View Full Version : white spot
white spot does anybody know what i do with this prob tanks a R400 and has been running for 3 months..
READ INFO ON FOLLOWING LINK IT WILL HELP:http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ichart2mar.htm
have you got live rock and corals or just fish, what fish are they and what fish are infected?
What fish are affected?
are you sure it is white spot (Cryptocaryon irritans)? There are many diseases with similar symptoms.
It goes without saying no more animals should be added until the problem is eradicated
If youa re happy it is white spot I'd recommend having a read of the white spot threads in the fish health section but you really have two or three options
1 remove the fish to a quarantine tank and treat with a copper based medication, or if your tank is fish only treat the tank they are in with a copper based medication. All invertebrates as well as sharks, rays and some delicate fish do not tolerate copper well
2 if the tank is a reef system you could attempt a hyposalinity treatment reducing the SG to around 1.015 over a few days and keeping it there for 6-8 weeks. Some fish and invertebrates do not tolerate this well
3 try a reef safe treatment these are less effective than copper but if combined with hyposalinity can be effective. Also they may take several courses of treatment one after the other to deliver a cure.
Other strategies you may want to consider New Era Aegis range of flakes and emulsions (or other feeds with immunostimulants in them), Ozone and/or UV
IMHO things that don't work against marine white spot.
Garlic
Freshwater dips (although these can be very effective against some ectoparasites)
Hi all
i have approx 80kgs of Lr and the fish that have what i call white spot are are a {regal tang purple tang Clarke clown six line wrasse } [5Xgreen chromis Randal's p goby 2Xcleaners a scooter 3Xbrittle stars and a couple of softies haven't got it] The regal has small lumps under the skin and white spots on the out side, i have just set up my UV and have just got some myxazin.The spots look a bit less today but i read they can come back with a vengeance its great you can help so thank you so much.Can i ask do i leave the UV on 24\7 or do i have to get a timer.will it go away and stay away.My fish have got healthy appetite's
No leave the UV on 24/7.
The parasite has a cyclical life cycle so during some points of its progression it can appear there is a less on the fish but is just in the tomont stage diving in the sediment getting ready for the next wave of spots
The inverts won't get white spot and those ones should be OK with Myxazin (clams and some corals aren't though IMHE). Make sure you get the dose right and be prepared to repeat the treatment if the first course doesn't work
simon garratt
05-11-06, 02:50
Chazz. Hope everything pulls round for you. If the fish are feeding well. then your halfway there allready ime. this is the biggest trick to curing WS infections.
Even better though for the longterm , would be to solve/learn the cause imo, rather than chucking chemicals at the symptoms or trying potentially disasterous alterations to tank chemistry as a knee jerk reaction to an outbreak...
...has been running for 3 months...
regal tang purple tang Clarke clown six line wrasse } [5Xgreen chromis Randal's p goby 2Xcleaners a scooter
The problem is that the tanks been stocked way too quickly. At three months the tank is only 'just' settling down, comming out of the back end of a maturation cycle and is still going through changes in terms of its ability to deal with free waste. Chances are that your getting mild ammonia and Nitrite spikes shortly after feeds that is stressing the stock out and weakening thier defenses to a degree they are unable to fight of the very parasites that are present in 90% of systems as a background population. WS shouldnt be a killer in a well run system.
I do agree with Wombat, that moving the fish to a quarentine tank is a worthwhile venture if they get worse and start going off the food, Then, if you can get them healthy again, i would add them back in over a period on two - 3 months at most after a 6-8 week fallow period in the main tank. If you cant house them for that long, then i would advise returning some of them back to the shop in a healthy state. Whatever happens i would strongly advise you dont add all the fish back in, in one go otherwise you'll be back to square one again, especially with the tangs. Even then, the stress factor involved for the fish is risky, If you can clear it up by gentler methods in situe (vitamin enriched feeds, or the use of Garlic to stimulate appetite) then all the better.
What im strongly against is this advice to chuck chemicals at the problem in a tank full of LR that has cost a lot of money with little to no background info being gatherd. and this recommendation on Hyposalinity treatment.
Hyposalinity treatment is not a good idea in a modern reeftank using the Berlin method imo. It has drastic effects on DkH and pH stability. (I recently got one of our fellow board members to test this out and we whitnessed the following:
1.025 7.04
1.020 5.36
1.015 4.16
1.010 2.96
1.005 1.44
At a DkH of 4, your pH becomes very unstable over a 24hr period with large dips at night, even moreso in imature systems that commoly have higher degrees of algae present than older more mature and heavily grazed stystems. Whilst severly detrimental to corals (especially hard corals) these levels can also cause a multitude of other problems as well.
Low pH levels are dangerous to all crustacians especially during moulting which usually happens at night, this isnt just your shrimps, its also your entire population of critter life in the tank that comes under this group. including copepods etc.
It also playes havock with sand layers and the LR, causing big shifts in boundry layer fuction, possible dissolution of bound phosphates, and an overal destabalising of the entire nutrient cycling abilities of the tank. This in turn stresses the 'system' out even more leading to potential full system crashes.
With regards to Chemical cures: Modern reefkeeping methods have now moved way beyond the days when we considerd LR as just a simple source of bacteria, and filtration methods have moved forwards as well, to the degree that in modern systems the 'critter' population regularly feature as a major player in the functioning of the tank. As such, 'any' recommendations should consider this fact first and formost. Its absolutely no use whatsoever recommending a chemical cure unless you know what type of system it is your recommending chucking it into first.
Chemicals such as Myaxazin, are only 'alledged' to be invertibrate safe with the most commonly kept 'show' inverts. It hasnt been tested, nor claims to be safe with the multitude of background life that 'modern' reefkeeping deem as benifitial, or can form a substantial part of a modern reef eco-system, especially those containing sand beds etc. The use of 'chemicals' desighned to kill parasites can have disasterous consequences in more diverse systems becouse the larval stages of much of the critter life present is affected just as the parasite is.
My advise:
Keep chemicals out of the reeftank, and learn what causes infection in the first place, and how to limit its chances in future, rather than using a scatter gun approach to cure the symptoms. Whilst its perfectly acceptable and corect to deem the survival of the fish as a priority, it shouldnt be at the detriment of the rest of the system, and certainly not to the degree it jeopordises the systems stabilty in a potentially risky fashion.
As with much of modern reefkeeping, its all well and good reading scientific papers on the spacifics of dealing with a parasite in a lab. But it bares very little similarity to what you might want to do in a reeftank with other 'sometimes similar' organisms to consider, and a whole load of chemistry to worry about as well.
Regards
Si.
Yes in general I agree with Si,
IMHE Clams and some soft and hard corals die when exposed to Myaxzin, and as Wombat has said hyposaility is not tolerated well by inverts (the DK experiment is very useful info into how hyposalinity destabilises a reef tank).
However, the problem remains that the parasite has been introduced to this system with the stock and if the fish are to survive some action will need to be taken
If I were you I would take the worst infected fish if not all fish place in a seperate hospital tank with a copper safe medication.
Turn the UV on your reef, let main take lie fallow for 4-6 weeks I wouldn't add chemicals to main reef.
vBulletin® v3.8.7, Copyright ©2000-2012, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.