Surprising ick appearance

[Grasshopper04]

Very new 200g tank setup, been fully running after cycling for 1.5 months. Added some clown fish at that time from local LFS, followed shortly thereafter by a midas blenny and desjardinni tang (from a different LFS which keeps all their fish in dosed water). They have all been very healthy, eat well, etc.

Fast forward three weeks and I added some more fish, these fully QTd from Dr Reef, including a blue hippo tang. That was 11 days ago. Shortly thereafter I noticed the tang flashing, and occasionally acting listless and floating around oddly. It eats decently, though it's still hiding in the rocks most of the time and is very "shy" still. Haven't seen any sign of anything on its body until yesterday, signs of ick finally appeared. I can't get good pictures because of the aforementioned shyness, but it's definitely ick.

I can use suggestions on how to deal with it. The display tank has some hermits and snails. QT tank has a few fish which have been in there a week. None of the other fish in the display tank have shown any signs of distress (so far).

 

[vetteguy53081]

Very new 200g tank setup, been fully running after cycling for 1.5 months. Added some clown fish at that time from local LFS, followed shortly thereafter by a midas blenny and desjardinni tang (from a different LFS which keeps all their fish in dosed water). They have all been very healthy, eat well, etc.

Fast forward three weeks and I added some more fish, these fully QTd from Dr Reef, including a blue hippo tang. That was 11 days ago. Shortly thereafter I noticed the tang flashing, and occasionally acting listless and floating around oddly. It eats decently, though it's still hiding in the rocks most of the time and is very "shy" still. Haven't seen any sign of anything on its body until yesterday, signs of ick finally appeared. I can't get good pictures because of the aforementioned shyness, but it's definitely ick.

I can use suggestions on how to deal with it. The display tank has some hermits and snails. QT tank has a few fish which have been in there a week. None of the other fish in the display tank have shown any signs of distress (so far).

Please post pics of the fish in question under bright white light intensity.
Additionally, even when buying quarantined fish especially those shipped facing temperature changes and stress, assume they have something and do your own quarantime even for 14-21 days to assure as in your case nothing pops up suddenly. Fisg disease is on us, not the fish.
If ich, you will need to place all fish into a separate treatment tank and using Coppersafe or Copper Power at therapeutic level 2.25 for a FULL 30 days (do not interrupt this 30 day period) 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 display tank will have to be kept fishless (FALLOW) for 6-8 weeks to assure the existing parasites go through their life cycle without a host fish and die off and with occupants exposed, they too should go into quarantine
A quarantine tank can be as simple as a tank from a second hand store or a starter kit from Walmart which most of the needed essentials.

 

[MnFish1]

Very new 200g tank setup, been fully running after cycling for 1.5 months. Added some clown fish at that time from local LFS, followed shortly thereafter by a midas blenny and desjardinni tang (from a different LFS which keeps all their fish in dosed water). They have all been very healthy, eat well, etc.

Fast forward three weeks and I added some more fish, these fully QTd from Dr Reef, including a blue hippo tang. That was 11 days ago. Shortly thereafter I noticed the tang flashing, and occasionally acting listless and floating around oddly. It eats decently, though it's still hiding in the rocks most of the time and is very "shy" still. Haven't seen any sign of anything on its body until yesterday, signs of ick finally appeared. I can't get good pictures because of the aforementioned shyness, but it's definitely ick.

I can use suggestions on how to deal with it. The display tank has some hermits and snails. QT tank has a few fish which have been in there a week. None of the other fish in the display tank have shown any signs of distress (so far).

If one looks at the biology of cryptocaron - assuming thats the issue. the dosed water your LFS is keeping them is what>. I would assume you need to keep up.a quarantine set up with all fish. Therapeutic copper - 2-2.5. chelated. I might also touch back with @Dr. Reef who will likely have more information as to his fish. He is a great guy - and runs a great company. Thus - to treat what you have - the recommended treatment is isolation all fish - from Display - and treating with copper

 

[Dr. Reef]

Like Jay said, 1 scrape or 2 here and there could be for many reasons. I also checked our warehouse and also some of the customers that shared the same waters/tanks with your fish and no one reported any issues.
So that makes me confident that its likely not anything major.
Every now and then we do run into prazi ressitant flukes that require stronger or long exposure of medicine but unfortunately we dont have that much time with them and in those cases if you were to dose prazi (100% reef safe as long you dont over dose). let it run for 5 days and then do a water change about 25% and re dose for 2nd time, normally gets rid of that issue. But we are not at that point yet.
We stand behind the work we do and if there is any loss due to disease and something of our fault, please notify us with pics/videos etc at [email protected] and we will do whatever it takes to rid the issue and replace the livestock that didnt make it.
For now please observe and let us know in a weeks time how things turn out. If you might need prazi at that point we will ship it to you at no cost. Keep us posted.

