White spot

[Nico Kortenbout]

Hi folks

I have been fighting a battle against White Spot for some time now . Here are the tank specifics:
Age: 8 months
Volume: 300L including sump (250L DT)
SG: 1.022
Temp: Ranging 28 - 31 Deg C (I think this is the stress that caused the initial outbreak)
pH: 8.4
Alk: LOW 1 - 1.4 mE/lt (milli equivalents per litre) I think this is about 3dKH
Ammonia: 0
Nitirite: 0.1 ppm
Nitrate: 20 - 25 ppm

Fish:
Powder Blue Tang: Heavy infection
Fox Face: very light infection (3 spots)
Coral Beauty Angel: very light infection
Yellow Tailed blue Damsel: no infection
Mandarin: Unfortunately the mandarin succumbed to the infection and died last night. Heavy white spot infection He was one of my favourite fish and was doing so well.

Inverts:
4 x local hermits
5 x local snails
1 x blood shrimp
1 x cleaner shrimp (the cleaner shrimp shed 2 days ago as per normal but died last night as well. I have had him about 8 months)
Large Elephant Ears coral
3 Torch Coral Frags
Mushrooms: 1 colony
Zoas: 3 colonies

I am running live rock and a huge skimmer (Tunze comline doc skimmer double head) as well as carbon in the sump and do 10% water change every weekend.

Does anyone (the gurus especially ) have any suggestions on the best course of action to combat this White Spot outbreak. I have finally baught a second hand chiller from Christiaan and it will be arriving tomorrow night.

Thanks very much.
Nico

 

[AfricaOffroad]

Nico,

I'm no expert but thought that Mandarins and Shrimps were not susceptable to White spot. Is there not something else killing the tanks inhabitants?

The Powder blue unfortunately is a white spot factory and will no doubt act as a wonderful breeding ground for the WS culture. I have a powder brown that is doing similar in my tank. 3 months I've had him and while he eats exceptionaly well he has a continuous WS infection. I'm at the verge of pulling him out the system permanently.

 

[AfricaOffroad]

Did you know that the powder blue and powder brown tangs got their names from the white powdered look created by their typical WS infections - LOL !!!

 

[rakabos]

Hi

I have had the same issue when i put a Regal tang in...

One week later he got white spot. One or two other fish also got it but not nearly as bad as the regal. He was on the verge of dying, even put him in a bag the one night to make sure if he dies i dont have to struggle finding him in the tank...

Anyways he pulled through somehow, he is back in the main tank now. I tried the reef-safe meds u can get but it didnt really help. Next step was to fortify the food with vitamins/garlic to boost immunity. Along with that I added a second cleaner shrimp. They literally mugged the poor little guy and picked the parasites off !

It's now been two weeks and the Regal is back to 100% health with a tiny spot appearing and dissapearing here and there. rest of the fish are healthy. Also feed them as much as possible to boost health

White spot will come and go, just boost their natural immunity. Other option which i couldnt do is put the fish in seperate tank and dose with copper medicine (which would kill inverts and coral)

Good luck and let us know how it goes

 

[durleo]

I dont think the whitespot caused the death of cleaner shrimp - Are you dosing Iodine cos i think the inverts need this for growth and are you using Kalk to keep ur alkilinity and calcium stabile - I see that ur alkilinity is a bit low which can cause ph swings. Try to keep the alkilinity between 6 - 9 dkh. You might have to increase it slowly with bicarb of soda or a KH buffer liquid. When you get it to the desired level then use Kalkwasser to maintain it. If you are having a hard time increasing ur alkilinity then you may have to pick ur magnesium level to 1350ppm(use epsom salts)
If i where you i would get a SAGA electronic PH meter to monitor ur PH all the time in the sump(dont get the pen type) speak to Marco - waterboy for advice.

 

[vatso]

Hi Nico

I had a major issue with white spot which killed a few of my fish the only way to fix it for me was to stop adding fish & try save the fish you have left - I have a QT tank so moved my fish there & dosed them with copper which fixed some of the fish!

the others I could not get out my main DT I just waited around 3 months before re introducing the QT fish back & they still got some white spot but nothing major & all my fish are now happy & healthy I have some more fish in my QT tank & they will stay there for a few months before moving them across.

once white spot hits i can kill all the fish you have take it slow you will win the fight

 

[Nico Kortenbout]

Nico,

I'm no expert but thought that Mandarins and Shrimps were not susceptable to White spot. Is there not something else killing the tanks inhabitants?

