always talks of more resistant strains of disease.

 

Malachite Green is known as the most effective treatment available for Ich / Whitespot disease.

WS3 is the most economical formula containing Malachite Green that I have found. I have a big tank so this is important. It also has acriflavine and quinine sulphate.

You can find other brand formulations of Malachite Green e.g. with formalin which is said to be good.

I have used WS3 successfully at full strength on sensitive fish (Clown Loaches) and at up to triple strength in one stubborn case.

Otherwise, I used it in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.

Ideally start using it at the sign of the first white spot.

Fish are stressed when newly imported and moved to your aquarium from the store and are more susceptible to disease.

Some people have reported good results with raising the temperature or adding salt but I have not tried this.

There are always talks of more resistant strains of disease.

good to know about malachite green! i always try less intrusive measures before more severe ones but seeing as this seems to be an invasive case, based on your knowledge i would say op probably did the right thing?

 

appropriate all thoughts. it is still just sad to see they are falling down one by one..
Should I scoop the passing one when I see one, or I just wait till later and scoop them out in one go? try not to stress the fish anymore.........

 

Hello, you will want to start the treatment at the beginning of any signs of spots and then continue treatment for a full two weeks or 10 days after the last white spot disappears. There is a life cycle where they fall to the substrate and then attach to a fish as they grow so its very important to treat for the full two weeks.

I agree malachite green is a very good solution, 2nd only to a copper treatment but will kill inverts so a lot of people can’t use it. Fish are stressed going from farm to store, then from store to house and will pick up disease. The guys at the store obviously had some fish come in with ich and they got transferred to your house. This happens a lot, just make sure to treat.

I would also add salt at 1 tsp per gallon of water for new fish, it helps with the stress of new fish and helps prevent disease when introducing new fish. You can use any non-iodized salt such as aquarium salt, canning salt, sea-salt. Mix the salt and dissolve it with removed aquarium water. Leave in for a week or two during this treatment. When doing water changes, you will remove salt, so if you remove 5 gallons then put 5 tsp salt back in during treatment.

 

Many thanks. Unfortunately all the fish has now passed :-( cannot believe this and I felt so sad taking them out one by one in which they were swimming happily just one week ago

given the sorry state of the tank, do I still need to treat the water with treatment given there is NO fish, just a Java fern?

LFS keep banging on nothing to do with the two fishes that he told me; it is poor quality water and the treatment kills all my fish. How true it is? As a last thought, am I responsible for the death? Moving forward, I have never used a quarantine tank for the past 6 years, maybe it is time to get one in place…

appreciated all

 

Very difficult to add useful information when I do not know very much about your aquarium and fish.

However, if there are no fish there is no need for treatment. Whitespot supposedly dies out if there are no fish to transfer to during the life cycle. I would suggest waiting a month before purchasing new fish just to be sure.

I'd suggest keeping things simple for a while. Maybe choose your favourite species and set up the tank for them alone. Keep a low stocking level. Feed the minimum. Don't keep adding new fish. Become a fish keeper not a fish buyer. Get your parameters especially ammonia and temperature right. Hopefully you'll have a period of success.

This is what I do. I keep Clown Loaches alone in one tank except for a few dither fish (Harlequin Rasbora). They did get whitespot when new but once cured they have given no further problems at all and are now 28 years of age.

My other tank is a low light non-CO2 heavily planted and I keep Cardinal Tetras without compromising them with other species. Luckily I found healthy ones but the Neon Tetras I had before them came with Columnaris and I lost some at the beginning and felt probably the way you do now. But you can move forward.

 

Very difficult to add useful information when I do not know very much about your aquarium and fish.

However, if there are no fish there is no need for treatment. Whitespot supposedly dies out if there are no fish to transfer to during the life cycle. I would suggest waiting a month before purchasing new fish just to be sure.

I'd suggest keeping things simple for a while. Maybe choose your favourite species and set up the tank for them alone. Keep a low stocking level. Feed the minimum. Don't keep adding new fish. Become a fish keeper not a fish buyer. Get your parameters especially ammonia and temperature right. Hopefully you'll have a period of success.

This is what I do. I keep Clown Loaches alone in one tank except for a few dither fish (Harlequin Rasbora). They did get whitespot when new but once cured they have given no further problems at all and are now 28 years of age.

My other tank is a low light non-CO2 heavily planted and I keep Cardinal Tetras without compromising them with other species. Luckily I found healthy ones but the Neon Tetras I had before them came with Columnaris and I lost some at the beginning and felt probably the way you do now. But you can move forward.

many thanks
will take your advice on this

 

Will you test your tank water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? And test your tap and tank for ph? Do you have a good quality liquid test kit?

They shouldn’t have died that fast so I am wondering about other factors. Had you replaced filter media recently?

