Ick outbreak

[LoganGG]

Just got off work and came home to check on my tank and noticed my blue tang had white spots, upon further inspection, most of the other fish have them too. I’m 99% sure it’s ick and i’ll provide a picture to confirm, but how can I get rid of the ick without killing any of my shrimp or coral. I don’t have a QT tank setup and i’m not sure what to do. any help is appreciated.

 

[threebuoys]

Photos will help confirm your diagnosis. Also, do you notice rapid breathing in any of the fish?

Unfortunately, the medication protocol that is effective for ich or velvet is copper. Invertebrates and coral cannot tolerate copper. Other products that advertise the ability to treat ich in a display tank without harming coral or invertebrates sadly also do not harm ich.

The fact you see spots on all of your fish certainly suggests ich or velvet are highly likely, but post the pictures to be sure.

 

[LoganGG]

Photos will help confirm your diagnosis. Also, do you notice rapid breathing in any of the fish?

Unfortunately, the medication protocol that is effective for ich or velvet is copper. Invertebrates and coral cannot tolerate copper. Other products that advertise the ability to treat ich in a display tank without harming coral or invertebrates sadly also do not harm ich.

The fact you see spots on all of your fish certainly suggests ich or velvet are highly likely, but post the pictures to be sure.

 

[LoganGG]

Photos will help confirm your diagnosis. Also, do you notice rapid breathing in any of the fish?

Unfortunately, the medication protocol that is effective for ich or velvet is copper. Invertebrates and coral cannot tolerate copper. Other products that advertise the ability to treat ich in a display tank without harming coral or invertebrates sadly also do not harm ich.

The fact you see spots on all of your fish certainly suggests ich or velvet are highly likely, but post the pictures to be sure.

Are there any effective methods of curing it without harming inverts? I wish I had the money and space for a QT tank.

 

[threebuoys]

The spots on the blue tang appear very large. Ich spots are usually smaller. They also seem to be confined to just the tail. Pictures with white light would be easier to see. Do any of the fish have spots on areas other than the tail fin? How long have you had the blue tang?

This is possibly something other than ich, so more photos of this fish and others will be helpful.

 

[LoganGG]

The spots on the blue tang appear very large. Ich spots are usually smaller. They also seem to be confined to just the tail. Pictures with white light would be easier to see. Do any of the fish have spots on areas other than the tail fin? How long have you had the blue tang?

This is possibly something other than ich, so more photos of this fish and others will be helpful.

i could only snag this picture of the tang, and I noticed my foxface acting strange too.

 

[LoganGG]

I got the blue tang about two weeks ago now and it’s the newest addition. Everything seemed to be okay up until this point. My trigger and the blue tang both have spots on their faces. My foxface is fully camouflaged and seems to be breathing heavily and acting strange. It’s all very sudden considering 12 hours ago they were looking good at feeding time.

 

[threebuoys]

Continue to post pics as you are able to get them. I see the spots around the face of the tang. They do look more like ich,

To answer your earlier question, the two treatments known to work with ich are copper and hyposalinity. Both are deadly to invertebrates and corals.

 

[LoganGG]

Continue to post pics as you are able to get them. I see the spots around the face of the tang. They do look more like ich,

To answer your earlier question, the two treatments known to work with ich are copper and hyposalinity. Both are deadly to invertebrates and corals.

What are the chances a lfs would be willing to treat them. I was just about to go on vacation tomorrow and I genuinely don’t know what to do.

 

[LoganGG]

Continue to post pics as you are able to get them. I see the spots around the face of the tang. They do look more like ich,

To answer your earlier question, the two treatments known to work with ich are copper and hyposalinity. Both are deadly to invertebrates and corals.

other than my clown tang, all my fish seem to be shy at the moment. But you can see some white spots on him as well.

 

[threebuoys]

What are the chances a lfs would be willing to treat them. I was just about to go on vacation tomorrow and I genuinely don’t know what to do.

Possibly, but doubtful.

Problem is, the ich will remain present in the DT as long as fish are in it. To eliminate ich from the DT, you will need to remove all fish and allow the tank to remain fallow (no fish) for 6 - 8 weeks. Sorry for the bad news.

 

[LoganGG]

Possibly, but doubtful.

Problem is, the ich will remain present in the DT as long as fish are in it. To eliminate ich from the DT, you will need to remove all fish and allow the tank to remain fallow (no fish) for 6 - 8 weeks. Sorry for the bad news.

Does that mean I need to sacrifice all my corals & inverts to treat them since i don’t have a QT?

 

[threebuoys]

Does that mean I need to sacrifice all my corals & inverts to treat them since i don’t have a QT?

