White spot again grrr

I have a favoured LFS, the owner is fair and gives good advice. His tanks are always spotless with no dead fish, and I like to support him. However... the last two times I've brought fish home from his shop they have brought white spot / ich in with them, and I can't have that! Because of the general cleanliness of his store I am pretty sure I've got unlucky with his suppliers, but this is not good enough. I should probably have a quarantine tank, but at this point I don't and it would be difficult to set up.

So... I was hoping some Joburg TASA members could IM me their suggestions for an LFS they have had good experience with. Or am I deluded in thinking that this is even worth pursuing? Is this just something I have to live with?

 

a small quarantine tank ... best bet

 

Hi dungbeetle
As far as i know most tanks have Ich but it doesn't break out or your fish are immune to there particular strain. As you bring new fish in thery are weakend already and have to cope with all sort of deseases.
Ich is fortunatly easy to fight without much medication. Increase your temp to above 30C and vacuum your substrate dayly. Make sure your tank is well aerated during that time.
The temp increases the metabolism of the Ich and increse there spore production. The spores can_t handle temp above 30-31 C.
Some recommend 10g salt/Litre but i found it unnessasary.
Good luck

 

10g per liter? its more along the line of 1 tsp per 5 liters, just make sure

 

Thanks ferryman you are right 1g/litre. If no plants up to 5g/L
the 10g was for a short bath! but wouldn't advise that too much stress
Sorry again

 

no probs, i just saw that and thought, wow, thats a brackish tank

 

Thanks for the responses guys, and sorry for not replying earlier. Sometimes actual work gets in the way of TASA, bloody economic considerations :blink1:

It's funny, when this happened before the advice I found elsewhere was to lower the temperature and dose with medication. This worked for me, and I have medication still, so that's what I am doing. Already I can see it's looking better, but I think I am going to have to consider a quarantine tank. It's irritating, because the number of times I buy fish is so small that it hardly seems a worthwhile exercise. Oh well, it's what must be done...

 

Some people LOWER the temperature and medicate as by lowering the temperature you are lengthening the life cycle of the ich thereby decreasing the speed at which it spreads. This method has it's pros and cons though.
Pros to lowering temp: Ich does not multiply as quickly

Cons: The infected fish are ill for a longer period of time thereby increasing their chances of getting secondary infections.

Remember that medication ONLY works on the ich parasite when they are 'free swimming' i.e. after they have LEFT the fish and have reproduced and are looking for a host.

 

here is a HUUUUUUUUUGE article on ich, i wont copy paste as it is quite extensive
heres the linky->http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml

and here is a less huge one: