Ich or something worse

[Neilie]

New yellow tang my son brought it home for me for Father’s Day. Noticed these dots on his body just today. Wondering if it’s ich or something else. Eats well and swims fine, so far. Hope the pictures shows them enough to diagnose.

 

[ndrwater]

Looks like Ich.......

 

[vetteguy53081]

New yellow tang my son brought it home for me for Father’s Day. Noticed these dots on his body just today. Wondering if it’s ich or something else. Eats well and swims fine, so far. Hope the pictures shows them enough to diagnose.

These are mucus cones often from a skin irritation and at times are mixed in with ich and Often you will notice other occupants show no signs but recommended is to remove all fish and treat them as well using coppersafe or copper power for a full 30 days at 2.25ppm which they respond to well and add an air stone and monitor copper level with a reliable Copper Test kit such as Hanna Brand- No API brand. Also monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit and add aeration during treatment using an air stone.

 

[winxp_man]

My last tang I got, that had these cones ended up being ich. If they drop off fish in about 3-7 days. Then reattach. If you see the numbers increase it’s ich.

I have a microscope system, and most of the time these cones turn out to be ich. I see some of the spots on fins too. Keep an eye out after spots disappear, to see If they come back in bigger numbers

Follow Vettes post for the protocol.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

That's a moderate case of ich. Those spots (trophonts) will drop off and the fish will seem to improve, but then they'll return and in greater numbers.

This is going to be a difficult issue - all exposed fish are going to need to be treated, but the treatments (hyposalinity or coppersafe) cannot be done in a tank with invertebrates/corals.

 

[Neilie]

Thanks for the feed back, this is going to be almost impossible to take all the fish out without a major tear down. I was running a UV for about 8 hrs a day, would it help if I run it 24hrs? Otherwise I may have to tear it apart it’s been together about 8-9 years.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks for the feed back, this is going to be almost impossible to take all the fish out without a major tear down. I was running a UV for about 8 hrs a day, would it help if I run it 24hrs? Otherwise I may have to tear it apart it’s been together about 8-9 years.

Problem is UV will not erase ich at this point requiring treatment. I run mine for 12 hours at night and previously full time. So called reef safe meds do not work and teardown unfortunately may be necessary

 

[Uncle99]

UV won’t hurt but would not stop the ick cycle.

I had the same issue, was simply not possible to break down, thousands of dollars in full size corals.

So I could do nothing but hope some fish would be spared.

That fish died along with a clown, a gramma and a dottyback.

11 fish survived. Maybe just lucky.

It’s been 5+ years post ick infection, all 11, still happy, I just replaced the dead fish.

While ick can kill every fish, it doesn’t always end that way.

If it is impossible to reasonably get ALL fish out, what’s the choice.

 

[W31Olds]

How many fish do you need to remove? It looks you have a 60 Gallon Breeder. Can't be that many fish in there.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for the feed back, this is going to be almost impossible to take all the fish out without a major tear down. I was running a UV for about 8 hrs a day, would it help if I run it 24hrs? Otherwise I may have to tear it apart it’s been together about 8-9 years.

The UV needs to be run 24/7 and the bulb needs to have less than 8000 hours on it. Still, UV alone isn't going to eliminate this case of ich, it is too far advanced. You *might* still be able to employ multiple ich management techniques and get it under control, but I really think a full treatment is needed here.

Here is my post on ich management:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-management.1028274/

 

[MnFish1]

This might sound somewhat harsh, but it's not meant that way. The best way (as others have said) to fix your problem is a quarantine/treatment 'tank' - which can be very simple. A tub (food safe, an ammonia alert badge, the ability to change water if ammonia rises, a copper test kit and heater. Leave your other tank without any fish for 8 weeks. This is one of the problems when one does not quarantine fish (which also seems difficult) - but is far easier than what you should do now. Again - I'm not criticizing you for not quarantining. But - you bought the fish, they have a disease, and IMHO, it's your (and your sons) responsibility to treat the illness.

