How do you treat whitespot?

Tobes

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It is Sunday(LFS closed), I don't have a quarentene tank, I don't have medication and my Powder Blue has got white spot!!!!!!!:(

Will the cleaner shrimp come to its rescue?
 
Hi Tobes - try and SLOWLY decrease the salinity of your tank water (if it is not already at this level) to about 1.020 for a day or so. This will assist in decreasing the "stress" for the fish. PB Tangs ALWAYS get whitespot..... Yes, the cleaner shrimp could assist in some way or another. BUT it would not be the end-all cure. Try and mix some raw garlic mixed with the food, to try and "increase the immunity" of the fish. Also - perhaps feed nori/veggie mix a little bit more often for now (little less, more often) only until the fish is better....

Hope this works... Good luck.

Hope all works out well...

PS: don't try and catch the fish or chase it around..... and ensure that there's not any stress causing problems for the fish...
 
He is still grazing very eagerly on the live rock and I put a 5cm x 5cm piece of nori in every morning. My salanity is 1.030 constant(with refractometer). Wanted to do a water change today - should I rather wait first?
 
Tobes - 1.030 is FAR too high - perhaps this is the cause of the whitespot. The ideal SG for corals is: 1.025/1.026. For fish can be lower (reduces stress).

So, perhaps remove some tank water and replace this with RO water. Repeat this over a period of say 6 hours or so.... until your SG is +-1.025... Then wait a day or so and see how the fish reacts....

And NO - do not do a water change now....
 
Tobes - 1.030 is FAR too high - perhaps this is the cause of the whitespot. The ideal SG for corals is: 1.025/1.026. For fish can be lower (reduces stress).

So, perhaps remove some tank water and replace this with RO water. Repeat this over a period of say 6 hours or so.... until your SG is +-1.025... Then wait a day or so and see how the fish reacts....

And NO - do not do a water change now....

OOOOPS, clumsy fingers. Sorry man, I meant 1.023 - nearly gave you a fright:p

I like to keep mine at 1.023 constant - heard that from a guy with purple fingers.....

You can give new advice now - SORRY:blushing:
 
As long as he is still eating dont stress too much, my Achilles and regal often carry white spot for a couple of days and then clear. Just keep an eye on it if it gets really bad you can always fresh water dip the fish.
 
SLOWLY decrease the salinity of your tank water (if it is not already at this level) to about 1.020 for a day or so
Hypo-salinity treatment works great in a tank without corals, but is not recommended if you have any LPS or SPS corals. If you do have corals, you're basically stumped, and all you can do is to feed the fish well, and prevent stress (perhaps reduced lights for the next few days...). If you don't have corals or other sensitive inverts (e.g. snails), you can reduce the salinity to about 1.010 and keep it there for a period of not less than three weeks.

Check out these three excellent articles:

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the
Treatment Options Available, Part I - Reefkeeping.com, by Steven Pro


News from the Warfront with Cryptocaryon irritans - Advanced Aquarists online magazine, by Terry Bartelme

Garlic versus 'Marine Ich - Reefs.org library

Good luck.

Hennie
 
Like Alan said don`t stress.I`m starting to think that it may just be the treatment of the affected fish that actually ends up killing it and NOT the white spot infection.I would go with the standard slowly lowering of salinity method .
 
Agreed if they eating your winning the battle.

Just one thing about the garlic, use fresh garlic cloves that you crush yourself and not the precrushed stuff in a tub as it has oils, flavours etc mixed
 
This is something I tried and has worked for me.

I have been using garlic mixed with the fish food for the overall health and to treat white spots but this time it did not workout.

I used Myxazin from WaterLife which is reef safe. The treatment was done for 7 days for white spot which got rid of them but my corals did not look good and I lost a few. The white spot was back a few days after treatment and just got worst.

After some sleepless nights a thought came to me, medication is added to the water so that the fish can drink it so why not give it to them directly.

So that is what I did, I added Myxazin to the frozen food, pellets and nori.
Within 5 days my fish was white spot free and corals were happy.

The only way to know if this will work every time for white spot is if more people try it and report on the result.
 
mmmh,excellnt idea Mo!how are all your SPS doing now?and please share pics of that stunner everyone raves about
 
This is a bit late, but IMO feed the fish well, leave it alone, leave the water quality good, add fresh garlic drops to the food, don`t stress the fish. I personally think we treat the fish to death.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys, came home today and saw that the whitespot was gone! Don't know if the cleaner shrimp got hold of him, but at least he is eating very well. Hope it doesn't return - will keep a close eye on him.
 
Don't stress too much Tobes, my regal and powder blue often get whitespot for a day or two and it goes away on it's own, must be female fish with PMS :p
 
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