Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)
Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
sick fish here too
- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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the 2 clowns were covered in what can only be described as a coating of what looked like dust
i have since then done a 50 % water change and have treated new water with primafix and a treatment of stress coat ....... unfortunately the 2 clowns didn't make it and died this evening ...... everything else in the tank is very active although one or 2 of the fish seem to be showing a few spots
i have no idea what it could be so any help would be appreciated
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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you have been a bit unlucky with your tank and if u treat now or soon this parasite problem should be sorted easily enough.
best of luck and keep the chin up.
30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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It dose look like white spot so keep the temp up 28.5c+
As suggested by Derek treat the tank with a white spot treatment (formalin & mamachite green). The pimafix wont do it.
There is another parasite that looks similar to white spot except it is a more golden colour, called velvet (Oodinium). This is treated the same as white spot with the only difference been the parasite or flaglets of Velvet can use light as a food source so if it is Velvet the tank should be darkened during treatment.
If you are having trouble putting up pictures and are in a hurry just put up a link to flicker/photobucket.
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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Do you have pleco's in the tank? Are they infected?
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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I think why it is on the tail of the whiptail is it is a lot smother than the body. The parasites seem to have a hard time attaching to the rough body of the plecs and whiptails.
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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armoured catfish and scaly fish are not as badly affected by whitespot (mostly the soft fins) but velvet can more easily infect and smother the gills of plecs.
as platy says if velvet, darken tank and higher temp. if whitespot higher temp to speed up life cycle. both parasites operate on a similar time cycle.
treatment such as waterlifes protozin (bio degradeable) will sort out either parasite.
30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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only just happy with my tank ... don't wanna loose any more fish
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- LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
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Here’s a pic I found and it’s exactly what it looked like
So best thing to do now is Raise water temperature, Dim lights for several days, Add aquarium salt and use a whithspot treatment

LB
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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even extremely healthy clown loachs or other botias are extremely vulnerable if exposed to either parasite because they are scaleless and the whole body is quickly attacked.
anyway the damage is done and the problem can be sorted now without further losses as long as treatment is in water when parasites dislodge from hosts. each spot can become 1000 new pests and thats why they can be so dangerous if left to proliferate.
good luck duzzy and dont forget to reduce or even stop feeding while medicating.
30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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It is important to black out the tank. These parasites can use light as a food source just like algae dose.
If you do add salt (i wouldn't) only use a small amount. The loaches wont tolerate the salt to much.
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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- cardinal (Lar Savage)
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Best of luck with your treatments
Lar
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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GB
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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- LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
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- Orca (Eoin Walsh)
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I got white spot a few weeks ago in my tetra tank and went to the AV and got some tetra contraspot it worked very well.I had three outbreaks of white spot and this product sorted it in 5 to 7 days.I am now four months with no new outbreaks.
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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even disconnected my new co2 supply , and ceased all feeding . although stupid as i might be called ..... a pinch on christmas day is a necessity ( spelling ) ... just a pinch i promise ...
so from here on in its a case of sitting and waiting !!!!
if i loose my breeding pair of keyholes , then i reckon there may be a 120 litre tank for sale in limerick fairly soon
say some prayers for me ..
martin
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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the treatment says 7 days for completion !!
any ideas ??
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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What treatment did you get?
After the seven days do a water change and vacume the sand/gravel.
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