 

[ReefTankENG]

I would “manage” it. 24/7 UV, cleaner shrimp, feed lots of Nori with Amnio acids to give your tang vitamins to fight the ich.

 

[Privateye]

Thanks for the feed back, this is going to be almost impossible to take all the fish out without a major tear down. I was running a UV for about 8 hrs a day, would it help if I run it 24hrs? Otherwise I may have to tear it apart it’s been together about 8-9 years.

Unfortunately most UVs marketed for a given tank volume are incapable of sterilizing marine ich in that volume. If you want to post your UV model and tank volume I'd be happy to look at it, but I doubt that changing the way you operate your unit would have prevented this from happening.

Sorry man, we've all been there. It sucks bad.

 

[winxp_man]

Op, catching fish can be done with a trap, or one by one at night with a red light and a net. You just have to follow where they sleep if you have fish that hide in the crevasse of rocks.

 

[Neilie]

How many fish do you need to remove? It looks you have a 60 Gallon Breeder. Can't be that many fish in there.

8 and all go hide when I put my hands in the tank except the clown fish he bits me

 

[oldschoolreefer26]

A fish trap and a qt tank should do the trick.

 

[Neilie]

Unfortunately most UVs marketed for a given tank volume are incapable of sterilizing marine ich in that volume. If you want to post your UV model and tank volume I'd be happy to look at it, but I doubt that changing the way you operate your unit would have prevented this from happening.

Sorry man, we've all been there. It sucks bad.

80 gallons volume with the 25 watt Aqua sterilizer

 

[Neilie]

This might sound somewhat harsh, but it's not meant that way. The best way (as others have said) to fix your problem is a quarantine/treatment 'tank' - which can be very simple. A tub (food safe, an ammonia alert badge, the ability to change water if ammonia rises, a copper test kit and heater. Leave your other tank without any fish for 8 weeks. This is one of the problems when one does not quarantine fish (which also seems difficult) - but is far easier than what you should do now. Again - I'm not criticizing you for not quarantining. But - you bought the fish, they have a disease, and IMHO, it's your (and your sons) responsibility to treat the illness.

Thanks for the input, I did get the fish from a reputable local fish store and it was quarantined before he sold it to my son. So I was told

 

[Privateye]

80 gallons volume with the 25 watt Aqua sterilizer

Thank you for the quick info. Honestly, that puts you in a range where you'd have to contact Aqua UV. It's below their "minimum flow rate" but I can't speak as to why, so I must defer. I once left two 40W Pentair UVs on with no flow for 2 weeks and they were fine. Still fine 2 years later. Perhaps Aqua UV uses different technology though (e.g. amalgam lamps, which run hotter).

Basically, because the UV dose depends on the model (and it's not exactly linear with flow, especially at low and high values) idk what a flow rate of, say, 150 GPH might yield for you in terms of UV dose. It's far outside of their chart (which is a bit limited). That info can only come from the manufacturer. You may need to try and bypass the average customer service reps too - they may default to "it's below our minimum recommended flow rate" or something. You probably need to talk to someone there that has access to a sizing tool of some kind. Something that isn't shared with the average phone-jockey. I say that as a former phone-jockey for another UV manufacturer lol.

 

[Neilie]

Thank you for the quick info. Honestly, that puts you in a range where you'd have to contact Aqua UV. It's below their "minimum flow rate" but I can't speak as to why, so I must defer. I once left two 40W Pentair UVs on with no flow for 2 weeks and they were fine. Still fine 2 years later. Perhaps Aqua UV uses different technology though (e.g. amalgam lamps, which run hotter).

Basically, because the UV dose depends on the model (and it's not exactly linear with flow, especially at low and high values) idk what a flow rate of, say, 150 GPH might yield for you in terms of UV dose. It's far outside of their chart (which is a bit limited). That info can only come from the manufacturer. You may need to try and bypass the average customer service reps too - they may default to "it's below our minimum recommended flow rate" or something. You probably need to talk to someone there that has access to a sizing tool of some kind. Something that isn't shared with the average phone-jockey. I say that as a former phone-jockey for another UV manufacturer lol.

Thanks