whitespot treatment

[k8bailey]

I bought a new goldfish just over a week ago and it has infected some of my other fish with whitespot.

I've been treating the tank with interpets anti-whitespot stuff. The instructions say to remove the filter, but would it be ok to just switch it off? and how long should the filter be switched off/removed for?

I treated the tank on monday and just left the filter switched off for a couple of hours. So could I give the second dose earlier than stated on the bottle because the filter has been on since then?

would anything else help eg. aquarium salts, raising the temp?

TIA
k8.x

[wildwood]

Dosing earlier makes no difference. Whitespot is a parasite which can not be treated while on the fish as it burrows beneath the mucus. After a few days, it reached a free swimming stage when treatment is most effective, it will then attach itself to plants and gravel (hence the advise for no filter) where it will become a cyst and start dividing into hundreds of new parasites. These will become free swimming and looking for a new host and if none are found after a few days they will die. The whole cycle takes about one week depending on the temperature.
It is easy to rid a tank completely from whitespot by removing fish (and snails) for two weeks by which time both cycles would have died out.
It is also easy to clear it up with medication and leaving the fish in the tank BUT YOU MUST FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS.
The old fashioned way was to add a heap of salt to the water but to be 100% effective this would have to be in such concentrations as to harm the fish and indeed the fresh water plants.

[spudo]

when it says "remove filter" it should or might say remove all carbon filter media. carbon filter media is usualy a black stiff sponge designed to take any chemicals out of the water e.g whitespot treatment...so removing the carbon sponge is just common scence.