Noctural ich?

[Michelle3]

Background: I have a 50-gallon tank with nine fish (1 clownfish, 1 coral beauty, 1 watchman goby, 2 pajama cardinal fish, 1 purple dottyback, 1 flame hawk and 2 damsels). The tank has lots of live rock, gravel, some snails and a cleaner shrimp. The tank has been established for three years. The only new introductions are the coral beauty, watchman goby and cleaner shrimp (mentioned above) that I introduced last Wednesday (one week ago). I use a canister filter and have a tank heater.

Water parameters: Salinity-1.023, amonia-0 ppm, nitrite-0 ppm, pH 8.4. (I still need to test nitrate). The tank temp is 82.2 F

Issue: Last week I had introduced the coral beauty, cleaner shrimp and watchman goby. They seemed ok but after two days, in the evening, the coral beauty was covered in ich. (He had been fine that morning). I was devastated! However, the following morning, there was no sign of ich. It was so strange. All the other fish are fine and everyone is eating well. I wondered if I had imagined it. Then two nights ago, the coral beauty was covered in white spots again, but the following morning there were no spots on him. What could be going on? I have not observed any flashing behavior and his appetite and color are great. I added a UV sterilizer last night. I reached out to my LFS and they said their fish are all healthy with no signs of ich.

Is there something else that could look like ich but only occur at night? I'm new to the coral beauty so could this be a species-specific issue?

I really don't want to treat my tank if there is nothing wrong. I had saltwater tanks years ago and IMO the ich treatments then were as deadly as the ich itself. However, if I have to treat the tank my tentative plan is to set up another small tank for the cleaner shrimp, live rock and snails and then just treat the main tank. Is this a good course of action? What product is the best? My LFS suggested Fitz Copper Safe, PraziPro or a SeaChem product (as long as the shrimp, live rock and snails were in a different tank). I would be so grateful for any advice.

(Also, I had a QT for over a year but I really don't have any space to maintain an extra tank. The only place it would fit was behind the door so every time someone opened the door it would hit the QT. It was a disaster waiting to happen. I didn't think I would get any more fish and so I finally moved the damsels to the main tank and broke the QT tank down. Then I took a risk last week adding those two fish. I realize that might have been a huge mistake ).

 

[CivicS14]

I believe that's part of the life cycle of ich. It falls off, breeds in the sandbed, when fish are still / sleeping at night, free floaing theronts that recently hatched just attaches itself to the fish. Overtime, I seen it either become worst and worst until it overtakes the fish or the fish build some type of immunity to it.

Edit: I should add, if you don't want to pull all the fish out and treat them along with leaving your tank fallow, then you should read up on ich management.

 

[Michelle3]

Thanks for the reply. Do you have any recommendations on the best ich treatment product?

 

[CivicS14]

Thanks for the reply. Do you have any recommendations on the best ich treatment product?

For ich in a separate tank, I would use copper power and get the hanna copper checker to make sure you maintain the proper levels to eliminate it. Your display will have to go fallow for 45-72 days.