Treating white spot (ich) during winter

[mogsie]

hello all, last week i noticed a few of my goldfish / shubunkins had whitespot quite bad, hadnt noticed it sooner as i dont see them that much this time of year, they mainly stay low in the pond. anyways i found a treatment online but reading the specs i noticed it was only effective in water temps + 10c, (50f), and my pond is sitting just below this. so i emailed the company and waited a while before they replied and sent me a link to another product that worked in temps lower than 10c (50f), Blagdon anti parasite, so i ordered a 1000ml bottle which according to the directions is enough for a 5 day course of treatment for 9000ltr pond. my pond is 8000 ltr so this was well enough, done the calculations and each daily treatment worked out at 175 ml per day, pre mixed with pond water and dispersed evenly over pond surface, this dyed the water dark blue, i treated the pond at 13:00 hrs but by the next morning the color had completely faded away, i continued this for treatment on day 2 at same time, and again the colour had faded by next morning, so on day 3 i increased the daily dose to 200ml, however the color had completely dispersed by next morning and the white spot seems to be getting worse. I am now wondering if the gravel filter could be removing the active medication too quickly as i do have a high turnover on my pumps. so for now on the 4th day of treatment i have turned off the pumps completely. is this the correct solution ?
will this medication take longer to work due to the low water temps and thus the increased life cycle of the ich ?
i have messaged the company Blagdon who make the treatment, but they do take a while to respond.
it is not possible for me to take fish indoors to treat, i have nowhere large enough to house them.
thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[MitchM]

Hi mogsie,
Treating a whole pond is difficult and expensive, I would really recommend moving the affected fish to an indoor tub, if you can, where you can better control the environment.

Having said that, the product looks like it is Methylene Blue, so you should continue to dose when you notice a lack of colour in the water.
Yes, because the temperatures are lower, that will extend the treatment time period.
You will notice the number of white spots on the fish increase and then disappear, which is normal.
When the white spots disappear is the most important time to have medication in the water because that is when the parasite is unattached from the fish and is most vulnerable to medication.

Parasites are always present in our ponds, so make sure you are monitoring your water quality and making adjustments as necessary.

 

[Stephen Noble]

hello all, last week i noticed a few of my goldfish / shubunkins had whitespot quite bad, hadnt noticed it sooner as i dont see them that much this time of year, they mainly stay low in the pond. anyways i found a treatment online but reading the specs i noticed it was only effective in water temps + 10c, (50f), and my pond is sitting just below this. so i emailed the company and waited a while before they replied and sent me a link to another product that worked in temps lower than 10c (50f), Blagdon anti parasite, so i ordered a 1000ml bottle which according to the directions is enough for a 5 day course of treatment for 9000ltr pond. my pond is 8000 ltr so this was well enough, done the calculations and each daily treatment worked out at 175 ml per day, pre mixed with pond water and dispersed evenly over pond surface, this dyed the water dark blue, i treated the pond at 13:00 hrs but by the next morning the color had completely faded away, i continued this for treatment on day 2 at same time, and again the colour had faded by next morning, so on day 3 i increased the daily dose to 200ml, however the color had completely dispersed by next morning and the white spot seems to be getting worse. I am now wondering if the gravel filter could be removing the active medication too quickly as i do have a high turnover on my pumps. so for now on the 4th day of treatment i have turned off the pumps completely. is this the correct solution ?
will this medication take longer to work due to the low water temps and thus the increased life cycle of the ich ?
i have messaged the company Blagdon who make the treatment, but they do take a while to respond.
it is not possible for me to take fish indoors to treat, i have nowhere large enough to house them.
thanks in advance for any advice.

I agree with Mitch. Not sure if you have (had) any plants in the pond. Methylene Blue is deadly to plants. But off subject, your Quote at the bottom is very clever! I got a good laugh, thanks!

 

[mogsie]

Hi mogsie,
Treating a whole pond is difficult and expensive, I would really recommend moving the affected fish to an indoor tub, if you can, where you can better control the environment.

Having said that, the product looks like it is Methylene Blue, so you should continue to dose when you notice a lack of colour in the water.
Yes, because the temperatures are lower, that will extend the treatment time period.
You will notice the number of white spots on the fish increase and then disappear, which is normal.
When the white spots disappear is the most important time to have medication in the water because that is when the parasite is unattached from the fish and is most vulnerable to medication.

Parasites are always present in our ponds, so make sure you are monitoring your water quality and making adjustments as necessary.

Hello mitch thanks for your advice, especially regarding the white spots increasing before they decrease, as i was getting concerned about that, however the fish are more active now, since i turned off the pumps and filter the colour has been lasting much longer. I have no way of moving the fish indoors, looks like all the fish are effected anyway, and if i did it that way, wouldnt i be putting treated fish back into infected water?. to treat the whole pond has only cost me £20 which i think is approx 25$us. So i dont mind the expense if it saves my fish. Infact i am going to buy another bottle and repeat the course again after 7 days, as per instructions, the treatment i am using is a mix 5000mg formaldehyde 19mg methylene blue and 95mg malachite green oxalate, all the plants in the pond have died back, hopefully they will come back up in summer.

 

[MitchM]

Hi mogsie,

Keep in mind that that pond treatment will kill off most of your nitrifying bacteria population so you should really monitor temperature, ammonia, ph and kh.
Thanks for posting the ingredients of that product. I wasn't able to find it online.