10 weeks fallow- possible ich again - thoughts

[snake42490]

Hey guys, want some opinions. Got ich 4 months ago and have treated the fish and left the tank fallow for 10 weeks. I QT all my fish and did TTM for a total of 24 days. I Did a total of 8 transfers then set up a permanent QT tank for the fish to stay in until time to go back in. I didn't want to put all of my fish back in the tank incase something happened to come back. So I just chose three fish.

***The important part***
Long story short, today after the fish have been in the tank for 9 days I clearly see 1 spec on the forehead of my yellow tang. Yes, it does look to me to be ich. What do you guys think? Should I be concerned by seeing 1 spot on the forehead? Should I wait a bit longer and see what happens? Pull the fish out and start the clock over. Could this one spot on the fish forehead be something else besides ich?

Thanks for helping guys

 

[b0bab0ey]

You sure it's not just sand? Or a cut? Or a small growth?

I would wait until you're seeing more than just 1 spec.

 

[snake42490]

It's been there all day. Showed up this morning. I watch my fish closely especially after everything has happened. I feel like if it was sand it wouldn't be on the fish still at 10 at night. The fish have gotten a couple cuts from scraping against the live rocks and a couple stings from the corals, but this is clearly a raised spot. There doesn't appear to be any trauma around the area on the forehead. I have checked all three fish multiple times and only see 1 spot on all of them. I don't know why there would be a growth growing on the fishs head?

How long do you think I should wait?

 

[b0bab0ey]

I don't know why there would be a growth growing on the fishs head?

How long do you think I should wait?

Leave all your other fish in QT, but keep the three already in the DT there for now. At least until you see more symptoms - more white specs, rubbing, twitching. If Ich is still in your system, that YT should get more than just one white spec.

Another possibility is Lymphocystis, a virus which is no big deal. It usually starts on a fin, but I've seen it pop up just about everywhere in my time. It looks like a raised growth and if small enough, is sometimes mistaken for Ich.

Point is don't hit the panic button until you're seeing more than just one white spec.

 

[snake42490]

I have dealed with lympho before.. I have yet to have a fish bring it into this system or so I thought. I am familiar with how it looks, I guess anything is possible. I just want to stay in control of this before it could get out of hand.

Also, the yellow tang that has this spot has shown no external signs. None of the fish have change in breathing, twitching or yet to see them try and scratch once.

 

[b0bab0ey]

I have dealed with lympho before.. I have yet to have a fish bring it into this system or so I thought. I am familiar with how it looks, I guess anything is possible. I just want to stay in control of this before it could get out of hand.

Also, the yellow tang that has this spot has shown no external signs. None of the fish have change in breathing, twitching or yet to see them try and scratch once.

If Ich is back, then those fish are already contaminated and will need to be re-treated. And if Ich somehow survived the fallow period then their numbers are so low that your fish should be fine for now. If this does turn out to be Ich, I suggest you describe in detail how you did TTM just in case something got screwed up there.

 

[snake42490]

Yes, I do sadly know that. The infestation started on my Achilles tang, very aggressive. I didn't want to tear down the tank so I upped the vitamins and soaked food in garlic vitamix and selcom. It definitely helped, but numbers kept climbing and climbing. Long story short the fish fought it for a month before I said screw this and tore down the tank and pulled the fish and put them in my 90 gallon and ran hypo treatment at 1.007. The fish stayed here for a month and had NO signs of ich after about 2 weeks. Then while in hypo the ich came back even at 1.007. I definitely got a stubborn strain. At this point I pulled all of the fish and did TTM in 35 gallon garbage cans. I did the first 4 transfers in hypo.

35 gallon garbage can mixed to 1.007 and temp matched. Pulled the fish out placed them into a contained with the old water. Mixed in some fresh water to their container to temp match it. Pulled fish from matched water into ANOTHER container to rinse the fish before placing into garbage can. I would then wait 3 days, 72 hours before I would do this process again. ISSUE-- I think hypo messed up the life cycle of the parasite and slowed down the metabolism within the fish. At the end of 4 transfers totaling 15 days fish still had some ich left. It was 10 fold better, but still 25 spots plus per fish. After this I raised the salinity of the water and got the fish back up to 1.025 over about 3 days. I then did the TTM for a total of 8 transfers the same exact way. After about the 3rd transfer my fish have showed no signs of ich for the following 5 transfers. I then placed them all into a clean 30 gallon tank that I pre cycled with clean water and they have been there for roughly 3 weeks with NO signs of ich. I am very confident that I fixed my issue with the TTM by changing the salinity level.

