White Spots on Purple Tang

JumpingFlea

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Yesterday I noticed a couple of white spots on my purple tang. I didn’t really think much of it til this morning I noticed that the number of the spots had doubled. The spots are mostly on his body and I can’t tell if it is just his pattern or what. He’s still eating fine and swims around the tank acting like normal.

EE735D8F-8DD7-4540-B99A-C9931FB12145.jpeg


0CDE1A17-98F8-478D-BF81-C290B8B7BB98.jpeg

7DEC65FC-C3B3-4C70-B356-E73DD281CA1F.jpeg

I can’t tell if the spots are protruding or not. I think some on his face might be protruding. Thank you for your help.
 

Jay Hemdal

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That does look like marine ich, Cryptocaryon. Purple tangs also get benign mucus plugs, but see how some spots are on the fins? That is more a sign of ich, so is the rapid changing number of spots.

Your course going forward is going to be complicated. You won't be able to treat with copper or hyposalinity in that tank (I can see that one Zoa at least). That means you would need to move all of the fish to a treatment tank - no small task!

The number of spots may put you beyond the "ich management" stage, where if you keep the stress really low, and use really powerful UV, and siphon off the sand early every morning, you might be able to get this to go into remission. What people don't realize is that the ich trophonts themselves are stressors and something called propagule pressure comes into play - where no matter what preventative steps you take, the disease progresses to the acute stage; the spots increase, the fish stop feeding, develop secondary bacterial infections and then die.

Jay
 

CrazyDuck959

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Yesterday I noticed a couple of white spots on my purple tang. I didn’t really think much of it til this morning I noticed that the number of the spots had doubled. The spots are mostly on his body and I can’t tell if it is just his pattern or what. He’s still eating fine and swims around the tank acting like normal.

EE735D8F-8DD7-4540-B99A-C9931FB12145.jpeg


0CDE1A17-98F8-478D-BF81-C290B8B7BB98.jpeg

7DEC65FC-C3B3-4C70-B356-E73DD281CA1F.jpeg

I can’t tell if the spots are protruding or not. I think some on his face might be protruding. Thank you for your help.
Looks like Ich, I’m not sure how to treat it on marine fish.
 

vetteguy53081

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Looks like Ich, I’m not sure how to treat it on marine fish.
As jay stated, you really can’t as copper fuels it. Hyposalinity is a method but work with jay on this as he’s already given you good insight
 

TastesLikeChicken

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Early stages of ich. The white spots will get more pronounced over the next several days. Then they will go away at which time the parasite will replicate and reattach to the fish, eventually is such large numbers that the fish will suffocate from gill damage. Time to move all your fish to QT and start treatment with copper.
 

Lost in the Sauce

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Ich is like a cancer.
Velvet is like cancer, Ick is more like dysentery.

Ick isn't an immediate death sentence and Can be properly managed. Ick free is the way to be, but a few relatively simple steps can be used to manage it, if you have fish that can deal.

Edit for clarity: imminent
 
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LeftyReefer

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Hopefully you can catch the fish and move them to a QT tank and give them a treatment of copper.
you will also need to let the tank go fallow for 45+ days before reintroducing the treated fish back.
 

MnFish1

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Velvet is like cancer, Ick is more like dysentery.

Ick isn't a death sentence and Can be properly managed. Ick free is the way to be, but a few relatively simple steps can be used to manage it, if you have fish that can deal.
I think you're making a broad statement - that is partly true - and partly - untrue. The Mortality of CI depends on a number of things. For example 1 clownfish in a 500 gallon tank with Ich - will likely survive - a high bio load tank (fish-wise) - may have a 50% mortality rate. But the key point in your post 'if your fish can deal' is the truth. There are so many variables - that IMHO - if a fish has a disease - treat it.
 

Lost in the Sauce

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I think you're making a broad statement - that is partly true - and partly - untrue. The Mortality of CI depends on a number of things. For example 1 clownfish in a 500 gallon tank with Ich - will likely survive - a high bio load tank (fish-wise) - may have a 50% mortality rate. But the key point in your post 'if your fish can deal' is the truth. There are so many variables - that IMHO - if a fish has a disease - treat it.
Yes I am clearly making a broad statement.

Jay and others had already hit the Specific needed statements and details for the OP.

Ick is not the worst thing out there by far, and can actually be a Non issue in some cases was my point to the assertion that ick is like cancer. To which I disagree and did humorously to me, likening it to the Hershey Squirts.

For the record, I have a 0% mortality rate in a 180 display with a heavy stocking. Ick is in there. Haven't seen a SINGLE dot in 6+ months. It's not the worst thing out there.
 

Jay Hemdal

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Yes I am clearly making a broad statement.

Jay and others had already hit the Specific needed statements and details for the OP.

Ick is not the worst thing out there by far, and can actually be a Non issue in some cases was my point to the assertion that ick is like cancer. To which I disagree and did humorously to me, likening it to the Hershey Squirts.

For the record, I have a 0% mortality rate in a 180 display with a heavy stocking. Ick is in there. Haven't seen a SINGLE dot in 6+ months. It's not the worst thing out there.

So - I equate ich management as riding a unicycle....If you're really skilled, you can pretty much ride it like a bike. For most of us though, we can only stay upright for varying lengths of time before we start to oscillate back and forth and eventually bail off. Even skilled riders can hit a rock in the road (grin).

My concern in this case is that the fish looks right on the cusp of going into the geometric progression growth phase, and then management falls apart and the fish gets sicker until they die. I have seen management work with this many trophonts showing though.....

Jay
 

Lost in the Sauce

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Sticking with with your Unicycle metaphor; Your papers started teaching me to treat these pathogens, then I expanded that base to talking to people who do quarantine professionally, other successful Experienced hobyists and any one else that really wanted to talk about it and has an experience I hadn't heard about.
I learned that even good riders hit a pothole from time to time. You gotta get up, straighten the wheel out, bandage and nurse the bruises back to health, and off you go.

My point was and is, that Ick isn't the freak out, Boogeyman under the bed, nuclear end or Like Cancer.

In my blurb, I wrote "Ick free is the way to be" and I believe that. Cross contamination won that battle in my big system.

It doesn't have cancer, the tank and fish look Amazing, and if at some point, I hit an ied and that's not working any longer, I know well and have the tools to immediately change course and treat everyone back to health.


I suppose I could have worded my initial response as "ick doesn't have to be a death sentence" but I'm wordy, as you know.

-Brendon
 

Sebastiancrab

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@JumpingFlea suggest you also purchase Hydroplex and give your fish a 10 minute saltwater dip. It's low stress and will kill the bugs on them and provide relief. But you will still need to do the longer term treatment with copper as others have suggested.
Good luck!
 
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JumpingFlea

JumpingFlea

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@JumpingFlea suggest you also purchase Hydroplex and give your fish a 10 minute saltwater dip. It's low stress and will kill the bugs on them and provide relief. But you will still need to do the longer term treatment with copper as others have suggested.
Good luck!
Thank you for the suggestion. Will do.
 

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