Ich on my hippo

[caity]

Over the past week my hippo got white spots... they have gone away now and no other fish seem to have any. I did nothing different with my tank and levels are good. I didn't treat with medication since I have corals and other inverts. Has anyone else experienced this before? My hippo has gotten ich once before months ago for only a few days. Like I said I can't find anything different with water parameters, she is a pig when it comes to seaweed and her colors have stayed consistant. I know tangs are prone to ich but this just sees strange to me.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

How many spots? Are you sure it's ich?

The reason I ask is that on more than one occasion my fish have gotten white spots that I thought was ich. Turns out they just had some small sand grains in their slime coat that went away after a day or two.

 

[caity]

It was ich, it was on it for 4 days before it started going away. In the same spot. I've mistaken sand for ich on my engineer goby but my hippo definitely had it.

 

[caity]

It started out with about 5 on its side and got more on both sides till it went away.

 

[Duke4Life]

Have you thought about pulling all fish and treating, while letting your tank sit fallow 2 rid?

 

[caity]

I would do that but I do not have the money to set up a big enough quarantine. Ich has not been a real problem with me. I just noticed this was the second time this has happened with my hippo and maybe there was something I'm missing. It wasn't a lot of spots maybe 15 all together and they did not last long. I know I should put all my fish in a separate quarantine tank and let the ich run its cycle. But since it has not been and very big problem for me I can see spending money I don't exactly have for a tank I have no where to put. My usual quarantine is a 20 long that I use for my new comers but I simply have too many fish that are way too large to be able to do that with the resources I have.

 

[Duke4Life]

Can fish have a chronic disease like some of us? @Humblefish

 

[Humblefish]

Two reasons the OP may not be seeing ich on a consistent basis:

1. The trophonts are harboring inside the gills, out of sight, most of the time. This happens when the number of theronts (free swimmers) are light and/or the fish has a thick mucous coat which protects them.
2. Some fish are able to build up temporary immunity. The two threads below discuss this aspect in more detail.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/protective-immunity-against-cryptocaryon-irritans.240367/

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a-discussion-on-immunity.209701/

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Have you ever tried anything like Kick Ich? Just a thought.

 

[Brian Kim]

I would do that but I do not have the money to set up a big enough quarantine. Ich has not been a real problem with me. I just noticed this was the second time this has happened with my hippo and maybe there was something I'm missing. It wasn't a lot of spots maybe 15 all together and they did not last long. I know I should put all my fish in a separate quarantine tank and let the ich run its cycle. But since it has not been and very big problem for me I can see spending money I don't exactly have for a tank I have no where to put. My usual quarantine is a 20 long that I use for my new comers but I simply have too many fish that are way too large to be able to do that with the resources I have.

Not sure if this will help but I have a 20 long and a 10 I can lend you if you are in NY

 

[caity]

I live in PA thank you though. I have not tried kick ich, I always hear about it but have never tried it. From what I know copper is the only thing that actually kills ich and I obviously can't use that in my tank. Other reef safe medicines usually have a disclaimer that anemones and corals will close up for up to a week and I can see stressing my other life to help get a few spots off my tang. I am already trying to nurse a sebae who just started to regained coloration. I don't want to do anything to stress it out or kill it because if that happens my water quality could easily go down the toilet and I could have an outbreak on my hands. I most certainly do not want that. I run a uv sterilizer which definitely helps me keep ich under control when it does physically present itself on a fish, I know it does not kill ich but it makes it so it cannot reproduce and run rampant. Other than that I understand ich is not deadly on the wild because of the volume of water in the ocean it cannot reproduce and attach fast enough to me lethal. So going off of that I upped my water changes to about 10 gallons a day for 6 days and added stress coat to build the slime coat back up on my fish. I just get really nervous adding things to my tank; I know in some cases it's necessary. I am also worried if I were to move my fish to a quarantine tank that it would unnecessarily stress out my fish since they are in a 120 and any quarantine would be significantly smaller.

 

[melypr1985]

Most of these "reef safe" meds are just ways to help you manage ich in the tank. It's not a cure and doesn't kill it. If it get's to be a problem for you it may be easier to relocate your inverts and corals and run Hypo on the tank. In the mean time, keep doing what your doing and make sure to feed the most nutritious food you can find while adding vitamin supplements like Selcon (for example) to keep their immune system as healthy as possible.

 

[caity]

In my opinion I have it managed pretty well without putting things in my tank that can possibly damage or kill inverts in my tank. No one else had had ich and the tang has only gotten a small amount twice since having it for about 8 months. I'm just trying to figure out the cause or if anyone has had anything similar happen. I wish I would see signs before the ich becomes present, like scratching. I have a fire shrimp and have not seen it in a while but just saw a skeleton so I'm assuming it's in there still but even when I did see it frequently it didn't clean extremely often. Not that a cleaner shrimp should be my only defense against ich

 

[melypr1985]

In my opinion I have it managed pretty well without putting things in my tank that can possibly damage or kill inverts in my tank. No one else had had ich and the tang has only gotten a small amount twice since having it for about 8 months. I'm just trying to figure out the cause or if anyone has had anything similar happen. I wish I would see signs before the ich becomes present, like scratching. I have a fire shrimp and have not seen it in a while but just saw a skeleton so I'm assuming it's in there still but even when I did see it frequently it didn't clean extremely often. Not that a cleaner shrimp should be my only defense against ich

Well the reason you only see it every now and then is because you are managing it well. The life cycle of ich means you'll only see signs of it for a few days at a time. Your probably only seeing the outward signs of it (spots) because the hippo got stressed for some reason and gave the ich an easy path to showing itself more. Ich will always be in your system until you let it go fallow so you'll probably see it every now and then when something happens.... a fish fight, dispute, heater issue - whatever. Remember, your just one stressor even away from a full blown outbreak *knocks on wood*
Hopefully you dont have anything like that happen.

 

[caity]

Yeah I know it's in my system and ell be there unless I have no fish in it for a month. I just cannot figure out what is stressing out the hippo. It is actually the most aggressive (only food aggression) I was careful to try to keep my community as peaceful as possible. It is the biggest fish and only tang in my tank so I'm thinking it has to be water quality but I haven't seen anything off with it. I'm just scratching my head

 

[melypr1985]

Yeah I know it's in my system and ell be there unless I have no fish in it for a month. I just cannot figure out what is stressing out the hippo. It is actually the most aggressive (only food aggression) I was careful to try to keep my community as peaceful as possible. It is the biggest fish and only tang in my tank so I'm thinking it has to be water quality but I haven't seen anything off with it. I'm just scratching my head

Hmm. Sorry, but I guess I can't be of much help at this point. I think you'll have to go through the check list one by one and see what's off. Sit back and watch all the fish from across the room so they can't see you. They always act differently when they can see you. Make sure nobody is being a bully. Then start on water parameters. Then check equipment- make sure no electricity is leaking into the tank and nothing else is messed up. Ect ect... going down the list like that. You should find at least one thing off.

 

[caity]

Okay thank and unless I'm feeding or out of sight the hippo usually won't come out. It's kinda a scary cat lol. I will get to the bottom of this though. It is such a pretty fish.