Is this ich or worse?

[Juschillin]

Can someone please confirm whether or not this is ich? And if not, what it may be? This fish had a lighter case of this a couple of months ago, but it went away after treating with Metroplex in the food and Polyplab Medic in the water. This case looks worse and has lasted 4-5 days now. The fish still swims around and eats normally. Removing, quarantining and copper treatments are not really an option... Tank is 185 gal and no other fish have shown symptoms yet. Thanks.

 

[Sharkbait19]

It does look like ich. If there are no inverts in the tank, hyposalinity treatment is an option.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Can someone please confirm whether or not this is ich? And if not, what it may be? This fish had a lighter case of this a couple of months ago, but it went away after treating with Metroplex in the food and Polyplab Medic in the water. This case looks worse and has lasted 4-5 days now. The fish still swims around and eats normally. Removing, quarantining and copper treatments are not really an option... Tank is 185 gal and no other fish have shown symptoms yet. Thanks.

These are mucus cones associated with marine ich. Fish will as you may imagine need to be quarantines in a separate treatment tank. Treat for a full 30 days using either coppersafe or Copper Power at therapeutic level 2.25-2.5 monitored by 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. The tank should be fishless for 4-6 weeks allowing any coral and inverts to remain safe from copper

 

[KrisReef]

You have Ich in the tank.
(Me too!)
Today I need to go to the fish market and get some live mussels, clams, oysters, shrimp and chop them into bite sized pieces for my fish.
Thanks for reminding me! I was going to go to the beach collecting but the only low- low tide was around 1230 am and the beaches are closed at night and it’s hard to find anything without daylight.

So they get fresh or fresh frozen food including the guts to give them the energy and gut fauna that helps them recover.

This blue tang was sick when I got him 4 years ago and he was completely fine for many years, (with occasional spots that lasted a day or two) and I feed them all extra fresh food if the spots appeared.

I had to move the tank and was slow getting it done a month ago. The spots were going away when I had to travel for work and I took these pictures when I got back on Thursday. I’m feeling bad for the fish and need to take care of them better like I recommended you do if QT isn’t an option for you. I don’t want to expose my fish to copper, their life in captivity is bad enough.

I also have to add a few more live rocks to provide more cover. I took some out when I moved the tank and they’ve been pushing each other around to get the best hiding spots.

I’m not proud of the situation but travel and a pipe leak in the house made me move the tank. They were all fine and getting along smoothly and spot free before the tank moved.

 

[MnFish1]

It looks like a couple things - perhaps plugs perhaps Ich - There are so many questions to ask - it's hard. I would watch it - and the spots - if it continues - I would have a plan for a hospital tank with coppers etc etc

 

[Juschillin]

Thanks everyone.

 

[MnFish1]

Thanks everyone.

Do everyone a favor - let us have an update

 

[jda]

Yes, please update. Most of these threads just kinda stop likely from some discouragement but it can help other folks to post about progress and the outcome.

 

[Juschillin]

Sure, so the Blue Tang is finally looking a little better. The day of this post, it looked even worse than the pics which were from the prior day. But it always swam around fine and ate normally. It did spend a lot of time with the cleaner shrimp though. Through all of that, I kept using metroplex + focus + garlic in their favorite dinner mix, and polyplab medic morning and night as directed. No other fish even got spots, although the Midas Blenny was scratching itself occasionally.

Per a suggestion months ago, I've been using vita chem as directed. So that is possibly helping too. I'm still medicating with both items mentioned above, and will do so through each of their recommended timeframes. My rockwork makes it extremely difficult to catch fish...so I really didn't want to try and I don't have a quarantine tank anyway. So far so good.... I'll update again if anything worsens. Thanks again everyone!