Royal Gramma Ich/Velvet/flukes

TSOPTC · Jan 18, 2024

Afternoon all,

So I'm relatively new to this but have had a fluval evo for 6 months with no issues what so ever, so far.

I've just set up a water box 60.2 and currently have a Royal Gramma and Purple Fire Fish, noticed on Tuesday that the Gramma was not coming out as usual with the Fire Fish so fed them, came out and looked a bit beat up, no fin tears but slight discolouration on the purple section.
Same again yesterday and today, noticed today that the mouth seems almost brown and like a human scab which I've never seen before, there are some very small white ish spots which makes me think Ich at first but I'm not 100%, can anybody shed any light? (Sorry pictures aren't great but he's very skittish).

Purple fire fish shows no sign of anything.

I'm in the lucky position that there is only 2 fish in there with no clean up crew or corals and I have a 10 gallon I could use as a QT (but for selfish reasons this would be a big step back and 3 months with nothing in DT, having said that I want the best for my fish and the future of the tank).

What's the way forward? Leave it a couple of days or act now?

Hope that's enough info and thanks for any incoming help!

vetteguy53081 · Jan 18, 2024

TSOPTC said:
Afternoon all,

So I'm relatively new to this but have had a fluval evo for 6 months with no issues what so ever, so far.

I've just set up a water box 60.2 and currently have a Royal Gramma and Purple Fire Fish, noticed on Tuesday that the Gramma was not coming out as usual with the Fire Fish so fed them, came out and looked a bit beat up, no fin tears but slight discolouration on the purple section.
Same again yesterday and today, noticed today that the mouth seems almost brown and like a human scab which I've never seen before, there are some very small white ish spots which makes me think Ich at first but I'm not 100%, can anybody shed any light? (Sorry pictures aren't great but he's very skittish).

Purple fire fish shows no sign of anything.

I'm in the lucky position that there is only 2 fish in there with no clean up crew or corals and I have a 10 gallon I could use as a QT (but for selfish reasons this would be a big step back and 3 months with nothing in DT, having said that I want the best for my fish and the future of the tank).

What's the way forward? Leave it a couple of days or act now?

Hope that's enough info and thanks for any incoming help!

Pics are blurry but if it is indeed ich, quarantine and treatment with general care or copper safe at 2.0 will be your best option

Jay Hemdal · Jan 18, 2024

TSOPTC said:
Afternoon all,

So I'm relatively new to this but have had a fluval evo for 6 months with no issues what so ever, so far.

I've just set up a water box 60.2 and currently have a Royal Gramma and Purple Fire Fish, noticed on Tuesday that the Gramma was not coming out as usual with the Fire Fish so fed them, came out and looked a bit beat up, no fin tears but slight discolouration on the purple section.
Same again yesterday and today, noticed today that the mouth seems almost brown and like a human scab which I've never seen before, there are some very small white ish spots which makes me think Ich at first but I'm not 100%, can anybody shed any light? (Sorry pictures aren't great but he's very skittish).

Purple fire fish shows no sign of anything.

I'm in the lucky position that there is only 2 fish in there with no clean up crew or corals and I have a 10 gallon I could use as a QT (but for selfish reasons this would be a big step back and 3 months with nothing in DT, having said that I want the best for my fish and the future of the tank).

What's the way forward? Leave it a couple of days or act now?

Hope that's enough info and thanks for any incoming help!

I don't see any ich spots in the pictures - but they could be there, pics are notoriously difficult to evaluate. Have you seen the gramma flashing/scratching? They are prone to flukes and fire fish, not so much.

Since it is just the two fish in there, I would wait a few days to see if more spots develop, or if you see scratching. If you do, I would run the tank in hyposalinity for 30 days. That will handle both ich and flukes. At the end of that time, you return the tank to full salinity and continue on. Here is a link with more info:

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2021 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

TSOPTC · Jan 18, 2024

Jay Hemdal said:
I don't see any ich spots in the pictures - but they could be there, pics are notoriously difficult to evaluate. Have you seen the gramma flashing/scratching? They are prone to flukes and fire fish, not so much.

Since it is just the two fish in there, I would wait a few days to see if more spots develop, or if you see scratching. If you do, I would run the tank in hyposalinity for 30 days. That will handle both ich and flukes. At the end of that time, you return the tank to full salinity and continue on. Here is a link with more info:

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2021 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay