Uh-Oh White Spot - Help !!

Discussion in 'Diseases' started by regmo123, Nov 4, 2009.

to remove this notice and enjoy 3reef content with less ads. 3reef membership is free.

  1. regmo123

    regmo123 Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2009
    Messages:
    30
    I'm having sudden trouble with disease killing off my fish. So far three have died - lost colour, become white (spots/film), struggled with respiration then died pretty quickly. I've lost a Potters Angel, Yellow Longnose Butterfly and Blue Damsel.

    I need to act quickly to make sure none of the others die. The rest of my tank has a Purple Tang, 2 x Maroon Clowns, 2 x Bandai Cardinals, Banded Pipefish and Blue Cheek Goby.

    The water parameters are all correct.

    Questions:-

    1. I need to set up a quarantine tank quickly. I don't have one currently but how quickly can I set one up? Will get the equipment today but do I need to let it cycle to build up bacteria etc? What can I do to get this running asap?

    2. Any advice on treatment for the main tank? I'm using garlic and vitamins but no specific treatment. Any views on Waterlife Octozin?

    Any other advice welcome. Need to do something quickly so the others don't suffer too.

    Thanks
     
  2. Click Here!

  3. mocarski

    mocarski Bristle Worm

    Joined:
    Sep 29, 2009
    Messages:
    147
    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Set up a QT with a small tank like a 20 gallon heater power filter lighting and powerhead. Move all fish into the QT and treat with hyposalinity or copper. You can also treat with melafix and pimafix to deal with secondary infections. Do a water change in your main tank and use the water removed from your dt for the QT.

    I would recommend hyposalinity but you will need a refractometer. Research the process cause if you don't do it correctly you could kill the fish and or not effectively treat the ich. You can get the fish into QT and start treating them with melafix and pimafix while you are learning about hyposalinity.

    You may want to have amquel on hand and have extra salt on hand as you may run into a cycle in the qt tank. Large water changes will handle that along with the amquel

    There is a library article on my club website that describes the hyposalinity process in detail. I've followed it and it does work. If you need any help feel free to get in touch with me directly.

    Good luck with it.
     
  4. mocarski

    mocarski Bristle Worm

    Joined:
    Sep 29, 2009
    Messages:
    147
    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    The only thing you need to do for your dt is to get all the fish out for eight weeks. Without any fish in it the ich won't have a host and will die.
     
  5. mocarski

    mocarski Bristle Worm

    Joined:
    Sep 29, 2009
    Messages:
    147
    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Also research marine velvet. The procedure I described was for ich but the symptoms you describe could also be velvet. Ich will sometimes impact a tank like you describe but when it does the symptoms can resemble other things. Melafix and pimafix are two treatments that should be helpful for most stuff.
     
  6. regmo123

    regmo123 Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2009
    Messages:
    30
    Thanks for that.

    One question about the QT - is it ok to move the fish to a 'fresh' QT (ie not cycled etc) - the filter etc won't be mature yet?

    Sorry it's a basic question but if I set up the QT from scratch today, can I move the fish in straight away?
     
  7. Dr.Fragenstein

    Dr.Fragenstein Panda Puffer

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2008
    Messages:
    2,108
    Location:
    SE Wisconsin
    To me the rapid death coupled with fast respiration and spots sounds like velvet(amyloodinium occelatum) BUT it could also be ick, velvet just kills much faster as it goes straight for the gills.

    Problem is this if you take out the fish, and QT them, contratry to popular belief the unknown parasite will most likely NOT die out on its own. If its ick, it will go dormant without a host and most likely reappear to infect your fish again. If its velvet, it will live off the light indefinetly. Velvet is resilient and will live in just about pure freshwater as well. Acriflavine, copper and formalin are you best bets versus velvet.

    Before I go any further in regards to a suitable course of treatment I would like a little more info... How fast did fish get infection, and how fast did it kill them?
    How small where the spots size wise? Where they all over the fish sporadically or did the fish look like it was dipped in powder sugar or something? Is this a reef tank?
    How big is the tank?

    A QT is and isn't a good thing, search the system, you will see many debates in regards to them(and I am usually involved ;) )

    There is a lot of natural things you can also do in the interim to help the system such as very aggressive and frequent water changes, upwards to 50% a day... This is flush the system and disrupt the parasites life cycle...

    But again before I write you a novel, please give us all the appropriate info, and also maybe search the site for parasite treatments!

    http://www.3reef.com/forums/diseases/advice-i-received-ich-today-67401.html
    http://www.3reef.com/forums/diseases/velvet-sg-62168.html
    http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-aquarium-articles-how-tos/hypo-salinity-63712.html

    Here is a start even though there is a hundred more....

    Good luck
     
  8. Click Here!

  9. regmo123

    regmo123 Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2009
    Messages:
    30
    Hi.

    It is a reef tank - 240L (65gallons).

    The fish that died seem to get the infection then die within a matter of 2-3 days. Started off with a few white spots (pinhead sized, mainly on the fins) but moved quickly to an overall covering of white film with fish having respiratory difficulties, wonky swimming etc.

    Thanks for your help
     
  10. mikejrice

    mikejrice 3reef Affiliate

    Joined:
    May 24, 2009
    Messages:
    5,926
    Location:
    Colorado
    Definitely sounds like velvet. It is hard to treat velvet in a reef because as Dr. Frag said it will not die on its own due to no fish in the system. Most the treatments that work well on it are not reef safe. You should start by being sure to feed vitamin rich foods soaked in garlic. This will help keep the fish's immune systems up and hopefully buy you some time to fix the problem.
     
  11. regmo123

    regmo123 Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2009
    Messages:
    30
    Lost another fish last night - banded pipefish :-(

    QT now set up - ideally I want it to cycle before moving fish into it.

    Any advice for treatments that are safe to use in the reef tank (with corals and anenome) - still not sure if white spot or velvet so a catch-all would be ideal if such a thing exists.
     
  12. GreyGhost

    GreyGhost Purple Spiny Lobster

    Joined:
    Sep 7, 2009
    Messages:
    452
    coldshot said Dr Frag worked with him when his tank had velvet but still lost all of his fish. velvet is a nonforgiving illness. listen to Dr Frag he is on top of it all according to coldshot. After all the fish were gone he kept stockin in corals and left his tank with no fish for 8 weeks (Dr Frag's reccomendation) now he has fish and not one problem since then. He is bedridden now but says hello to all and big thnx to all for things in the past.