white-spot on BN plecos

[kf046]

half of my BN plecos have some white-spot on the body/fins after a large water change yesterday!

what should i do !?

i don't really want to add medicament into my planted tank!!!

and i don't have another tank to separate them. there are about one dozen from 2-8cm BN plecos (common, Albino & Long-fin) in a 48' tank!

pls help!!!

cheers

keith

[Ged]

I only had to deal with white spot once a number of years back in a community tank. I choose to medicate and raise the water temperature. The plants and fish in the tank did not seem to be affected by the process but the white spot was soon gone. I had a look at the Cichlid-Forum and they had a great article that may be worth reading.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

Have you made any new additions to the tank, fish or plants?

Gerard

[timmy2422]

If you use medication make sure you only do half the recommended dose because it will kill the catfish

hav a good 1

[Alan]

CAUTION !!!

Do NOT use multicure or any product with acraflavine, tripafavine,or malachite green with Bristle nose!!!! You will just end up with dead fish with pretty coloured bellies. The same goes for all Ancistrus and Sturisoma catfish.

Use a formalin (formaldehyde) based cure like "Clout" or "Quick Cure" at half the recommended rate (As for tetras). These wont harm your plants either.

Alan.

PS... Alaways, but, always quarantine any new stock, fish or plants, before adding to an established setup.

[Ducksta]

I would up the temp to 28, and add rock salt.

The salt may have an effect on some of the plants, but I imagine so would the bristlenose at some point

There are heaps of existing threads on white-spot and treatments. Best to have a read in the Technical and FAQ forums - and base your decision on the plethora of different options.

[kf046]

I only had to deal with white spot once a number of years back in a community tank. I choose to medicate and raise the water temperature. The plants and fish in the tank did not seem to be affected by the process but the white spot was soon gone. I had a look at the Cichlid-Forum and they had a great article that may be worth reading.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

Have you made any new additions to the tank, fish or plants?

Gerard

great article !!! thx Gerard

also thx to timmy2422, Alan & Ducksta for the advise on the medication treatments. BUT really not willing to add meds/chemical things into my tank. due to my past bad experiences with meds treatments on other plecos.(90%lost with the result!)

i will raise the temp to 30c and see how they go! not sure that can the bristlenose handle salt?

Q: does anyone here actually handle salt treatments with bristlenose plecos?

btw "Have you made any new additions to the tank, fish or plants?"

YES, two new common BN and two new Long-fin BN within a week. <<<i think this may caused the problem!!!

well, i need to follow Alan's advise; Always quarantine new stock before adding to an established tank.

[Ducksta]

I have never noticed adverse effects of dosing salt on bristlenose. However, I probably wouldn't notice if it did go awry. What I can say is I still have plenty of common bristlenose spawning all the time, in tanks which have been treated with salt for wounds etc as this is my favorite "multi-cure".