Pipefish ich and mandarin disease

[Bribri21]

So I am very embarrassed that this is my first post, I tried to finish my tank before posting anything and this happened.
I had a pair of banded pipefish and a female mandarin goby in my DT, but it was too hard to train them onto frozen in the DT so I moved them over into a 10 gallon (same tank water) I have a steady source of live food, and the banded pipe and mandarin were always out in the open swimming, but one day, starting with my mandarin, they became very skittish and very shy. I noticed the pipefish have white spots on their fins and the mandarin has a white layer surrounding her. I'm guessing this is ich, but I don't know a safe way to cure these guys since they are bad with hypo and copper. Can anybody please help me?
Thank you

 

[melypr1985]

I'm sorry to say this, but reading the behavioral symptoms and looking at the pictures I'm thinking velvet. Are they breathing heavy/fast? Are they eating still? Are the spots tiny like sugar or bigger like salt?

 

[Bribri21]

The spots are large like salt, they pipefish are eating the live food, and although very rarely, I see the mandarin picking at food. The breathing seems almost slow but I'm sure it's just because they don't move much.

 

[melypr1985]

The spots are large like salt, they pipefish are eating the live food, and although very rarely, I see the mandarin picking at food. The breathing seems almost slow but I'm sure it's just because they don't move much.

Ok. that could be good news. You can run them through TTM ( tank transfer method) safely enough. You'll have to provide live foods for them every day, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for you. Of course, you would need to be sure that your source for those haven't been contaminated by ick first. Here's how: Tank Transfer Method Caution because this only treats ick. If they have velvet you wont see any improvement at all.

 

[Bribri21]

Ok thank you very much for the help! I will try this method out for sure! It seems like the best option. I hope these guys make it, they still seem pretty healthy so I hope it stays that way.

 

[melypr1985]

Ok thank you very much for the help! I will try this method out for sure! It seems like the best option. I hope these guys make it, they still seem pretty healthy so I hope it stays that way.

Me too! Keep us posted and Welcome to R2R!

 

[Humblefish]

^^ Agree with Meredith; TTM is the optimal way to treat ich with these two species. Backup plan would be Chloroquine phosphate which treats both ich & velvet. The mandy should tolerate CP well, but I've read it can be harsh on pipefish: http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?572204-Pipefish-and-Chloroquine

 

[Bribri21]

Ok, thank you very much. I will keep that back up plan in mind. If the things start to come back or fish start to weaken I may have to risk using medication.