What to do after White Spot (Newbie)

[Moorzy22]

Hi All,

Really stumped what to do next so hopefully someone here can help!

I had white spot around 3 weeks ago which appeared after adding sword fish to my 60l aquarium along with 7 guppies which were healthy in the tank. If unfortunately the majority died & I am now left with 1 swordfish & 3 guppies, I went to my local store once I read about the white spot & used NTLAVS ANTI-WHITE SPOT for a week & that cleared up the white spot that was showing especially on the one swordfish left. Now 2 weeks after I still have had no sign of white spot reappearing, all fish are eating & look healthy - Ammonia & Nitrate are 0,

so the question is what are my next steps, I’m keen to get some more fish soon (probably sticking with guppies for now) but concerned about the white spot coming back & loosing all of the fish. I am only 4 months into the hobby so still learning the processes, thanks for any/all help!!

 

[Aiken Drum]

To start with are you sure it was ich? There are many illnesses etc that can look like ich but arent.

A week of treatment should have cleared all the ich parasite from your tank. But, the fact your fish arent showing any visible symptoms is irrelevant as the visible stage is only one of many stages the parasite lifecycle goes through. The visible stage is also the stage where your treatment isnt effective, its only after the parasite has stopped feeding, dropped of the fish to reproduce in the substrate, and then the offspring has gone to look for a new host it can be killed. You really need to continue to treat the tank for a week after the visibly infected stage has ended to ensure all the parasites have been killed as this is the only time treatment is effective.

Going forward, i would leave it another couple of weeks. This should give enough time for any reinfection to happen, after which if you see no signs you can be fairly sure you killed off all the parasites. You cant be 100% sure though, healthy fish can live with the parasite and not show symptoms.

If your tank is clear of the ich then the only way it can come back is if you put something infected into the tank. It cant spontaneously appear. So if you want to ensure you never reintroduce ich then the only way is a robust quarantine period. Keeping anything that might have come out of an infected tank that goes into your display tank in a quarantine tank for at least 2 weeks, preferably 4 weeks. While only fish can be infected, its possible for anything that has been in an infected tank could bring the ich parasite in with it from infected water. This could include plants, invertebrates etc.

 

[Moorzy22]

To start with are you sure it was ich? There are many illnesses etc that can look like ich but arent.

A week of treatment should have cleared all the ich parasite from your tank. But, the fact your fish arent showing any visible symptoms is irrelevant as the visible stage is only one of many stages the parasite lifecycle goes through. The visible stage is also the stage where your treatment isnt effective, its only after the parasite has stopped feeding, dropped of the fish to reproduce in the substrate, and then the offspring has gone to look for a new host it can be killed. You really need to continue to treat the tank for a week after the visibly infected stage has ended to ensure all the parasites have been killed as this is the only time treatment is effective.

Going forward, i would leave it another couple of weeks. This should give enough time for any reinfection to happen, after which if you see no signs you can be fairly sure you killed off all the parasites. You cant be 100% sure though, healthy fish can live with the parasite and not show symptoms.

If your tank is clear of the ich then the only way it can come back is if you put something infected into the tank. It cant spontaneously appear. So if you want to ensure you never reintroduce ich then the only way is a robust quarantine period. Keeping anything that might have come out of an infected tank that goes into your display tank in a quarantine tank for at least 2 weeks, preferably 4 weeks. While only fish can be infected, its possible for anything that has been in an infected tank could bring the ich parasite in with it from infected water. This could include plants, invertebrates etc.

Thanks for the reply & advice, the fish had a lot of white spots on the fins/body & matched the description of ick when looking online at others, I probably should have reacted quicker but I didn’t even know it was a thing… should I do another course of treatment to ensure it is all gone, the one swordtail I have had abit of whitespots when others did & it all cleared after the 7 day treatment & been fine since, it’s the reinfection I’m worried about like you are saying there’s different stages of it, I’ve done the treatment left the aquarium a week then did a small water change as it recommended.

I don’t have facility to quarantine & I have no real plants, is it worth doing anything to the fake plants/ornaments/gravel I have in the tank currently?

Thanks

 

[Aiken Drum]

Dont medicate fish unless you know you have a problem and you know what the problem is. Medication is stressful and you can easily kill healthy fish by medicating unnecessarily.

Unfortunatly the infection clearing up after medicating isnt indicative of what was wrong or whether the parasites where killed off. Other parasites that have similar symptoms will respond to the same treatment. If it was ich it will have cleared up whether you treated or not, as the parasite just moved onto its next stage.

You will just have to give it a little time to see what happens. And the only way to avoid reinfection is quarantine im afraid. You can minimise risk by being careful where you buy from, you already know you bought infected fish so consider another source for your fish, but even if you are careful you can never remove the risk of buying infected fish. Check out all their tanks, look for dead fish and fish that look ill. Independent fish stores usually are less risk than chain stores.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Just for some clarity on the lifecycle.

The time it takes for the parasite to go through a lifecycle is temperature dependant. At typical tropical aquarium temperature (24c) it takes about 1 month. Raise the temperature to 27/28c it takes about 1 week. At temperate temperature (18c) 2 to 3 months.

So you treated for 1 week, and have seen no reinfection for 2 weeks after that. You didnt mention raising the temperature, but if you didnt then its more than possible the parasite was still in the substrate breeding and unaffected by the medication. By the time they went freeswimming and were vulnerable you had stopped your treatment. If this is the case then fish will start to be reinfected in a week or so. If your fish are otherwise healthy you might not even see reinfection, and going forward not see infection until your fishes immune system is otherwise compromised.

This is why temperature is important. You need the medication in the tank for a whole lifecycle to ensure you catch all the parasites during its freeswimming stage. Raising the temperature shortens the lifecycle and shortens the time you need medication in the tank.

An alternative to raising temperature slightly and medicating, you can raise the temperature a lot and not medicate. 30c for a week will usually be high enough to kill the parasite without needing medication. Dont do this and medicate though, the combined stress of medication and high temperature can easily kill fish.

 

[Moorzy22]

Wow I was enjoying the hobby before this! Just seems no way out of it at the moment, normal temperature was around 24 I raised temperature up to around 27 after reading up on it & then treated, it seems best to leave it another 2/3 weeks before adding any new fish & see how the tank does, not good at all

 

[Aiken Drum]

Once everything settles down it gets easier. If you got the temperature up to 27c you should be ok, but keep an eye on things.