White Spores??

[Tracey73]

Over the last few days my male red marlboro has developed three white spots. I came home tonight and two of the spots are really prominent, they almost look more like 'spores' rather than white dots. They are white in colour and are protruding from his top fin. He also has one small one appearing near his tail.
His breeding partner looks like she is starting to get them as well. They are very small and white in colour. My other four guys do not appear to have any at all. All are eating fine and in peak condition!

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ph 6.8
Temp 29.8

[Merrilyn]

It looks like a fungal infection to me.

Treat with a fungus cure.

[shanev]

I'm having a similar problem to this.

Being relatively new to keeping discus or any fish for that matter I initially treated this with "white spot remover" from Aquamaster.. (Formaldehyde and Malachite Green). This seemed to clear up some of the white bits but it would not clear up completely.

After searching through the forums I came across this post which looks very similar to what I'm seeing on my fish. So I am now treating with Fungus cure. (Acriflavine and Malachite Green). I'm now on the 4th day of treatment and 2nd dosing and it seems not to be getting any better???

It seems to be only the one fish that is hanging with. They all seem happy eating etc. Just the one fish affected.

I'm starting to think whatever this is has become immune to this treatment.

Any guidance would be much appreciated, I'm really struggling with this...

UPDATE: This seems to getting slightly worse. Im on the 3rd dose of fungal treatment now and I havent seen any improvement :(

[bartek]

It may take a little while.

Maybe also add a little salt to the tank.

[shanev]

It may take a little while.

Maybe also add a little salt to the tank.

Thanks. I just wanted to make sure im treating with the right stuff :)

[bartek]

Well if the white spots look a little fuzzt then it is probably fungus and hence you should be using anti fungus medication.

Other then that you could try adding salt to the water (just make sure its not your regular table salt) or a broad spectrum med is the anti fungus doesn't seem to be helping.

I would also isolate the fish as well in a QT if it is the only one showing the symptoms.

Then just keep an eye on the main tank.

[Nitecongt]

mela-fix took somthing similar off the eyes of my discus.

salt was also added at the same time

[BigDaddyAdo]

Dont bother with Melafix. Personally i would use Triple Sulphur Tablets. It should clear it up in a couple of days.


Ado

[BigDaddyAdo]

I would also do a few good water changes too.


Ado

[shanev]

I have had another close look and the spots seem to be hard stalks not fluffy like cotton...

There are a couple of tiny ones on the body aswell.

I have been doing 1/3 water changes with every dose of the fungal treatment (3 days).

I have just added 3 tablespoons of aquarium salt ( 160L tank) is that ok?

Where do I get the sulphur tablets from? LFS?

Thanks everyone for the comments so far

[BigDaddyAdo]

Most lfs will have them. About a dollar per tab usually.

Where are you located?


Ado

[shanev]

Parramatta area

[Xtreme]

Hi there,

JUst add some salt to the tank not tooo much just enough to strip a little slime coat off (mayb 100gms /100ltrs) should see effect from it next day

I dont think 3tablesppoons /160ltrs is enough
You can get the fish and wipe it off if you want to

HTH

[shanev]

Can i treat with both salt and the fungal treatment? And does the salt need to be removed after treatment or does it sort itself out?

Im guessing I should get my plants out of there before a dosing that high?

[Xtreme]

Or you could take the fish out and treat them in something smaller

Even a foam box will do just add heater and airstone and water from their tank

HTH

[shanev]

I have treated with 160gm of salt...

how long before i should add more salt?

[GhostFish]

Hi there,

JUst add some salt to the tank not tooo much just enough to strip a little slime coat off (mayb 100gms /100ltrs) should see effect from it next day

I dont think 3tablesppoons /160ltrs is enough
You can get the fish and wipe it off if you want to

HTH

What kind of salt? Regular aquarium salt or epsom salt?

Thanks.

[GhostFish]

For one of my discus (Snake Skin) that has white spores on the tail fin, I netted it and softly touched the white spores. The spores felt like beads and are hard, which makes me believe that their not fungus since fungi are slimy, creamy in nature.

