What to Do When a Parrot Cichlid Has White Spots? Causes and Treatment Methods
The parrot cichlid is a tropical fish with high ornamental value, also known as the parrotfish, parrot cichlid, red wedge cichlid, etc. It is named for its brilliant colors and its mouth shape that closely resembles a parrot's beak, and its body bears beautiful mottled colors like a parrot's colorful coat. However, during keeping, white spots on the body often occur. Let us take a look below at what to do when a parrot cichlid has white spots!
Causes of White Spots on Parrot Cichlids
White spots on a parrot cichlid indicate that the fish has white spot disease. This disease is one of the most common and frequently occurring diseases among ornamental fish, characterized by rapid contagion, wide prevalence and great harm. The pathogen of white spot disease is caused by the protozoan Ichthyophthirius multifiliis invading the fish's skin or gills. The optimal water temperature for its occurrence is 15-25°C, and it most easily infects the host at 20-25°C, but it can also infect at low water temperatures such as 1°C, and the parasite cannot develop above 30°C.
Symptoms of White Spots on Parrot Cichlids
In the early stage of infection with white spot disease, the sick fish has individual small white spots on its fins and body, still has an appetite, and its spirit shows little change. In the middle stage, the sick fish's fins and body are covered with white spots everywhere, it has no appetite, is unwilling to move, rubs and scratches everywhere, and its color darkens. In the late stage, the white spots cover the entire body of the sick fish, the fish floats on the water surface or sinks to the bottom of the tank, is weak and listless, sways left and right, the body surface mucus increases, and finally it dies of suffocation due to difficulty breathing.
What to Do When a Parrot Cichlid Has White Spots?
1. Physical treatment: Raise the water temperature to 30 degrees. Taking advantage of the fact that Ichthyophthirius multifiliis cannot tolerate high temperatures, this can promote the spores on the fish's body surface to mature rapidly, accelerate their growth rate, and make them fall off from the fish's body surface.
2. Treatment drugs
① Soak in 5 percent saline water for several days.
② Soak in a 2 ppm methylene blue solution for 6 hours each day.
③ Mixed treatment with a 0.05 ppm malachite green and 25 ppm formaldehyde solution.
④ Soak in a 2 ppm quinine hydrochloride medicinal solution at 28-30°C for 3-5 days.
⑤ Soak in a 2 ppm mercurous nitrate medicinal solution for 30 minutes.
⑥ Soak in a merbromin solution at a concentration of 50 to 70 ppm for 5-15 minutes, twice a day.