Hey All

[LookoutTrout]

If you’re treating whitespot with a chemical treatment, DO NOT raise the temperature. The treatment is designed to hit the whitespot at the appropriate stages of its life cycle. Raising the temperature speeds up the life cycle so the treatment probably won’t work.

To treat whitespot use EITHER a chemical treatment OR heat. Not both. (To kill it with heat you need 32C).

I don't understand, does a higher temperature stop the meds from working?
If it doesn't then wouldn't increasing the temp a bit (not enough to hurt the fish) mean the whitespot goes through it's cycle quicker resulting in the tank not needing treatment for as long?

[Gingerlove05]

If you’re treating whitespot with a chemical treatment, DO NOT raise the temperature. The treatment is designed to hit the whitespot at the appropriate stages of its life cycle. Raising the temperature speeds up the life cycle so the treatment probably won’t work.

To treat whitespot use EITHER a chemical treatment OR heat. Not both. (To kill it with heat you need 32C).

I don't understand, does a higher temperature stop the meds from working?
If it doesn't then wouldn't increasing the temp a bit (not enough to hurt the fish) mean the whitespot goes through it's cycle quicker resulting in the tank not needing treatment for as long?

Some medications can lower the oxygen content of water and also warmer water doesn’t retain as much oxygen as colder water. This is more the issue when doing both. You can also cause a spike in ammonia etc if you raise the temp too quick and cause a shock to the bacteria in the filter, which also causes breathing/oxygen issues as the ammonia prevents the gils from absorbing oxygen.

[Birchbud]

Thank you so much for explaining, this is great. First dose of esha is in. Crossing fingers. He ate well this evening though so I'm counting that as a good sign

[Gingerlove05]

Yeah thats a good sign. Mollys, guppies (and most livebearers) will eat until they split so if they have no appetite then there’s something wrong (just dont overfeed them )
I have used the esha meds before for whitespot, they worked for me. Just follow the instructions. If they start gasping at the surface or acting lethargic do a water change.

PS Welcome to

[Stephen]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

6dGH is very soft for mollies (guppies can just about put up with it), they prefer it between 11dGH and 19dGH.

I agree; molly need hard water.
I would be more inclined to stock soft water fish species and avoid hard water species.

All the best

[black ghost]

If you’re treating whitespot with a chemical treatment, DO NOT raise the temperature. The treatment is designed to hit the whitespot at the appropriate stages of its life cycle. Raising the temperature speeds up the life cycle so the treatment probably won’t work.

To treat whitespot use EITHER a chemical treatment OR heat. Not both. (To kill it with heat you need 32C).

I don't understand, does a higher temperature stop the meds from working?
If it doesn't then wouldn't increasing the temp a bit (not enough to hurt the fish) mean the whitespot goes through it's cycle quicker resulting in the tank not needing treatment for as long?

It can, yes. The meds are designed to be dosed at specific times in the life cycle at normal temperatures (I believe 25C is the ‘standard’ used). Raising the temperature speeds up the life cycle so these important moments are missed. The life cycle is quicker but that’s irrelevant if the treatment doesn’t hit it at the right time.
Sometimes you get lucky and the treatment works, but just as often it doesn’t.

But you also need the fish’s immune system to play a part, so you need to remove the cause of the whitespot (the stressor). In this case it could be that the water is too soft for the Molly, which means the treatment is unlikely to work unless the Molly is put into harder water first.