 

[Grasshopper04]

Thanks for the replies everyone (Dr Reef in particular). I'm going to try to get a useful photo or three this evening (whitest light I can get it!) and will post. Hopefully I'm just misdiagnosing. I've been out of the hobby for 17 years so I'm definitely rusty.

An interesting thing I've noticed is that the hippo often either languishes in the corner of the tank (usually when no people are around), or else frequently hides in the Desjardinni tang's sleeping spot, often basically "cuddling" with the D tang. The D tang seems super cool about it. With all the stories of tang aggression and competition, it's surprised me.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Thanks for the replies everyone (Dr Reef in particular). I'm going to try to get a useful photo or three this evening (whitest light I can get it!) and will post. Hopefully I'm just misdiagnosing. I've been out of the hobby for 17 years so I'm definitely rusty.

An interesting thing I've noticed is that the hippo often either languishes in the corner of the tank (usually when no people are around), or else frequently hides in the Desjardinni tang's sleeping spot, often basically "cuddling" with the D tang. The D tang seems super cool about it. With all the stories of tang aggression and competition, it's surprised me.

We qt the tangs (in an order) together, by the time we get done with them if they are not buddies they can atleast co exist.
Dr Reef has 35 tangs in his personal 500 gal

 

[Grasshopper04]

This is the tang, a little beat up on the left side from the rocks, on the right are the spots (sorry this was the best we could get between my iPhone and my wife’s Nikon. It’s against the back of the tank, so some spots seem to be consistent between the back glass and the black part of the fish. The front glass was cleaned right before the photos though, so the spots aren’t in the foreground.

 

[Grasshopper04]

We tried for over an hour to get this fish to stay still for a decent picture up against the rocks and in the light, but it refused. Only against the back of the tank presumably protecting its left flank.

From the naked eye, the little while spots aren’t only visible on the black part of its coloring, and are very small. Is it possible it’s not ich?

 

[underwaterwonders]

I would like to point out too, that Ich can come in on inverts like snails, crabs, ect. Also on coral frags that have plugs or rock. It’s difficult, but hard not to have a fish/coral/invert holding system that’s separate from your main display. You can then decide how cautious you want to be, technically you would need to wait 90 days in a fish free environment to guarantee a snail isn’t carrying one of the ich lifecycles. For my own tanks, I wait about a month. Also helps if the vendors don’t store fish with their inverts.

 

[viceversabrd]

I wish everyone would research Dr. Reef more before purchasing from him. There are dozens if not hundreds of reviews of people getting diseased fish from Dr. Reef on the inter webs. Whether he is not observing proper biosecurity between tanks or what, I do not know. But, I would personally never put one of his fish directly in my display tank without an additional quarantine and possible medication regimen. It's really kind of crappy because people with fish they've had for years may introduce one of his improperly treated/quarantined fish (thinking they are properly quarantined) and kill their beloved pets.

 

[Dr. Reef]

I am not going to go into debate over b.s If we had hundered of complaints we wont be in business. Also in 5 years we had maybe a dozen out of 20 thousand orders we have shipped with actual ich or velvet issues and most of those customers added non qted things from other sources in their tanks. 1 or 2 already had ich in tanks and did not fallow properly.
Like mentioned above we do run into prazi resistant flukes on some rare ocations. That too is because of time frame.
In all those cases even though it was not our fault we still replced the livestock of those people.

Why b.s, because anyone and everyone knows how ich works around here. If 1 fish is infected coming from our syste, then we sell an average of 100 orders per day with average of 5 fish per order. multiply that with 5 days. there will be 500 customers that shared the same water so where are those 500 customers from that time frame complaining about ich in their tanks. I see none.

QTed fish doesnt mean they will never get sick again. If you add non qted things in the tank or croscontaminate or dont properly take care of the tank any fish qted or not will get sick again.

 

[Grasshopper04]

Again for context in my case I had four completely unquarantined fish already in the display as a brand new system healthy but only for a few weeks, so (re)newbie impatience is at play. Trying to relearn the patience necessary for good husbandry.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Again for context in my case I had four completely unquarantined fish already in the display as a brand new system healthy but only for a few weeks, so (re)newbie impatience is at play. Trying to relearn the patience necessary for good husbandry.

I am not going to blame you. even if the current fish were non qted.
We stand behind our work and like mentioned before, We will help you cure and rid the issue and if in case any fish doesnt make, even if it wasnt bought from us, we will replace it for free.
Why: because like Dr reef says "We are not in this for money"

 

[Dr. Reef]

Again for context in my case I had four completely unquarantined fish already in the display as a brand new system healthy but only for a few weeks, so (re)newbie impatience is at play. Trying to relearn the patience necessary for good husbandry.

Again not blaiming you, but proving my previous post. Lots of customers add things that are non qted. then they add ours and disease happens. That doesnt mean disease came from our fish,
If one is going to have a qted livestock they must practice and add everything from qted source. That goes for snails, crabs, inverts, rocks, frags, corals, sand, etc,

 

[Grasshopper04]

Really the lesson I’m learning here is that patience and quarantine (external and internal) are rewarding ultimately.

