Whitespot question!

Hello again Denis,

This issue of Fish treatments being suitable for use in aquariums containing Shrimps is a bit of a thorny one...Shrimps being invertebrates may quite likely not be affected by Fish diseases, but that's not to say they coundn't carry them around with them, as such you might want to consider taking them out for the duration of the treatment - especially as the recommendation is to increase the temperature to speed up the metabolism of the disease pathogens. I'm really not too certain whether the Shrimps would take too kindly towards a spell in the low thirties so it might be as well to be on the safe side here. Hopefully someone with more knowledge/experience with Shrimps could advise you better - mine is only a 'hunch'. I do note, however, that other Whitespot treatment manufacturers suggest a half-dose for scaleless fish...this also might be worth considering too in the light of the fact that just about all of the whitespot treatments are based on the same ingredients, perhaps with subtle changes in percentages.

To your fish, I waited for the pictures to download (never a short process with my unbelievably slow dial-up connection - they kind of look like Barbus (or whatever Barbus are now called) Pentazona but are somewhat deeper in the body. This could just be that these could be from the wild or Pentazona from either a different river or just a regional variation. Just at the moment quite a lot of new discoveries - especially Danios, but also other small shoaling species - are finding their way onto the market and yours could be one falling into that category but I think if you take them as Pentazona-types you'll not be too far away.

Hope that helps a bit.

John