New valintini puffer fish VERY CONCERNED!!! White dots

Topdog8327 · Mar 7, 2015

How is everybody doing? I am new to the dw aquarium biz. But I have done my research very extensively And everything has been going great. But I am concerned about my new valintini puffer fish I picked up from my LPS he has white dots on his head and a couple fins. I tried to look online and see if it was normal but the different threads and posts I have seen haven't givin me any piece of mind because I'm still convinced he has ich. Please let me know, since I have never actually seen ich, if this is just a pattern the fish may have or if this is indeed ich. Any feedback if greatly appreciated

Naiad · Mar 7, 2015

That is not normal. I would agree with ich from the photo.

Topdog8327 · Mar 7, 2015

I thought ich was supposed to be around the gills tho? He is fully active and not acting weird at all either

Naiad · Mar 7, 2015

Ich starts in the gills but when there is no more room the parasites will go wherever they can. The fact that he is still eating is good. You can probably save a fish if you catch an illness in this stage.

Topdog8327 · Mar 7, 2015

I should be quarantining him since this will most likely carry to my other fish right? I haven't purchased one yet so I'm pretty stuck I have a blue coral angel, 2 tomato clowns, and scopas tang for fish and 5 crabs 1 snail, and a cleaner shrimp for invertebres. I have seen treatments online that say 100% invertebre safe. I don't know if that's the right way about it though.

Waters · Mar 8, 2015

Topdog8327 said:
I should be quarantining him since this will most likely carry to my other fish right? I haven't purchased one yet so I'm pretty stuck I have a blue coral angel, 2 tomato clowns, and scopas tang for fish and 5 crabs 1 snail, and a cleaner shrimp for invertebres. I have seen treatments online that say 100% invertebre safe. I don't know if that's the right way about it though.

Yes, they should all be in a QT, but at this point, you have already introduce the parasite to your tank. Unfortunately there are no successful reef safe medications. Your only options (since you don't have a QT set up) would be to continue to feed them and try to keep them stress free, hoping they all fight it off and keep it at bay. There are some Ich treatment foods (such as New Life Spectrum Ich Shield) that some claim to work, but these require every fish to eat the recommended amounts daily for long periods of time...which isn't always easy to do.

haleyf1024 · Mar 8, 2015

If you want to get the ich out of your reef, the only way to do that is get every single fish out and treat them in QT and leave the main tank 100% fishless for 8-10 weeks. Inverts and coral stay in the main tank. Otherwise, there is a high chance you will have outbreaks in the future. I am currently in the same situation

Topdog8327 · Mar 8, 2015

Ok so last night I added stress coat to the tank which should help with his slime coat. Woke up this morning and it looks like the dots are starting to dangle off of him all my other fish are still ichless.

haleyf1024 · Mar 8, 2015

If the spots are falling off, it means that the part in the ich's lifecycle where it requires the fish host is over, and will now start all over. If you can, I would do the fishless cycle so you don't have to deal with it in the future. Especially if you plan on getting a tang of any sort

Topdog8327 · Mar 8, 2015

I already have a so as tang. I also have beauty coral and two clowns. I'm not happy at all right now..

haleyf1024 · Mar 8, 2015

Ich is one of those things almost all reefers have to deal with at least once in their life. The tang is way more susceptible to the ich, IMO it is only a matter of time until he gets it, and they usually get it worse. My purple tang, powder blue tang, and valentini puffer all got it so now my system is fishless and has a UV light just for good measure. It really is worth it to do the 8 weeks, it's better than having to constantly worry that a fish can get it at any point and having to take precautions everyday. Should you do QT, I recommend hyposalinity to treat the ich over copper, as copper is actually a mild poison to fish (and will kill inverts if it gets in the DT)

Topdog8327 · Mar 8, 2015

Yeah I need to go pick up a qt tank. He is now sitting upside down up against the liverock. Needless to say I will be getting a qt tank once my budget allows it.