ESHa Exit Isnt Working. SOLVED.

It's not so much that higher temps make the med work better, it makes the parasite's lifecycle go faster so they all reach stage 3, the one where it can be killed, faster.

How long has whitespot been in the tank? I ask because it is quite possible for things to appear to get worse during the first day or so. The parasite is invisible when it first attaches to the fish and only becomes visible as it gets bigger. So if you spotted the first signs only a day or two ago, it could just be that there were more parasites on the fish that you could see and they are now becoming visible.

Or it could be that the individual parasites in your tank are immune to that particular medication. If the spots appear to be getting worse over the next few days, I'd run carbon for 24 hours then switch to a different medication. I've always found King British original formula WS3 to work well, and there's also Waterlife's Protozin which I've had success with in the past (only changed to WS3 when I needed a whitespot med in a hurry and that's all the nearest shop had).

I've just looked at eSHa's website to see if I can find the ingredients of Exit, but nothing there. I kept a post on a forum several years ago which gave the ingredients of various meds, and that says 2000 contains ethacridine lactate (an antibacterial), proflavin (treats velvet and gram positive and negative bacteria) and copper²⁺ (forwhitespot and velvet); but the article does not mention Exit.
But eSHa's website does say

Exit and eSHa 2000 can be safely used in combination to provide you with a powerful and broadly effective tool for curing your fish

It might be worth trying both Exit and 2000 together.




But I am aware that there are medication resistant strains of the whitespot parasite appearing.

If it has been that long I would be inclined to try a different brand. But you would need to remove the eSHa meds first.

Don't feel too bad. It wouldn't have occurred to me to remove nitrate removing media. Carbon, yes; zeolite, yes. But not something designed to remove nitrate.

At least you've discovered the problem. And you won't make that mistake again. And now anyone else who uses nitrate removing media knows to take that out before treating the tank 

I had nitrate removing media in my filter ...

At least you now know and are back on track with treatment.

I can't remember if I've asked you before, what is the name of the Nitrate remover you use, and would you recommend it?

I have high Nitrate out of the tap so wonder if this product will make a significant difference.

Thanks Fiona. Good luck.