Hey everyone, I recently switched over to saltwater and everything has been going good until I noticed some spots on my damsel. From what I can see there is none on the actual body of the fish but just one on the tail fin and one on the pectoral fin. I have attached a picture showing the one on the tail fin. I'm thinking it might be marine ich but it has me confused since its only on the two fins and there is only 4 white spots. The fish is acting normal and is still eating like crazy. Any ideas?? (On the picture is behind the third stripe about halfway on the fish)
Newbie Question
- Thread starter Hart
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Bifferwine
I am a girl
It's hard to tell from the picture, but ich looks like sugar grains on a fish -- like this:
It usually starts off on and is most visible on the fins and tails, though.
Did you let your tank cycle before you added the fish? If your water parameters were not in check when you added them, the stress from the water quality could cause an outbreak of ich.
In general, if you leave it alone, it will go away (not away, away -- the fish will always carry it, just not show symptoms or suffer from it). It is an opportunistic parasite that thrives when fish are stressed or unhealthy.
How many fish and what type do you have in the tank? If fish are incompatible with their tankmates or overstocked, that is a common cause of outbreaks.
Me, personally, if the fish are eating and acting normally, I'd wait it out and see if it improves on its own. There is cause for concern if the fish stop eating. But as long as they are acting healthy and normal, it isn't much to worry about.
Here is a good read for you:
https://www.livingreefs.com/oh-no-have-ich-do-do-t30950.html
It usually starts off on and is most visible on the fins and tails, though.
Did you let your tank cycle before you added the fish? If your water parameters were not in check when you added them, the stress from the water quality could cause an outbreak of ich.
In general, if you leave it alone, it will go away (not away, away -- the fish will always carry it, just not show symptoms or suffer from it). It is an opportunistic parasite that thrives when fish are stressed or unhealthy.
How many fish and what type do you have in the tank? If fish are incompatible with their tankmates or overstocked, that is a common cause of outbreaks.
Me, personally, if the fish are eating and acting normally, I'd wait it out and see if it improves on its own. There is cause for concern if the fish stop eating. But as long as they are acting healthy and normal, it isn't much to worry about.
Here is a good read for you:
https://www.livingreefs.com/oh-no-have-ich-do-do-t30950.html
Bifferwine
I am a girl
One more thing -- damsels are very aggressive and will often fight to the death, with each other and other fish. They are some of the biggest bullies in the hobby. If your damsels are chasing or picking on each other, they are probably going to start knocking each other off one by one until only the strongest is left. For this reason, they are not a good fish to start with -- they have a tendency to mercilessly bully anything you try to add afterwards. This stress can easily cause ich outbreaks in fish that are being pushed around. So consider if your fish are fighting.
Yes the tank has cycled. It was about three weeks for that the LFS helped walk me through everything on that and was testing the water for me every time I went in there. I have 3 damsels and 1 clown fish. I have some randoms crabs in there also as a cleaner crew. Do you think I should get a cleaner shrimp?? I was reading online that they help clean the fish? Just did a 6 in 1 test strip and everything came back fine according to the chart. Also the Hydrometer said I was at between 1.023 and 1.022. Thanks for your help, I read that link and it's confusing me to what the fish has since its not all over the body. I will keep an eye on the fish and see if it spreads. If it does spread how long does it usually take??
Bifferwine
I am a girl
I think you moved too fast with those fish. You should add no more than one fish every 2 to 3 weeks. It really takes the bacteria in the tank a couple weeks in between additions to catch up to the increased bioload. Stocking slowly reduces stress on the fish and keeps water quality high.
A cleaner shrimp may help pick off the visible ich on the fish's scales, but it won't be able to do anything for the other life stages of ich. Shrimp are cool to have anyways, and I'd get one or two regardless of ich.
If it doesn't spread, the spots could just be irritations, scrapes or wounds from something else. Ich usually spreads very quickly -- sometimes a fish will look normal one day, then you turn on the light the next morning and it's covered in spots. I think if it is going to get worse, you will see it spread within a couple days.
A cleaner shrimp may help pick off the visible ich on the fish's scales, but it won't be able to do anything for the other life stages of ich. Shrimp are cool to have anyways, and I'd get one or two regardless of ich.
If it doesn't spread, the spots could just be irritations, scrapes or wounds from something else. Ich usually spreads very quickly -- sometimes a fish will look normal one day, then you turn on the light the next morning and it's covered in spots. I think if it is going to get worse, you will see it spread within a couple days.
FishyReef
Broke Reefer!
I just wanted to mention that you should really upgrade your testing supplies to a test kit that doesn't use strips and to a refractometer to measure your salinity. Both test strips and hydrometers are notoriously inaccurate and the readings you are getting with them may be substantially different from what your water quality and salinity actually is. Also I've heard that many LFS's use test strips to test the water as well, so best to get your own kits - many people here use API test kits and recommend them; SeaChem and Salifert also have good reputations.