Anyone have any thoughts on the (low quality) photos of the blue hippo?

 

[Dr. Reef]

hard to say but if you think its like salt sprinkle all over the fish skin then it might be ich.

 

[EliMelly]

I am not going to go into debate over b.s If we had hundered of complaints we wont be in business. Also in 5 years we had maybe a dozen out of 20 thousand orders we have shipped with actual ich or velvet issues and most of those customers added non qted things from other sources in their tanks. 1 or 2 already had ich in tanks and did not fallow properly.
Like mentioned above we do run into prazi resistant flukes on some rare ocations. That too is because of time frame.
In all those cases even though it was not our fault we still replced the livestock of those people.

Why b.s, because anyone and everyone knows how ich works around here. If 1 fish is infected coming from our syste, then we sell an average of 100 orders per day with average of 5 fish per order. multiply that with 5 days. there will be 500 customers that shared the same water so where are those 500 customers from that time frame complaining about ich in their tanks. I see none.

QTed fish doesnt mean they will never get sick again. If you add non qted things in the tank or croscontaminate or dont properly take care of the tank any fish qted or not will get sick again.

Ignore him man not worth your time.

 

[EliMelly]

I wish everyone would research Dr. Reef more before purchasing from him. There are dozens if not hundreds of reviews of people getting diseased fish from Dr. Reef on the inter webs. Whether he is not observing proper biosecurity between tanks or what, I do not know. But, I would personally never put one of his fish directly in my display tank without an additional quarantine and possible medication regimen. It's really kind of crappy because people with fish they've had for years may introduce one of his improperly treated/quarantined fish (thinking they are properly quarantined) and kill their beloved pets.

That’s a nasty thing to say to someone. I have never seen one experience myself. Oftentimes people do not do fallow properly, or add a non qt coral or fish or live rock into the tank. That is not on Dr Reef. Even more so, even if it’s not on him he still replaces people’s fish at no cost. Proof is he replaced every single dang fish in my tank free of cost when I like an idiot added one non QT fish. He’s one of the kindest and most legit vendors on the site.

 

[Kasrift]

That’s a nasty thing to say to someone. I have never seen one experience myself. Oftentimes people do not do fallow properly, or add a non qt coral or fish or live rock into the tank. That is not on Dr Reef. Even more so, even if it’s not on him he still replaces people’s fish at no cost. Proof is he replaced every single dang fish in my tank free of cost when I like an idiot added one non QT fish. He’s one of the kindest and most legit vendors on the site.

I haven't used Dr. Reef, but I agree. @Grasshopper04 , the issue likely stems from the non quarantined fish.

So the problem is that blue hippos can be susceptible to disease. If you have started with non quarantined fish, they could have brought something into your system, even if they don't display an illness. Think of it this way, you have a kiddo that is new to kindergarten and will likely get sick. Some of the kiddos that have been in daycare or preschool probably have built up some immunity, and even if they are sick they won't look as bad as a kid just joining the class who may have stayed at home entirely prior.

Good on you for buying quarantined fish, but if you don't do it for all fish or quarantine yourself, it may prove futile.

Back to the fish, hippos are odd. I don't think that is ich, I think it is just a color shift either due to stress or just behavioral. I have one in a qt tank right now, it finished 14 days of copper and transfer to a new tank for 3 weeks of prazi and has been in observation since then for 3 weeks. It sometimes flashes out of boredom I think and it can have a similar coloration at lights on or off. I'm doing an Aquabiomics eDna test before I move it to the display, but so far I'm not concerned. Eats like a pig, swims around, and I've only caught it flashing twice in three weeks of observation.

 

[Dr. Reef]

I haven't used Dr. Reef, but I agree. @Grasshopper04 , the issue likely stems from the non quarantined fish.

So the problem is that blue hippos can be susceptible to disease. If you have started with non quarantined fish, they could have brought something into your system, even if they don't display an illness. Think of it this way, you have a kiddo that is new to kindergarten and will likely get sick. Some of the kiddos that have been in daycare or preschool probably have built up some immunity, and even if they are sick they won't look as bad as a kid just joining the class who may have stayed at home entirely prior.

Good on you for buying quarantined fish, but if you don't do it for all fish or quarantine yourself, it may prove futile.

Back to the fish, hippos are odd. I don't think that is ich, I think it is just a color shift either due to stress or just behavioral. I have one in a qt tank right now, it finished 14 days of copper and transfer to a new tank for 3 weeks of prazi and has been in observation since then for 3 weeks. It sometimes flashes out of boredom I think and it can have a similar coloration at lights on or off. I'm doing an Aquabiomics eDna test before I move it to the display, but so far I'm not concerned. Eats like a pig, swims around, and I've only caught it flashing twice in three weeks of observation.

Hippos will flash just because you looked at it hard