# Best Whitespot Treatment



## jonshep (5 Mar 2010)

Hi guys 

I have a 240l tank with moderate planting I do not have heater in the tank as the lights and house keep it at a constant of 27-28. It is home to Clown loachs, Corys, Gouramis, Cardinals one very small and one very large pleco and various others who I belive are not sensitive to whitespot treatments. I have had an outbreak of whitespot I treated the tanks with interpet for 2 weeks in which time 3 cardinals died. Yesterday after all signs of the white spot had gone from the fish I did a 30% water change and added carbon to the filter to remove the interpet. Today however a few of the fish are again covered in whitespot so the treatment obviously was not a success. Can anyone recomend from their experiances the best whitespot medicine. ( I was thinking about trying tetra  medica whitespot treatment can anyone give feedback on this product)

Thanks for any help


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## JazzyJeff (5 Mar 2010)

KingBritish WS3 I think its called !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## samc (5 Mar 2010)

plently of waterchanges will treat this better then anything and keep it away


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## jonshep (5 Mar 2010)

how often do u suggest i curenty do them weekly


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## samc (5 Mar 2010)

jonshep said:
			
		

> how often do u suggest i curenty do them weekly



how much do you do? i allways do 50% plus on mine a week. white spot is caused by stress, normally from ammonia. it may have been building up over time.

if it does not go then do bigger water changes or more often. it will be annoying doing it on such a big tank but it will get rid permanently. 

cleaning filter media will help too


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## jonshep (5 Mar 2010)

I do between 25-50% no ammonia or nitrites in the water and i clean my filter media at the same time. The fish seem mostly happy and active apart from this whitespot


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## Ed Seeley (6 Mar 2010)

Raising the temperature and adding salt is one of the best treatments I've used.  It even worked for my koi in their QT tank.  If you google it you will get temperatures and dosing rates.  I heated my tank to 30 degrees but can't remember how much salt I added.

BTW Ich is a parasite - water changes will not prevent it.  In fact water changes with colder water are a well known trigger for an outbreak.  The only way water changes are relevant are to keep the tank conditions good to reduce stress from a poor environment but that could trigger any number of issues.  If you have measureable amounts of ammonia in the water it will just kill the fish directly.


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## johnnypy (6 Mar 2010)

I had an outbreak of whitespot on some fish in my quarantine tank. In the past I've used Protozin but this time I found that the Pets at Home own brand is excellent. It comes in very small bottles though, so for a big tank you may need more than one bottle. Also need to be careful with dosage if you have loaches - they tend not to tolerate these types of treatment as well as fish with scales.


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## AndyOx (6 Mar 2010)

I would suggest the King British WS3 terminator. It treats a wide range of parasites and is concentrated enoough to be econimical to use on a large tank like yours. However you need to reduce the dosage bacause of your loaches. I decided to start at the lowest dose as harlequins can be sensitive as well. You add the treatment every 2 days I think. This is important as ALL treatments target the active free swimming stage of the parasite life cycle and not the dormant cysts. These then fall off the fish to mature before liberating more free swimming parasites to re-infect your fish. Your filter will not remove these unless you have a UV steriliser added. Temperature drops, bad water quality are all known triggers. I would recommend only washing your filter media when it shows signs of clogging as each time you wash it out, even in tank water the bacterial colony is disrupted which can lead to undetected ammonia spikes. 
It is worth pointing out that most fish carry a low level of a variety of parasites which they control when they are in good health and not suffering stressors. 

Hope this helps

Andy


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## mr. luke (6 Mar 2010)

I would get yourself a heater.
Im pretty sure that the tank temperature will drop significantly at night times.
A heater serves to keep the temperature steady,something which you will be lacking.
assuming you turn your lights off at night times (you should as it can have adverse effects if left on 24/7) thn your temperature will almost certainly drop and rise again at lights on.
Best treatment would be to bump your temperature up to 29-32'c but for that you would also need a heater.


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## bogwood (6 Mar 2010)

Ive kept a variety of tropicals over many appears, and like others have had problems with Whitespot, from time to time.

The advice given so far is spot on, and well worth following.
In my own experience i have found;
1. White spot has become harder to shift with just one course of treatment, I tend to find a second course is often required.
2. Greatest success, with raising the temp high. ( watch the oxygen levels, additional air can help.)
3. All brands seem to work, but i personally favour WS3 and Tetra.
4. Watch your filter bacteria, some treatments can knock it back.
5. Cardinals and clown loach seem to attract it.
6.Follow the instructions carefully.
Good luck, hope you manage to eradicate it.


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## Gill (6 Mar 2010)

JazzyJeff said:
			
		

> KingBritish WS3 I think its called !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I would also recommend this, I have had to use it once and it worked really well. It cleared up all the whitespot with one dose.


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## sanj (8 Mar 2010)

I have used the same and think it is a good treatment. I have also used the Esha treatment, but feel WS3 is more effective, but it may be a harsher treatment on the system than Esha treatments.


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## dw1305 (8 Mar 2010)

Hi all,
The only time I've had it I used "Esha Exit" successfully, but a non-malachite green formulation (probably based on quinine hydrochloride or Mepracrine hydrochloride) would have been better.
cheers Darrel


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