I don't think so. Everything was going great till the white spot outbreak. I have been doing alot of reading about white spot (ich) and there are some people that write that the non scaly fishes like the mandarin can get white spot but it appears like a film instead of spots. They hold that these fishes are particularly vulnerable. This is exactly what happened to mine. And he only got sick after the white spot outbreak.

Did you know that the powder blue and powder brown tangs got their names from the white powdered look created by their typical WS infections - LOL !!!

Sounds about right!!

Hi

I have had the same issue when i put a Regal tang in...

One week later he got white spot. One or two other fish also got it but not nearly as bad as the regal. He was on the verge of dying, even put him in a bag the one night to make sure if he dies i dont have to struggle finding him in the tank...

Anyways he pulled through somehow, he is back in the main tank now. I tried the reef-safe meds u can get but it didnt really help. Next step was to fortify the food with vitamins/garlic to boost immunity. Along with that I added a second cleaner shrimp. They literally mugged the poor little guy and picked the parasites off !

It's now been two weeks and the Regal is back to 100% health with a tiny spot appearing and dissapearing here and there. rest of the fish are healthy. Also feed them as much as possible to boost health

White spot will come and go, just boost their natural immunity. Other option which i couldnt do is put the fish in seperate tank and dose with copper medicine (which would kill inverts and coral)

Good luck and let us know how it goes

Thanks very much. I have been considering the QT option as I have a spare tank, but not enough spare equipment (power heads and skimmer). I am hoping that with the new chiller and a stable temp it will help to overcome it naturally. I will get some garlic boosted flakes. What type of vitamin suppliment would you suggest? I am hoping to have the same luck as you with hopefully no more deaths.

 

[Nico Kortenbout]

Hi Nico

I had a major issue with white spot which killed a few of my fish the only way to fix it for me was to stop adding fish & try save the fish you have left - I have a QT tank so moved my fish there & dosed them with copper which fixed some of the fish!

the others I could not get out my main DT I just waited around 3 months before re introducing the QT fish back & they still got some white spot but nothing major & all my fish are now happy & healthy I have some more fish in my QT tank & they will stay there for a few months before moving them across.

once white spot hits i can kill all the fish you have take it slow you will win the fight

Thanks Vatso . I am not planning to add anything more till I get this under control and make absolutely sure that I have everything as stable as possible again. I really hate loosing fish.

 

[Nico Kortenbout]

I have read where moving the fish to a quarantine tank and then doing daily 50% water changes can help get rid of this. Has anyone tried this method? I really appreciate the feedback so far!!

 

[vatso]

Hi Nico

there are a few ways of getting rid of white spot like that - I have live rock in my QT so that I don't need a skimmer & that I don't get ammonia spikes when things are bad I use copper not lots of it just enough to kill the free swimming white spot!

If you just leave everything & feed your fish well with garlic is the best advise I can give you unless you have a QT tank & move & treat them with meds

it's crappy to lose fish the more they stress the more chance they not going to make it!

 

[rakabos]

Less stress is definitely key. I used Lipovit and Immunovit or something like that. A fellow reefer recommended it...

Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium

The cleaner shrimp died from something else, not white spot. Get another one ASAP. I think the two i have is what keeps it at bay in my tank now...

 

[vatso]

I have read where moving the fish to a quarantine tank and then doing daily 50% water changes can help get rid of this. Has anyone tried this method? I really appreciate the feedback so far!!

What about the tress caused by the 50% water change if they are really bad the best thing is just a low dose of copper & to leave them with very little light.