The reason I asked for more photos is that I'm trying to confirm the fish have ich and not mucus plugs or lymphocystis which are typically much larger spots than ich. However, tangs, and particularly blue tangs are ich magnets. We recommend all new fish acquisitions follow the copper QT protocol. Doubly important for tangs.

Depending on how long you will be on vacation, you will not be able to treat the DT effectively with copper or hyposalinity unless you are present. While you could add copper to it, you will not be able to monitor the copper levels to insure the treatment is effective. If by chance these turn out to be mucus plugs or lympho, you could possibly wait until you return to deal with the issue. Mucus plugs tend to eventually go away on their own.

Anyway you can get some closeups of the fish? When I try to enlarge, the pics are too fuzzy to distinguish.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

+1 on what @threebuoys is saying - some of the images (clown tang) could be ich, but some of the spots (blue tang tail) are too large. It is REALLY difficult to diagnose diseases remotely like this, so without good images, we are left guessing.

Sometimes, a short video gives us a better chance at diagnosing the issue.....

There is something called "ich management" where when the disease first starts up, with a strong UV sterilizer, pristine water conditions and siphoning the bottom of the tank late each night (to remove the resting stage of the parasite) you can keep the disease at bay long enough for the fish's immunity to develop and help fight the disease off.

There are a lot of "reef safe" medications on the market, but they are all pretty much either snake oil, or are known treatments, dosed low enough that they don't kill the invertebrates (but also don't kill the ich parasite).

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

To add - some may be ich but there are larger looking like lymphocystis which I believe is not
The question on LFS doing treatment will be hit and miss as I myself when I had LFS would not be receptive to bringing in a fish with disease to my system
I’m not keen on Paraguard, trust polyp lab MEDIC for velvet and ruby rally I find poor with ich management.
Truly is quarantine method with coppersafe or hyposalinity
Dropping salinity to 1.009 and providing GOOD water quality and oxygen while you’re absent
Clown tang looks worse than hepatus

 

[MnFish1]

Just got off work and came home to check on my tank and noticed my blue tang had white spots, upon further inspection, most of the other fish have them too. I’m 99% sure it’s ick and i’ll provide a picture to confirm, but how can I get rid of the ick without killing any of my shrimp or coral. I don’t have a QT tank setup and i’m not sure what to do. any help is appreciated.

There are products out there that are supposed to be 'reef safe' - Ruby Rally Pro being one. Generally, though, a hospital tank (which can be as simple as a plastic container with a heater and sponge filter - with copper is the best way to go.

An ammonia alert badge is important - you can start the filter with one of the products (such as Fritz 9000) - which can be added with fish on the first day.

 

[LoganGG]

The reason I asked for more photos is that I'm trying to confirm the fish have ich and not mucus plugs or lymphocystis which are typically much larger spots than ich. However, tangs, and particularly blue tangs are ich magnets. We recommend all new fish acquisitions follow the copper QT protocol. Doubly important for tangs.

Depending on how long you will be on vacation, you will not be able to treat the DT effectively with copper or hyposalinity unless you are present. While you could add copper to it, you will not be able to monitor the copper levels to insure the treatment is effective. If by chance these turn out to be mucus plugs or lympho, you could possibly wait until you return to deal with the issue. Mucus plugs tend to eventually go away on their own.

Anyway you can get some closeups of the fish? When I try to enlarge, the pics are too fuzzy to distinguish.

Just went to my lfs and got a 29g QT tank, in hindsight probably should’ve had one this whole time. Do you think that’s big enough for a clown tang, blue tang, bluejaw trigger, two clowns, a foxface, filefish, neon dottyback, and a watchman goby? It’s the biggest tank I was able to get without needing to spend an extra $200 on a stand. Only asking because I know it won’t be permanent but I know that tangs are pretty active.

 

[threebuoys]

Just went to my lfs and got a 29g QT tank, in hindsight probably should’ve had one this whole time. Do you think that’s big enough for a clown tang, blue tang, bluejaw trigger, two clowns, a foxface, filefish, neon dottyback, and a watchman goby? It’s the biggest tank I was able to get without needing to spend an extra $200 on a stand. Only asking because I know it won’t be permanent but I know that tangs are pretty active.

Goning to be tight. Depends on the size of the fish. They will need places to hide. You likely will see aggression. Take a look at the current protocol link for some potential gotchas to watch for, e.g. ammonia, biofilter, lighting.

 

[LoganGG]

Is there a

Goning to be tight. Depends on the size of the fish. They will need places to hide. You likely will see aggression. Take a look at the current protocol link for some potential gotchas to watch for, e.g. ammonia, biofilter, lighting.

Is there anything that I can do to prevent aggression? I don’t wanna give them more stress than they’ll already have.