Help... Is this Ich?

[Swiftler]

I picked up a powder blue tang on Saturday and he is eating great and swimming wonderfully. Today I came home and found him covered in tiny white spots. What should I do? Is this ich?

 

[jrskater1999]

Even though i know very little about saltwater i know that that is ick

 

[Animal-Chin]

ugh ya, worst feeling ever to see your fish full of ich. I'm assuming you have a reef tank considering its a tang? Do you have a tank without coral you can put him in? If you have coral you can't medicate and unfortunatly your tank now has ich in it that could spread to whatever other fish you have. Your other fish may end up fine cause they aren't stressed, his amune system was down cause of the new environment. Its best if you can remove him to a quaranteen tank and medicate but if you can't and have to leave him in i'd suggest soaking his food in garlic so he continues to eat. If he eats well he should just fight off the ich and be ok. The problem is ich comes back in montly cycles so you may fight it off and have it return. if you do fight it off don't add any fish to the tank for 2 months after seeing the last white spot on him. I had a fish bring ich in and my tank fought it off and it never came back but i think i was lucky...

 

[Swiftler]

Well it wasn't ich... Ends up the tang came from the fish store with an infection of oodinium. It infected all of the fish in my tank an the current death toll is:
Powder blue tang
Koran angel
PJ cardinal
Firefish
There is still one firefish and 2 clownfish that are in the last stage of the infection and probably won't survive the night. All of my corals are still looking great except for the toadstool who hasn't opened up in days. I hoping that he is just going through a shedding period. All inverts seems to be doing fine as well.

Chalk this up to just another reason to quarantine all fish that are going into your tank.

 

[Flreefer]

Wow, that really sucks Swiftler. Sorry to hear that. That's a lot of cash down the drain.
Qt is a hassle, but definitely better than the alternative.
Hope the rest of the tank gets on OK.

 

[melosu58]

Some good info on the parasite and treatment.

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: A Quarantine Tank for Everything by Steven Pro

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part II by Steven Pro

 

[Saltwaterfish56]

I am dealing with the same problem and I was recommended this product called selcon , you should really try it , I promise you will have amazing results , my blue hippo tang recovered within 5 days and his colors are amazing and looks better than when he was healthy , look up reviews if you don't believe me , your lfs should have it , just trust me and do it !!!

 

[carey]

Selcon is a food additive that will NOT get rid of ich. :-(

Selcon can help your fish's immune system though so it's not a waste of a product.

Read the links above and you will know everything you need to about ich.

Sorry about all those fish, really rough I know the feeling.

 

[Saltwaterfish56]

Well that's why , it's strengthens the immune system which makes him stronger and fight ich , I believe it because my is back to normal , there are many ways you can cure ich , personally I think medicinces suck , it's better to do it without medicine , lower the salt level and raise the temperature , feed them algae sheets 24/7 and feed brine shrimp !! I've been through ich many times and I get rid of it very fast with those steps

 

[sim1killa]

I think I am dealing with tail end of a ich epidemic. I bought a maroon clown that I though was fine, but the next day he was completely covered and had infected my scopas tang. funny thing through all this my pair of fire fish were completely fine.

I bought stop parasite and it seems to have cured the problem I am on the 5th and final day of treatment and they look much better and are eating very well. stop parasite by the way is reef safe. I read online and found that trying to remove a sick fish is very stressful. I am working on getting a qt tank for my next fish and will most likely copper does any infected fish in the future.

 

[mr_X]

That looks like ich to me on that powder blue, not oodinium.

 

[Bettacrazy]

That's ich

 

[Swiftler]

I don't know. I treated for 5 days with the stop parasite and my results were compete mortality. All the fish showed signs of cloudy eye, fin rot (torn up), faded colors and labored breathing. All the mentioned signs showed up and fish died within 24-48 hours. From all my research online it points more towards oodinium then ich. I could be wrong, but the quick die off sucks either way

 

[sim1killa]

I don't know. I treated for 5 days with the stop parasite and my results were compete mortality. All the fish showed signs of cloudy eye, fin rot (torn up), faded colors and labored breathing. All the mentioned signs showed up and fish died within 24-48 hours. From all my research online it points more towards oodinium then ich. I could be wrong, but the quick die off sucks either way

if you saw cloudy eye that would indicated a bacterial infection and you would of needed to treat for bacteria as well. sorry for your loss. I spoke to the manufacturer before using the product and they were very helpful.

 

[tonedogz]

what did you use to treat it. The only sure cures are copper and hypo other then that your taking a gamble on weather they'll survive or not.

 

[sdpopov]

Hey listen i have a blue tang and i had the same issue and the best treatment for ich is ich attack but put double dose if you use the one for the reef . It worked for me very well but after time i found a better way to cure the ich - (garlic) the next day the blue tang had no more white spots , it took few days for the white spots to despair from the eyes but now looks beautiful. Blend the garlic, mix it with a little-bit of water from the tank and shake for few minutes until the water gets white. Take the garlic out of the water using a strainer and add some food to the garlic (frozen recommended - brain or mysis shrimp) and leave the food to absorb the garlic water for few minutes then put the food with the water in the fish tank and good luck. Let me know how it works for you .