White spots on lovey dovey pair

[lahlumdi]

I have a pair of Platy. She had a white spot on a fin, and another area and it went away. By the way, I have 6 Platy total, but these two stick together like glue. They were separated a couple days because I thought she was ready to have babies. I put her back as they were both acting really listless. But now I see both have white spots. I am thinking it was from the stress of being separated. Gotta laugh. They are inseperable. None of the other fish have it. Should I keep an eye on them and assume it will heal itself?

By the way - part of the drama was when I put her back in, he was overjoyed. She didn't want anything to do with him for the first day or so. Just hid in the cave and nipped at him when he tried to enter. Now they are swimming together again. She was probably mad because he started cavorting with a yellow female Platy while she was gone. This is like a soap oepra. Go figure.

[Little Embers]

I would say they have Ick (Ich). The spots went away because the parasite was ready to fall off and start reproducing, the whole lifecycle will start again. I wouldn't separate them, as it is best to treat the whole tank IMO and Ick won't heal by itself unfortunately. I would either use a "white spot" medication or some may use the "turning up the heat and adding aquarium salt" method.

[lahlumdi]

Thank you for responding. I probably shouldn't do the salt thing because I have 10 corys. So ick won't go way on its own when they are less stressed?

[Little Embers]

One rule of thought is that Ick is always present in our tanks (and it probably is to some degree) and the fish are carriers themselves, but fish with good immune systems can deal with it naturally and ward off the parasite, keeping it in check and never seeing the emergence of cysts.

Once a single cyst has developed, fallen off and reproduced, it can turn in hundreds even thousands of parasites, so I think it then needs our intervention or else the tank could become overrun with the parasite and the fish already a bit weakened by ick may not be able to fight it off naturally. There is also no way of knowing how many tomites are still on the fish and burrowing through the skin, the parasite can also be in the gills where we can't see them.

Good idea not to use the salt with corys most definitely and if you don't want to use medication at this stage to kill the free-swimming parasite, you could just try raising the temperature slowly up to 34* and keep it there for 2 wks or so (the cories usually don't like temp. that high, but they should be OK dealing with it in the short term as long as it is raised gradually). At this temperature, the parasite can no longer reproduce and it will also help if you regularly syphon the gravel very thoroughly, which will pick up many of the parasites, as well as doing a partial water change. When having the temperature at that range, I would also increase the oxygen level either by extra aeration/water flow or by adding an air-stone.

[Little Embers]

Just an edit on my previous post...Should double check just to make sure! How big are the spots? If they are the size of a grain of salt/sand. then it most likely is Ich. Also, I just noticed that in your signature it says the tank was established August 09....Just wondering how you cycled the tank was it fishless, with those fish or by adding used media? Something is stressing the fish, so I would also test to see what you ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are if you haven't already, as well as checking temperature or if there are constant fluctuations in it. Did you add new fish recently?

BTW: The platies sound like a typical married couple. LOL!

[lahlumdi]

Hello - Thanks for your explanation. I also went and read the sticky on ick.

Water parameters:
Temp: 78
Ammonium: 0
Nitrite: 0
pH: 7.5

I have a 4 inch aerator that I run all the time.
I also have a planted aquarium, which I think is more healthy for the plants.

The thing is, the spots are greater than a grain of sand. One spot on the female is about 3 mm in diameter.

Also - the female is spending less time in the cave now, and the two swim around together. Glad they are happier again.

Here is a photos of the two. You can see the spot on the female. I think the male has something too, and it is right over his mickey mouse tail.

[rich311k]

I dont think it is ich. There should be many spots. If they are eating and swimming normally I would just observe them and see what develops. Very nice fish by the way.

[lahlumdi]

Thank you. I love this particular bunch I have. I have had second thoughts about the serpae tetras for thier nippiness... but really, they haven't been a problem except when I had an ill cory.

I keep watching the other fish to see if another gets it. I will observe. So far it has only been these two.

[lahlumdi]

Also in response to Little Embers - I did a fishless cycle and then I pretty much loaded the tank in two sets. First the platy and serpae tetras and danios... then the corys about a week later. I lost 3 skunk corys but I think they didn't adjust well to the pH/hardness difference in my tank from the LFS and I did not know at that time to do drip acclimation.