1 fish has ich, others don't -what to do?

sen5241b

Reef enthusiast
I finally caught my Mandarin Goby, his spots have spread since the first ones appeared a week ago. My other 2 fish (6 line and yellow clown goby) do not have a single spot. Are they resistant? Do I really need to setup a hospital tanks for all and treat??

BTW, his spot are more like white pustules, which is, I think, Oodinium and not ich.
 
The other fish are probably not stressed so i wouldnt worry about them.

Is the fish with the spots eating? as long as he is eating, just let him be. If he starts to show serious signs like breathing heavy or not eating, its time to take more serious action. I would then put him in a QT and treat him there for at least 4-6 weeks.
 
He definitely had fin rot a week ago and nitrates were a bit above 20ppm. Mandarin Gobies need excellent water quality. I did a 40% water change and the fin rot was gone the next day.

He is eating! The spots began a week ago and they have spread. A few days ago he began scratching himself on the substrate.

What medicine should I use?
 
He is quarantined and swiming around a little. The only diseases that have white pustules or pimples is Oodinium and Chilodonella --both a single cell parasite. I've read copper and formalin are bad for MDs and can just make them worse. Heat, hypo-salinity? What to do?
 
+2 Dustin. It did wonders in my tank. Just be sure to bring the salinity up very slowly when your ready to raise it back to normal. Also, I lost all my pods in my tank so you may want to get some live pods when your done.
 
I've had the best luck over the years with the do nothing approach. If the fish seems to be doing well otherwise a lot of times after the first round of ich parsites run their course and drop off they do not come back. I've also never had my other fish catch it. This assumes the fish are in good considtion and tank parameters are overall good. You could monitor the situation and take more drastic action later if needed. My undertstanding with copper is that besides harming many things non-fish a residual stays in the tank a long time after the treatment is done.
 
The ich remains in the tank. The fish will fight it on their own when they are not too stressed. You will probably see signs of ich if your fish get overly stressed.
 
i agree with game, as long as the fish eats dont do anything and let it fight it on its own. you dont want to do anything to add more stress to the fish, but if it stops eating its time to start hypo
 
Thanks for the info all. I considered doing nothing for a week but then the spots spread and after 5 days or so he began to scratch. I've had him quarantined for a couple days if he starts looking better I'll return him to main tank if he is still just as bad or getting worse I'll use hypo-salinity.
 
If he's already in a QT, I would use hyposalinity and either potassium permanganate, simply malachite green (not malachite green / formalin), or chloroquine.
 
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