Fish with Ich?

[Northstar24]

I've had this Potter's Angel in the tank for two weeks now, and he's been acting fairly normal and eating like a pig, but tonight when I was feeding the tank I noticed he had a white spot near his gill cover. The photo below is the best I could get, apparently he knows what a camera is, and dives into the rocks as soon as I get it out. All of the other fish look okay and are acting normal. Is this ich? I've read several places that Potter's are delicate and many opinions on line suggested putting them directly into the DT, which is what I did. Hopefully I'm over-reacting, but I dont think I am.

If it is Ich, is a reef safe treatment enough to get him to beat it? This guy is still pretty skittish when I get close to the tank, getting him out to do a QT would be a nightmare

 

[wontonflip]

It coule be ich...could just be a piece of sand. I've seen an occasional spot on my fish...like, one....but it falls off.

No real effective treatment for ich is reef safe. Most people just let them fight it out, but if you're willing to catch him and qt him, then you can do a hypo treatment. Problem is, once ich is in your tank, it will always be there....once you put him back in, he'll get it again. And it's likely the other fish have it as well.

You'd have to qt all the fish, treat them. and leave your tank w/o fish for 8 weeks to really get rid of ich. The best ones I've read are going hypo (dropping salinity to 1.009, then raising to normal levels very very slowly. Then of course, there's copper.

But again, others have had luck just letting them fight it out as long as they're eating.

 

[Northstar24]

Thanks Wonton, I'll keep an eye on him. I realize reef safe ich treatments are not 100% effective at killing ich, but I have read they help fish kick the current issues they're having

 

[wontonflip]

So does making sure they're eating healthy foods and keeping water parameters perfect :) Are you feeding frozen foods and

It's like humans...you get sick, but with the proper rest and fluids and foods, you can recover without meds. If it's ich, you'll also see it come and go, depending on any new stresses in their lives.

 

[SoccerPro522]

if you want a reef safe method use kick ich and add garlic to any food you feed him thats how I stopped ich and I have lots of experience with the evil disease

 

[Bifferwine]

Kick ich is not a cure for ich...

 

[SoccerPro522]

its not a cure but it stops it from killing your fish and the garlic builds up their immunity, it has saved my fish in the past, and water changes and i believe hypersalinity will speed up the life cycle and higher temp might as well

 

[Northstar24]

I feed a combination of frozen, flake, and pellet food several times a day. Everyone is eating when food goes in the tank

 

[BL1]

its not a cure but it stops it from killing your fish and the garlic builds up their immunity, it has saved my fish in the past, and water changes and i believe hypersalinity will speed up the life cycle and higher temp might as well

Selcon vitamin supplement will help their immune system, garlic is just an appetite stimulant for fish. Hyposalinity and possibly higher temps will kill the ich off but neither are reef safe, all the fish would need to be moved to a QT to be treated that way.

 

[BL1]

I feed a combination of frozen, flake, and pellet food several times a day. Everyone is eating when food goes in the tank

What are your nitrates and phosphates at with that much feeding?

 

[Northstar24]

Nitrates have been 0 since after the cycle, with some growth of Chaeto in the fuge, but I dont really have much algae growth in the DT

I'm not currently testing for Phospate, but I probably should be

I usually feed twice a day, once with the flake/pellet and once with a cube of frozen, I'm planning on switching to frozen entirely when the flake/pellet that I have is used up

 

[Northstar24]

Okay, so I was able to get a better look today, and the white spot is just behind the gill and its fuzzy like a cotton ball. I've researched a little bit online and it sounds more like a fungus than Ich.

I was planning on adding a cleaner shrimp - is that something it would take care of when it cleans a fish?

I'm also going to get some selcon and start soaking the food in that.

 

[chuysvt]

i both a uv sterilizer...it works realy good with ick..some people dont like them but works realy good..