Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => The Emergency Room => Topic started by: Fiona on January 08, 2016, 08:25:09 PM
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eSHa Exit isnt working, the whitespot infection is spreading, I seem to recall a mention of higher temps making the meds more effective.
Anyone remember that?
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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).
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I use a couple of other forums to offer help to folk with goldfish problems/emergencies, given years of previous experience keeping them. I noticed a few months ago that someone had mentioned that they had tried treating their goldfishes' whitespot with Interpet whitespot treatment, then eSHa Exit, both to no avail. (The main expert/moderator on the forum had agreed from the pics that it looked like whitespot.) However, the fishkeeper decided eventually to try eSHa 2000 - with immediate success! I wonder if it might be worth trying it in this instance?
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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.
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2000 was the first thing I tried because it was all I had at the time and I got Exit 2 days later and added that as well as 2000. Its been a week from first signs of the symptoms. Exit contains methylene blue and malachite green. I've extended treatment of that by 2 days, I'll put one more dose in tonight but it's not looking good.
I do have NTLabs general tonic which has acriflavine and methylene blue.
My poor rummy nose tetras are covered in whitespot. I'm so cross with myself.
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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.
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I feel like a right twit. I just realised I had nitrate removing media in my filter, its white and guess what colour it is now? Yup turquoise. I took it out and added a half dose this morning and there are improvements already. How stupid do I feel? :-[
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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 :)
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Fingers crossed for you Fiona
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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.
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I'd only just started using it about 2 weeks ago and it hadn't in that time made any noticeable difference but it does say it works over time. I've got high tap nitrate too and it's a pain. I can't add many more plants to my tank either, I'd never see the fish. Once this crisis is over I'll put it back in the filer and see what happens and let you know.
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Thanks Fiona. Good luck.
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Hi, can I just ask what was the eventual outcome, did the esha work in the end or did you still have to change meds.....