Damselfish with ich

[maheenio]

Hi guys. First saltwater tank, 55g. My dad & sister brought home a damselfish from Petco thinking it would be a surprise.


My tanks been running for around 2 months. I was not happy i had to introduce a random fish. I never buy a fish without inspecting it fully & asking a thousand questions.


She seemed to be okay, just some white discolouration on her sides & posted on reddit and some other platforms & learned it was just loss of scales probably from diving deep into the rocks right as she came in. Also asked the Petco aquatics guy my dad purchased the fish from. He said nothing to worry about.

Now I'm thinking it's ich. Theres around 4 tinyyy spots on her fins. I have around 5 other fish in the tank and do not have a quarantine tank.


She's very active, and eating well. I’ve noticed flashing behaviour against the sand as well. Should I return her back to the store as a surrender? I know it won't solve the problem, but she's the only fish with visible dots. It might be difficult to see in the video, but I definitely do see tiny dots.


This is a FOWLR. I have no snails, corals, inverts. So I would be ok with dosing medicine into the tank if that is acceptable. Please let me know as I'm really concerned… :(


Thank you.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi guys. First saltwater tank, 55g. My dad & sister brought home a damselfish from Petco thinking it would be a surprise.


My tanks been running for around 2 months. I was not happy i had to introduce a random fish. I never buy a fish without inspecting it fully & asking a thousand questions.


She seemed to be okay, just some white discolouration on her sides & posted on reddit and some other platforms & learned it was just loss of scales probably from diving deep into the rocks right as she came in. Also asked the Petco aquatics guy my dad purchased the fish from. He said nothing to worry about.

Now I'm thinking it's ich. Theres around 4 tinyyy spots on her fins. I have around 5 other fish in the tank and do not have a quarantine tank.


She's very active, and eating well. I’ve noticed flashing behaviour against the sand as well. Should I return her back to the store as a surrender? I know it won't solve the problem, but she's the only fish with visible dots. It might be difficult to see in the video, but I definitely do see tiny dots.


This is a FOWLR. I have no snails, corals, inverts. So I would be ok with dosing medicine into the tank if that is acceptable. Please let me know as I'm really concerned… :(


Thank you.

It’s best to keep all posts about the same fish in the same thread.

Scratching is more a symptom of flukes. The fish may well have both. Luckily, with no invertebrates in the tank you can run hyposalinity. Here is my article about that:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hyposalinity.880546/