URGENT Does my mandarin have ich?

[Chortanator]

Just set up a new tank, only have 2 clowns and I purchased a spotted mandarin goby so I thought it would be fine not to QT. I feel stupid now. The fish looked healthy but now it looks like there are white spots all over the fish. Please tell me this is not ich

 

[Chortanator]

more pictures

 

[John08007]

White spots typ means ich, I used a medicine sold online a long time ago, worked and didn't kill my coral. I will try to find out what it was

 

[Chortanator]

There is also a chance it is detritus/sediment as I just moved the tank and everything is still settling

 

[Chortanator]

FALSE ALARM it is just the sediment, I nearly had a heary attack

 

[spiraling]

mandarins rarely get ich. Are you sure its not sand? It looks like its in different places in the pictures.

 

[Maritimer]

The spots running right along the edge of its soft-dorsal have me thinking lymphocystis - a virus, but kinda like herpes, not life-threatening.

Still, #reefsquad , @Jay Hemdal ... should bring the real pros in.

~Bruce

 

[vetteguy53081]

They have sticky secretion and its possible it is sand but to find out- Blow the area gently with a turkey baster and see if it falls off.
The thick mucus lining on a dragonette provides some protection and an ich outbreak severe enough to kill is pretty rare .. but I suspect that plenty of Mandarins have low levels of ich potential regardless of mucus

 

[spiraling]

haha - I was just posting when you were. Glad its sand.
I would VERY MUCH WORRY about food for him. A new tank has little to no pods and you can't supplement fast enough. Look into a mandarin feeder asap

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Mandarins are usually the last fish to show signs of ich. They have an awesome slime coat. Not saying it cannot happen, to me it looks like fine sand grains as they are in different spots in each pic.

 

[Chortanator]

The white specks do seem to "vanish" and "reappear" leading me to believe it is sand that the wrasse and/or goby kicked up

 

[Chortanator]

haha - I was just posting when you were. Glad its sand.
I would VERY MUCH WORRY about food for him. A new tank has little to no pods and you can't supplement fast enough. Look into a mandarin feeder asap

It's not a new tank, don't worry. This is a 5 year old setup that I combined with my 1 year old setup. Has a sump full of chaeto and pods

 

[Eagle_Steve]

haha - I was just posting when you were. Glad its sand.
I would VERY MUCH WORRY about food for him. A new tank has little to no pods and you can't supplement fast enough. Look into a mandarin feeder asap

Lots of help all flew in at once lol.

 

[Wiskey]

I can't see anything in those pictures, but the Mandarin is a special fish for a couple reasons. One of those is the excessive slime coat which goes a long way to protect them from Ich. It's not totally impossible for them to come down with Ich, but it's much less likely than other fish.

The other thing with them though, is the fact that they really need a well established and large system to do well. They don't adapt well to daily feedings, or commercial food and really need to hunt pods in the tank to survive. This is one reason that QT is often not recommended for this particular fish. I've seen lots of different recommendations on tank size, but most tend to agree that a 120G tank that is at least a year old without other pod predator's (like scooters or other mandarins) should be sufficient for them.

Whiskey

 

[vetteguy53081]

FALSE ALARM it is just the sediment, I nearly had a heary attack

Thats what I figured

 

[Chortanator]

I appreciate the help everyone. Just finished a move and stress levels are through the roof. I should have watched him for just a little longer, lol

 

[John08007]

Thats pretty funny, reminds me of years ago saw on TV. Think it was Dave letterman calling into a neqs radio show saying their was traffic...........oh wait just a red light