 

Will you test your tank water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? And test your tap and tank for ph? Do you have a good quality liquid test kit?

They shouldn’t have died that fast so I am wondering about other factors. Had you replaced filter media recently?

I do keep my weekly API check and all parameters within normal range.
PH 7.0-7.2;
Ammonia <0.25ppm;
Nitrite 0ppm; and
Nitrates are always on a high level about 10-20ppm.

I do a 25% water change every week to keep the Nitrates in check. I replace the filter media on a regular interval for the past 6 years and nothing that I have done differently in the past week, apart from putting two new fishes in last week :-(

My LFS told me the death of all fishes was nothing to do with the two new fishes, it was to do with me changing the water too often and I should only change 10% once a month.

speechless

 

My LFS told me the death of all fishes was nothing to do with the two new fishes, it was to do with me changing the water too often and I should only change 10% once a month.

speechless

Wow, just wow!! That is some OLD school and inaccurate information, so sorry they told you that. I can’t believe they think that. You could change 95% a week (down to the fish level) if you match temperature and ph and it wouldn’t do a think to your nitrogen cycle.

 

Hey I'm old school and I resent that remark!

But Jacw001 is doing everything right in the info given and ammonia of under 0.25 and nitrate of 10-20 is good.

I would only question the media disposal mentioned. I tend to keep my media as it houses the beneficial bacteria. I just rinse it gently in tap water in order to prevent it becoming blocked. You learn when to rinse it before it becomes blocked or you can lose fish from the decreased/ceased flow. Throwing the media away could well lead to an ammonia spike as you would have disposed of the beneficial bacteria that process the ammonia. This would physically stress and/or damage the fish and make them susceptible to disease.

 

Hey I'm old school and I resent that remark!

But Jacw001 is doing everything right in the info given and ammonia of under 0.25 and nitrate of 10-20 is good.

I would only question the media disposal mentioned. I tend to keep my media as it houses the beneficial bacteria. I just rinse it gently in tap water in order to prevent it becoming blocked. You learn when to rinse it before it becomes blocked or you can lose fish from the decreased/ceased flow. Throwing the media away could well lead to an ammonia spike as you would have disposed of the beneficial bacteria that process the ammonia. This would physically stress and/or damage the fish and make them susceptible to disease.

I have a Juwel 120L, I change the white pad every two weeks, change the Carbon and Nitrix every 6 months; and only rinse the blue course and fine bio pads and have not replaced it.

Based on what I've learned, water itself (PH) is important, ammonia and nitrite can be diluted or eventually turn into Nirtrate; and Nitrate can only be removed by water change or absorbed by plant (Java Fern for my tank)

Almost all my fishes passed, but the snails and one shrimp are still fine (for now) finger cross

 

A dirty filter is usually a healthy filter. No need to use activated carbon, unless removing meds from the water column.
Consider replacing the filter pads with filter sponges.
Sponges don't need to be replaced, only occasionally squeezed out.

 

I have a Juwel 120L, I change the white pad every two weeks, change the Carbon and Nitrix every 6 months; and only rinse the blue course and fine bio pads and have not replaced it.

Based on what I've learned, water itself (PH) is important, ammonia and nitrite can be diluted or eventually turn into Nirtrate; and Nitrate can only be removed by water change or absorbed by plant (Java Fern for my tank)

Almost all my fishes passed, but the snails and one shrimp are still fine (for now) finger cross

I’d rinse the white pad in old tank water for as long as possible before replacing as it also houses good bacteria.

A stable PH is very important. Is your tap also 7.2? Would you test it?

I’d finish the treatment for ich in the tank to kill off any of the cysts that contain the new protozoa.

 

Sorry about your fish. That is a major bummer. I'd be devastated. If you had a carbon filter in while trying treat the tank, the meds were probably being filtered out pretty rapidly. Do you have any pics of the afflicted fish? Is it a chance it wasn't ich? Maybe it would help to fill out an emergency template so people have a full set of data to further analyze for you.

Sorry about your fish. That is a major bummer. I'd be devastated. If you had a carbon filter in while trying treat the tank, the meds were probably being filtered out pretty rapidly. Do you have any pics of the afflicted fish? Is it a chance it wasn't ich? Maybe it would help to fill out an emergency template so people have a full set of data to further analyze for you.

Oh and one other thing, it is easier to accidentally overdose meds in your main tank because your water volume is going to be smaller than your tank size (unless you have a bare tank). And I didn't catch what your other fish were, but some fish are more sensitive to ich treatment and need a half dose rather than full. Also, I have seen it advised to make sure you have extra oxygenation set up with meds because they mess with the O2 saturation of the water. Perhaps some of these played a role in your other fish deaths if not accounted for rather than the disease spread itself.