Ich? Flukes? Idk?!

[Bobby Lee]

So in short a few months ago i thought i had ich so my buddy and I tireless caught all 8 of my fish friends out of the 180.

Put them in a hospital tank with copper treatment for 7 weeks while we let the 180 ich problem cycle itself. While the fish were in the hospital tank, i saw no sign of ich during the process and treated with Prazipro.

After 7 weeks, I put the fish back and seems ich may re-emerged. Didnt add anything to the main tank during the whole issue.

Looking at the Purple tang today and now i cant tell if its ich or something else.

Put prazipro into the main tank to see if it changes anything. Crossing fingers.

 

[Jdubs]

I’m no expert but could be flukes. I had them on my flame hawk fish about a month ago. After treating with prazipro one evening waking up the next day going to work they were starting to come off when I got home after work. So in short if it’s flukes you should see it working after about 24 hours or a little less using prazi pro. Hope that gives you some hope.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I can’t tell if it’s ich or not in the pics. Are the spots raised like grains of salt stuck to him? Or is it more of a powdered appearance?
Anything added recently? How long was DT fallow for?
Ich requires 76 days fallow, velvet is 6 weeks, flukes is 4 weeks.
What copper did you use and what level did you maintain?

 

[Bobby Lee]

Praying its flukes... praying hard! Just hoping it wasn't too late for treatment

 

[sean rand]

Looks like velvet to me.

 

[Bobby Lee]

I can’t tell if it’s ich or not in the pics. Are the spots raised like grains of salt stuck to him? Or is it more of a powdered appearance?
Anything added recently? How long was DT fallow for?
Ich requires 76 days fallow, velvet is 6 weeks, flukes is 4 weeks.
What copper did you use and what level did you maintain?

Maintained copper to 0.2
Wasn't 76 days so my fault. Went for 49 days.
At first it looked like grains of salt. Not just looks like he's covered in white dust. Even on the bottom of his belly i saw what looked like "white hair" so thought it would be some kind of worm

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Plus one on velvet. How are they eating?

 

[drstardust]

That unfortunately looks like velvet to me, though a couple of spots look large enough to be ich. Both can be present simultaneously, too. Which copper did you use and how did you test? 0.2 is quite low for all forms of copper except actual ionic copper sulfate pentahydrate, which none of the common products are. It may be that you had subtherapeutic copper levels which kept the disease at bay but did not eradicate it. I don't see anything that screams flukes, but a FW dip can't hurt, both for relief and identification of possible flukes.

 

[Bobby Lee]

Plus one on velvet. How are they eating?

Eating like they never ate before.
The purple tang and yellow longnose butterfly have the parasite for sure. Clowns look like they make be catching it. Overall when i feed, they show no signs of not being hungry. Purple tang has probably had it for 2 weeks now too!

 

[Bobby Lee]

That unfortunately looks like velvet to me, though a couple of spots look large enough to be ich. Both can be present simultaneously, too. Which copper did you use and how did you test? 0.2 is quite low for all forms of copper except actual ionic copper sulfate pentahydrate, which none of the common products are. It may be that you had subtherapeutic copper levels which kept the disease at bay but did not eradicate it. I don't see anything that screams flukes, but a FW dip can't hurt, both for relief and identification of possible flukes.

Catching them is a pain now. Unsure the type. My friend just gave me his that worked for his fish. Used the Slaifert test kit which is a pain to read but tried my best to maintain the 0.2 on the color scale.

 

[4FordFamily]

That unfortunately looks like velvet to me, though a couple of spots look large enough to be ich. Both can be present simultaneously, too. Which copper did you use and how did you test? 0.2 is quite low for all forms of copper except actual ionic copper sulfate pentahydrate, which none of the common products are. It may be that you had subtherapeutic copper levels which kept the disease at bay but did not eradicate it. I don't see anything that screams flukes, but a FW dip can't hurt, both for relief and identification of possible flukes.

I agree that you’re dealing with velvet. An acriflavine bath followed by treatment in copper again is recommended. A freshwater dip would help if you do not have acriflavine readily available but not quite as effective for immediate relief. 76 days is best practice for the fallow period. Sorry for the trouble—been there

 

[Bobby Lee]

I agree that you’re dealing with velvet. An acriflavine bath followed by treatment in copper again is recommended. A freshwater dip would help if you do not have acriflavine readily available but not quite as effective for immediate relief. 76 days is best practice for the fallow period. Sorry for the trouble—been there

Thanks for the advice and no worries. Glad that the hobbyists are very helpful!

 

[Jdubs]

Praying its flukes... praying hard! Just hoping it wasn't too late for treatment

Hard to tell by the pics but when my hawkfish had it they were more like an oval white circle. Didn’t really look like a worm to me until I treated it and then started releasing and falling off. Hope you get it figured out. Nothing more frustrating then not being able to tell so you can try to get rid of it.

 

[Bobby Lee]

Just an update. The tang is looking great. Never removed him. Just kept him well fed and now nothing on him. But i did lose some fish. Turned out to be velvet and maybe ich. The yellow longnose, 3 clowns and 2 file fishes died. Only left is my purple tang, bluesided wrasse, and watchman goby. All show no signs of diseases so crossing fingers.

 

[bluprntguy]

Just an update. The tang is looking great. Never removed him. Just kept him well fed and now nothing on him. But i did lose some fish. Turned out to be velvet and maybe ich. The yellow longnose, 3 clowns and 2 file fishes died. Only left is my purple tang, bluesided wrasse, and watchman goby. All show no signs of diseases so crossing fingers.

Sorry to hear about the fish losses, but glad some pulled through.

Do you have anything in your tank to manage ich/velvet? Usually people that manage these diseases employ either strong UV or densely placed coral to help keep the numbers of the parasites down. Without some type of mechanism, it's possible that this is just a lull in the storm while the disease reproduces.

If you don't remove all the fish and let your tank go fallow, the disease continues to cycle and infect the fish, but the fish don't display symptoms. When you introduce new fish or there is a stressor event (power outage, heater malfunction, etc), the disease can show up again.

Since you appear to have a barren system, I'd highly recommend removing the existing fish and treating them while letting the tank go fallow.

 

[Bobby Lee]

Sorry to hear about the fish losses, but glad some pulled through.

Do you have anything in your tank to manage ich/velvet? Usually people that manage these diseases employ either strong UV or densely placed coral to help keep the numbers of the parasites down. Without some type of mechanism, it's possible that this is just a lull in the storm while the disease reproduces.

If you don't remove all the fish and let your tank go fallow, the disease continues to cycle and infect the fish, but the fish don't display symptoms. When you introduce new fish or there is a stressor event (power outage, heater malfunction, etc), the disease can show up again.

Since you appear to have a barren system, I'd highly recommend removing the existing fish and treating them while letting the tank go fallow.

I don't plan on introducing new fish until i fully quarantine it.
Just need to clean up some space, move some empty tanks I've been hoarding and then will start that process.
The good part is the tank is a friends and he is in the process of getting a house (been using it for almost two years) so that will give me a reason to break it all down and move inverts to their own quarantine tank and the fish to theirs.

Ive debated in UV system as i heard they are hit and miss but so is everything else haha so may buy one and just feel mentally accomplished on preventing the outbreak.