[shanev]

yeah these seem like hard bits too!

As far as salt goes its just regular aquarium salt as far as i know.

And the Tri Sulfa tabs didnt seem to do much either :(

Has more smaller ones on the body now... Im so confused. No body seems to know what it is?

[DIY]

This is just a theory.. :?

It could be a virus, something like lymphocystis. I have had white spots on the tail on a few of my fish like the photo above after indroducing some new discus making me think it's an infection of some sort, after a while they reduced and finally disappeared of their own accord, they didn't seem to respond to normal fungal / bacterial treatment I tried and in fact medications seemed to make it worse - possibly responding to increased stress. I have also seen similar posts on other forums and they follow the same course - with clean water and good nutrition they go away after a while and don't respond to the usual meds..

As I said, just a theory

Try doing 50% waterchanges every day for a week and giving them a good variety of foods, that will of course help any problem :roll:

Let us know how that goes, if they respond to good water & food - there is one med that could help, at least it did for me but its going to be better if their immune system is already strengthened and working.

[shanev]

Thanks. I have already started with the water changed.

I also have some carbon in the filter to get the meds out i have already used.

I have started with frozen beefheart soaked in seachem "nourish". Also the frozen bloodworms soaked aswell as dry food.

[shanev]

there are a lot more on his body now... smaller than on the fins. Still ony affecting the one fish.

[DIY]

Hmmm :scratch

I never had any white spots on the body of mine that I could see, only on the fins so we may not have the same problem.

Can you list your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels as well as a list of meds you have already tried?

[shanev]

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate - I dont have a test kit for this
Ph - Looks to be around 7.5.
Temp 29.5

First I tried a Cupramine by Seachem. I was advise by the LFS that this should sort it out and that it would not harm my BN. Turn out it didnt clear the fish and also killed the BN. :evil:

Second a white spot remover from aquamaster.

Third a fungal treatment from aquamaster.

Fourth salt bath (normal aquarium salt)

Fifth Tri Sulfa tabs and even tried wiping from the fish with cotton bud.

[DIY]

Cupramine is basically chelated copper. Copper based med's are very dangerous to use especially in soft acidic water that discus prefer, and bristlenose (as well as other scaleless fish) are particularly sensitive to copper. It's generally marketed to the marine segment where the water is hard and high in pH - I still get surprised and amazed at some of the recommendations I hear coming from lfs's :twisted: :banghead

I think your white spots are different to mine as I didn't have any on the body - large daily waterchanges helped clear up mine, and I noticed when I wormed with Big-L the remaining ones cleared up. Big-L (Levamisole) in addition to being a good wormer is reported to be an immunostimulator - leading me to believe the fish's own immune system is what got rid of the spots.

You have tried a fair shotgun of meds there, I'm still inclined to suggest continuing with large daily waterchanges for now - depending on how much worse they look at the moment? If they do look worse then you will need to try something, but I don't know what to be honest :ug

[swingn]

I've seen white spots / spores like this on my Blue Diamond before. However, there was generally only one or two spots & generally located on the fins, but have noticed on it's body once also.

I had actually assumed it was white spot, so I dosed the tank with inkaway & the problem disappeared within 24 hours.

Has not re-occured in over a year for me.

[GhostFish]

My alpha male discus got an injury when my daughter startled him, so there was a huge cut and indentation on the side of side body. Fearing parasitic and bacterial infection, I put 8 tablets of Jungle Labs Parasite Clear in my 55 gallon tank (yes, I always overdose when using Parasite Clear; don't overdose with JL Fungus Clear, however). The white-clear like spores are disappearing. I just fed them FBW and they ate out of my hand, so they're in great health. I'm not going to do a 2nd treatment, but will feed sparingly and do a water change 4 days from now. I'm still not sure what these spores are, and I've dealt with nearly all bacterial and parasitic infection under the sun. Temp at 86 degrees. PH 7.8 with hard water.