I do not run a light on my QT tank - I have a MH 150W but that would only be used if I was going to QT some corals with no fish & copper in the water

 

[durleo]

You can use Tropic Marines Lipovit and Immunvit which have cod liver oil and garlic extract and vitamin c and spirulina and beta gluten. I use it with all my home made fish food. I used to run a UV steriliser when times got tough but havent used it for a few months. Dont dose copper in display tank cos it will embed in live rock and is toxic to coral and shrimp. Certain fish cant handle copper aswell

 

[rakabos]

You can use Tropic Marines Lipovit and Immunvit which have cod liver oil and garlic extract and vitamin c and spirulina and beta gluten. I use it with all my home made fish food. I used to run a UV steriliser when times got tough but havent used it for a few months. Dont dose copper in display tank cos it will embed in live rock and is toxic to coral and shrimp. Certain fish cant handle copper aswell

Any1 else hear an echo ?

 

[Nico Kortenbout]

Less stress is definitely key. I used Lipovit and Immunovit or something like that. A fellow reefer recommended it...

Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium

The cleaner shrimp died from something else, not white spot. Get another one ASAP. I think the two i have is what keeps it at bay in my tank now...

You can use Tropic Marines Lipovit and Immunvit which have cod liver oil and garlic extract and vitamin c and spirulina and beta gluten. I use it with all my home made fish food. I used to run a UV steriliser when times got tough but havent used it for a few months. Dont dose copper in display tank cos it will embed in live rock and is toxic to coral and shrimp. Certain fish cant handle copper aswell

Any1 else hear an echo ?

LOL Great minds!! I will try and get some of this ASAP.

What about the tress caused by the 50% water change if they are really bad the best thing is just a low dose of copper & to leave them with very little light.

I do not run a light on my QT tank - I have a MH 150W but that would only be used if I was going to QT some corals with no fish & copper in the water

Thanks Vatso. What filtration and flow do you run on your QT? Just the LR? I would have to get more LR, but I have a tank I can use as a QT and a small powerhead (<100lph). Is it separate to the main sump or plumbed in? Sorry for all the questions but I would like to try and set this up as a QT or Hospital Tank.

 

[vatso]

Hi there I run live rock & have some bio rings which are in the QT that little pumps draw water through I will take a pip tonight - you don't need the filter if you have enough live rock.

Here is the secret you need to cycle that QT tank so that your fish don't die from ammonia.

this is what I did & did not loose a single fish!

1.) setup live rock & ceramic ring filter
2.) Added water from my main Tank & dosed with Seachem Copper
3.) Added Seachem ammonia test circle
4.) Added Seachem Safe when ammonia was showing an increase used safe for the first month while watching the ammonia levels.

Not all test kits will show ammonia levels if you use copper.

PLEASE PLEASE be careful when using safe & any copper at the same time it can make the copper kill the fish so less is more in this case.

you will need to monitor your QT every day for the next few weeks once it's cycled like mine it's easy to maintain.

on a side note when you finished with your QT tank don't leave it empty with no fish as it will need to go through the cycle process again. just keep a small fish in there that will keep the cycle going

 

[Nico Kortenbout]

Hi there I run live rock & have some bio rings which are in the QT that little pumps draw water through I will take a pip tonight - you don't need the filter if you have enough live rock.

Here is the secret you need to cycle that QT tank so that your fish don't die from ammonia.

this is what I did & did not loose a single fish!

1.) setup live rock & ceramic ring filter
2.) Added water from my main Tank & dosed with Seachem Copper
3.) Added Seachem ammonia test circle
4.) Added Seachem Safe when ammonia was showing an increase used safe for the first month while watching the ammonia levels.

Not all test kits will show ammonia levels if you use copper.

PLEASE PLEASE be careful when using safe & any copper at the same time it can make the copper kill the fish so less is more in this case.

you will need to monitor your QT every day for the next few weeks once it's cycled like mine it's easy to maintain.

on a side note when you finished with your QT tank don't leave it empty with no fish as it will need to go through the cycle process again. just keep a small fish in there that will keep the cycle going

Thanks very much. I will get some ceramic rings and get cracking on this. Sounds like a nice simple but effective system. I have just the spot for it under my ATS

 

[vatso]

Here is a pic of my QT tank

 

[butcherman]

Here is a pic of my QT tank

specs on the tank?

 

[Yuri]

look out live rock kan have pods , invertebrates and ...
that die from copper that can make a ammonia spike
also copper pulls in the live rock that is why most guys use pvc pipes for the fish to hide in
you can also use seachem stability to get sum bacteria in the tank to cycle it faster
you can also use hypoSG but copper kills more bad stuff