What to Do When a Pleco Develops White Spots? Causes and Treatment Methods Explained
The pleco (armored catfish) gets its name because it likes to eat leftover food and waste in aquariums, thereby purifying the water. During pleco keeping, people sometimes notice white spots appearing on the pleco's body. In fact, it is mostly caused by white spot disease, which is one of the most common parasitic diseases in fish and can seriously affect the fish's health. Let's take a look below at what to do when a pleco develops white spots!
Symptoms of White Spots on Plecos
In the early stage of the disease, the pleco will rub its body against hard objects, hoping to remove the troublesome pathogens from its body. Many small white spots can be seen on the body surface, fin rays and gills. As the condition worsens, the pleco will become increasingly thin, floating on the water surface or gathering in a corner, and rarely moving. In the later stage, the body surface of the diseased pleco looks as if covered with a layer of white film, with increased mucus and a dull, lusterless body color.
Prevention of White Spots on Plecos
Preventing white spots on plecos can start with the characteristics of the pathogen. Since Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (the ciliate that causes white spot disease) cannot tolerate high temperatures and generally stops developing above 25°C, and dies naturally when the water temperature rises to 28-30°C, treating tropical fish with white spot disease is not too troublesome. You only need to maintain the water temperature at around 28-30°C, and after a week all the cysts on the fish's body surface will fall off. If drug treatment is also used at this time, the effect will be even better.
What to Do When a Pleco Develops White Spots?
1. You can use one part per million of mercurous nitrate as a medicated bath in the tank where the pleco is kept, but mercurous nitrate is a highly toxic product that can cause great harm to the human body and is highly carcinogenic, so it is not recommended.
2. If the pleco is severely ill, you can use two parts per million of mercurous nitrate or five parts per ten million of malachite green solution to bathe the sick fish for 2-3 hours to relieve its symptoms, but malachite green is also a highly toxic product that can cause great harm to the human body and is highly carcinogenic, so it is not recommended either.
3. You can soak the fish in 5% salt water for several days, or use a two parts per million methylene blue solution for 6 hours a day.
4. You can soak the fish in a red mercury solution at a concentration of 50-70 ppm (parts per million) for 5-15 minutes, twice a day. After the white spots disappear with treatment, medication should still be continued for a period to kill the Ichthyophthirius multifiliis that have not yet attached to the fish's body.