Is this ich :(

[Abiroad]

I left for work and everything was fine. Came home to this. Is this ich? Could it have developed so quickly? He is eating and swimming normal. Also you can't tell by the photo but there are white specs on his eyes too. Could it be sand..?

What are my options? A plan of action. Please

 

[aquandrew]

i would say it is ich your going to have to put all of the fish in qt while the tank sits without fish for 60 days and treat the fish in qt. always qt new fish before putting them into the main tank. ich looks like sand and gets all over them, including the eyes.

 

[Bectan01]

It does look like ich, he also looks very skinny. How long have you had him?

 

[Abiroad]

He is laying down on the sand bed now. My boyfriend is setting up qt now.
I'm besides my self I have to go to work soon.

So our plan is to do a fw dip to the tang and keep him in qt.
if we do need to treat him with copper can he never go back in our reef tank? Or just the water?

As for the rest of dt.
Are corals or inverts affected?
I have a clown pair a wrasse and a mandarin in the tank.
I read that mandarins don't get ich. But how do I keepy my other fish from showing signs.

Any products Availble to treat ich in a reef?

 

[Abiroad]

It does look like ich, he also looks very skinny. How long have you had him?

3 weeks. I always thought he looked thin to but he eats like a horse.

 

[TheTodd]

...can he never go back in our reef tank? Or just the water?

As for the rest of dt.
Are corals or inverts affected?
I have a clown pair a wrasse and a mandarin in the tank.
I read that mandarins don't get ich. But how do I keepy my other fish from showing signs.

Any products Availble to treat ich in a reef?

Yes, after QT and treatment, the fish can go back in. Never put QT water into a DT though.

Corals and inverts do not host Ich. They can stay in the DT while fallow, but all the fish should really be in QT. If Ich is in the tank, any of them can host it and it will stay in the DT as long as it has hosts. Fish can have Ich without showing signs. If you only treat the one fish, it will go back into the DT that still has Ich present and can get it again.

Treatment for Ich is Hyposalinity or copper. Both do not work with reefs.

 

[Abiroad]

This morning the tang was laying on the sand bed.
We took him to the lfs where they immediately treated him with copper...he was going to out grow our 55 anyways so we thought it might be best to just let him stay there.

All of the other fish seemed fine. 2 clowns 1 6 line wrasse 2 chromis and 1 mandarin

i fed them mysis with garlic to hopefully help their immune systems.

but i just noticed the wrasse has one spot. So i guess we have to set up a qt.

we have a 20g long that is empty that was gonna be fuge. can all the fish go together? if we treat it with copper can we no longer use it as the fuge?

ahg

 

[Abiroad]

also- do mandarins not get ich? i think i read that somewhere, does that mean he can stay in the dt for the six weeks.

 

[aquandrew]

yes if you treat with copper you wont want to use it as a fuge after. mandarins can get ich and you should treat them also, they can get it but usually wont die from it and very rarely get ich in the wild so this is why its said they dont get it, but in aquarium systems they do.

 

[Abiroad]

i dont think they respond well to copper though, so id have to treat him separately...?

 

[aquandrew]

the mandarin will have to be treated with hyposalinity forgot about that maybe get another tank that you will use for the refuge and treat the mandarin in that with hyposalinity

 

[Mebbid]

The mandarin is the only problem with this. Unless he is eating frozen food he will probably starve to death while the DT is sitting fallow.

 

[Abiroad]

nothing good is coming of this.

we dont have the money/resources/time to run a qt for 6 weeks.

we are supplementing with garlic etc. religous water changes, and hoping for the best.

none of the other fish are showing any other symptoms so....

 

[Rutrag]

You could run all of the fish in QT together just using hyposalinity. However, as Mebbid said, unless the mandarin is eating frozen or pellets, he will likely starve in QT for lack of pods to hunt and eat. Unfirtunately, there's no real good solution for that particular fish.

If you have no inverts, you could do hyposalinity in the DT for 6 weeks and kill the parasite that way as well. You'll still be in the same boat with the mandarin, however.

EDIT: Nevermind the hypo in the DT. i just looked back at the photo and saw the mushrooms.

 

[TheTodd]

Is the mandarin eating anything other than pods?

 

[Abiroad]

yeah i really can't do anything in my dt. I have a bunch of coral.

The mandarin does eat frozen..when he wants to. He is selective, he gobbles hatched brine, and is pretty partial to frozen brine when it is wiggling just the right way, and he has eaten mysis a few times that i have seen.

Today none of the fish are showing any signs of ich. I have been dosing with garlic and feeding small amounts all through the day.

I know QT is best...but I have been reading of fat happy fish resisting he parasite and eventually dying off in the dt. And that a cleaner shrimp and wrasse helps which I have both.
Has anyone found any truth to this personally?

 

[Abiroad]

The tang was the newest addition and showed symptoms after 3 days. He was removed and taken to the lfs for treatment immediately. Could it have only been on him...?

 

[TheTodd]

It is in the tank. Starts off on the fish, drops off into sand/rock at a certain stage. It then multiplies and goes looking for a new host.

Fish can overcome stuff like Ich and they can have it without showing signs. Its the risk you take with not doing the QT treatment plus the fallow tank. Your fish might look healthy, the Ich is in the tank and you add a new fish down the road and the Ich "reappears" on them due to them being stressed.

Cleaner shrimp and gobies eat what is on the skin. The Ich parasite burrows into skin, so that white spot is not the parasite, but a skin reaction to it. They won't dig into the fish to get it. They don't hurt, but don't cure either.

 

[melosu58]

Some good info on the parasite

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

 

[Abiroad]

Thanks a lot everyone.

There is so much information to sift through on the topic, it can be really overwhelming.