[silvershark]

hello everyone
i need some advice on white spot disease, i found one of my small angelfish last night with whitespot or (itch) i immediately put it in the hospital tank as i didn't really know what it had at first this morning i found another small angelfish with the same problem, i went out and bought interpet no 6 whitespot cure and 1 hour ago i dosed my 200ltr tank with 20ml of the blue solution as stated on the dosage , i also dosed the 30 ltr tank with 3ml as stated on the dosage for the tank sizes, i have a flu-val 4 internal filter with the carbon removed and i am just using the sponges and the biomax nodes, what i want to know is should i clean my filter once the treatment has been done or should i just do water changes ? also should i leave my fish handling net in the tank and treat that as-well ?

ANOTHER QUESTION. each week i do a 40 ltr water change and sometimes the ammonia levels are slightly higher than 0ppm nearer the 0.25ppm
i done a test on my tap water and it reads very much the same nearly 0.25ppm everything else is always fine
pH7.0
nitrite0ppm
nitrate 10ppm
is this natural for tap-water ? i cant seem to get the ammonia down to a steady 0ppm is it because of the tap-water when i am doing water changes ? i also have live plants in the 200ltr tank

 

[Byron]

First on the ich. The main tank has to be treated since this parasite is in the tank and will keep infecting fish. So with ich there is no point in removing fish to a separate quarantine tank. I would suggest returning them, as it will be better to treat this in one tank. And to do this, raise the temperature to 86F. The angels are fine with this. What other fish are in this tank, just in case? And as you have used the remedy (which I know nothing about), I wouldn't add any more if you raise the temp; this alone will deal with ich most of the time.

The 30g if there are no fish can just be left alone for at least 3 weeks (no fish). This will kill off the ich there.

Now to the ammonia. This is not too bad, so it is easy to deal with. First, do you have live plants? This is the simplest and best way to handle ammonia, as plants need nitrogen and they prefer it as ammonium (ammonia) so they take up a lot of it. Floating plants are best at this as they are fast growing and usually easy to grow.

At the water changes, use a conditioner that detoxifies ammonia; it will say on the label. This will turn the ammonia into ammonium which is harmless, and by the time the conditioner becomes ineffective the plants or bacteria will be able to handle it.

Byron.

 

[silvershark]

hi Byron. i do have live plants, red and green cabomba, anacharis, wisteria, and amazon swords.
the other fish i have are 3 silver sharks , 4 honey gouramis, 4 pepper cory , 4 platy 4 guppies, 2 mollies, 3 angelfish. all the fish are very young and very small, also Byron what should i do about the filter once the treatments are done? thank you.

 

[Byron]

hi Byron. i do have live plants, red and green cabomba, anacharis, wisteria, and amazon swords.
the other fish i have are 3 silver sharks , 4 honey gouramis, 4 pepper cory , 4 platy 4 guppies, 2 mollies, 3 angelfish. all the fish are very young and very small, also Byron what should i do about the filter once the treatments are done? thank you.

The temp at 86F for one week should be OKJ here, the cory is the only questionable fish, but I would risk this; I have done this with corys and not lost any.

I would replace the filter carbon after the week.

 

[silvershark]

The temp at 86F for one week should be OKJ here, the cory is the only questionable fish, but I would risk this; I have done this with corys and not lost any.

I would replace the filter carbon after the week.

ok Byron thank you, but should i clean the filter sponges and the bio-max nodes after using this treatment ? i haven't been using the carbon filter pads anyway, also should i sterilize my fish net with some sort of solution. if so what can i use?
i have also seen about 8 or10 guppy fry in the small 30 ltr tank i had already moved the mother into the small tank before i really found out i had this white-spot outbreak and i just treated the small tank with the guppy in it, i have now put the mother back in the large tank , i only ever had one angelfish and one guppy in the small tank, i still have to dose the 2ND time on Thu 7Th do you think the young fry will survive this white-spot cure ?

 

[Byron]

ok Byron thank you, but should i clean the filter sponges and the bio-max nodes after using this treatment ? i haven't been using the carbon filter pads anyway, also should i sterilize my fish net with some sort of solution. if so what can i use?
i have also seen about 8 or10 guppy fry in the small 30 ltr tank i had already moved the mother into the small tank before i really found out i had this white-spot outbreak and i just treated the small tank with the guppy in it, i have now put the mother back in the large tank , i only ever had one angelfish and one guppy in the small tank, i still have to dose the 2ND time on Thu 7Th do you think the young fry will survive this white-spot cure ?

Yes, clean the filter media and sponges. Rinse in a bucket of tank water.

On the fish net, I have never bothered with this, though many do suggest it. A dip in something like methylene blue or malachite green would work, though a white net will be coloured afterwards, but that is of no matter. I just rinse nets under the hot water tap for a few minutes, then dry thoroughly (air dry, i.e., hang it in the air).

I would riase the temperature but not use more of the medication.

Byron.

 

[silvershark]

big thanks

Yes, clean the filter media and sponges. Rinse in a bucket of tank water.

On the fish net, I have never bothered with this, though many do suggest it. A dip in something like methylene blue or malachite green would work, though a white net will be coloured afterwards, but that is of no matter. I just rinse nets under the hot water tap for a few minutes, then dry thoroughly (air dry, i.e., hang it in the air).

I would raise the temperature but not use more of the medication.

Byron.

hi Byron. i know you have said that raising the temp to86f for one week will usually kill the bacteria so if i ever have to deal with this problem again should i just raise the temp no need for medication?
also would you say my 200ltr tank is full now with 24 fish or would you say there's room for more if so what would you recommend. big thank you Byron for all your good advice, best wishes Fae bonnie Scotland.

 

[Byron]

hi Byron. i know you have said that raising the temp to86f for one week will usually kill the bacteria so if i ever have to deal with this problem again should i just raise the temp no need for medication?
also would you say my 200ltr tank is full now with 24 fish or would you say there's room for more if so what would you recommend. big thank you Byron for all your good advice, best wishes Fae bonnie Scotland.

The best remedy for ich is to raise the temperature to 86F or slightly above, for at least one week. Provided the fish species can manage; some cannot. Of those you mentioned earlier, the corys would not be too happy, but I have used this method with corys and never lost one, whereas so-called ich medications have caused the loss of fish. If the outbreak is particularly nasty, I have used Mardel's CopperSafe along with the increased temperature. I have used this on wild-caught fish with success.

To your second question; this is a 200 liter or 52 gallon tank with 3 silver sharks , 4 honey gouramis, 4 Pepper Cory , 4 Platy 4 guppies, 2 mollies, 3 angelfish. I would not add to this, except to resolve a couple of existing issues.

First, I assume the "silver sharks" are probably the Bala Shark, Balantiocheilos melanopterus, which in the UK is frequently called Silver Shark. I am afraid you are going to have to re-home these, and soon. If you click the shaded name, you will see our profile; as it mentions, this fish will attain 14-16 inches, and it should be in a group of five or more for the reason explained in the profile. Even one of these in a 200-litre tank is going to have serious trouble as it grows because it will not develop properly.

Once that is resolved, you could add more corys; the more the merrier for this highly social fish, and it can be other species as they all get along; try to have 5 of a species. There are many species in our profiles.