 

[snake42490]

Another factor to throw in. My display tank was originally left fallow for 6 weeks and then I realized I had a damn bar goby trapped in my over flow. I got him out and he died in the process. I reset the clock on the tank from that day and started the tank out for 10 weeks fallow. I know even though the bar goby was trapped in the over flow I can bet that A majority of the parasite died off even though there was 1 fish in the over flow. I did however take the cautious approach and decided to wait 10 weeks to be safe. That gets you up to date with everything that has happened

 

[b0bab0ey]

How's the tang looking today? More white spots should be showing up soon if your tank is infected. Or you should at least notice one of the fish rubbing their gills or twitching.

 

[Mrscribbled]

I have experienced a situation like this in that a 12 week week fallow was not enough. There are strains that have cysts remain dormant for 6 months or longer. It only takes one cyst to reinfect the fish. I ended up bleaching the entire system and copper treating the fish again. I used Dr tims one and only to restart the system and had fish back in by 6 weeks from bleaching. The rock and equipment air dried for a month during that time.

 

[snake42490]

All fish in the tank still look fine. Last night I turned the lights on quick around 3 am and the spot was gone on the fish. Still no signs on any of the fish. Breathing is normal, acting social, no spots, no flashing, twitching etc.

I have heard about those resistant strains ><, Fingers crossed that I don't have that.. Honestly, I don't think I could deal with bleaching everything. Too many coral that is growing in the tank now.

I have 8 other fish that are ready to be put in the tank, but I would rather not at this point. I personally would like to wait 7 days just to see what comes of it.

What are you guys thinking that spot could have been? The paranoid side says it's ich , but at the same time you would think that more than one spot would pop up on the tang or other fish for that matter.

 

[Mrscribbled]

I would recommend using display tank water were your other 8 fish are housed just to know for certain before they are relocated. I have had small very small white specks on fish that turned out to be flukes being prozi pro took care of it, and only the angles succomed to them and not the tangs.

 

[snake42490]

that thought crossed my mind as well... flukes. Hmm, Do you have any pictures of body flukes that I could see? What symptoms would I be seeing with flukes?

 

[b0bab0ey]

I would recommend using display tank water were your other 8 fish are housed just to know for certain before they are relocated. I have had small very small white specks on fish that turned out to be flukes being prozi pro took care of it, and only the angles succomed to them and not the tangs.

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with this. If Ich did survive, their numbers would be relatively low right now. So odds are cross contamination would not be successful. This experiment might just give the OP a false sense of security.

Besides, successfully treating Ich is far from a sure thing. I'd hate to see him put his other 8 at risk when 3 "guinea pigs" are suffice. Especially when one just happens to be a tang. Watching that YT closely for the next week or so is the key to solving this mystery.

 

[snake42490]

I'm going to keep using clean water on the QT tank with the 8 fish.. I am very confident they are ich free and would like to keep it that way. I would rather treat only 3 fish for ich then have to treat all of them at once again.. That was not much fun!

I am a little concerned that maybe I saw a fluke?? I know what originally started the whole ordeal was my Achilles Tang when it got cloudy eyes, then a day later Ich broke out. But, it never crossed my mind that the outbreak could have been caused by the stress of the flukes. IF this happened to be flukes what could I be looking for? Anyway to have a for sure sign to confirm or deny that?

 

[b0bab0ey]

I am a little concerned that maybe I saw a fluke?? I know what originally started the whole ordeal was my Achilles Tang when it got cloudy eyes, then a day later Ich broke out. But, it never crossed my mind that the outbreak could have been caused by the stress of the flukes. IF this happened to be flukes what could I be looking for? Anyway to have a for sure sign to confirm or deny that?

Twitching and stringy white poop are the two most common symptoms. If you can catch one of the fish and give it a f/w bath that will conclusively tell you if that fish has Flukes; you'll see the worms turn white and fall out of the fish after a few mins. But read up on how to administer a f/w bath before attempting this; temp & pH both need to match the DT.

 

[snake42490]

I have done FW dips before, I boil my tap water and let the hard metals bind and buffers the water then I cool it down to the temp of the tank. What fish would be the best to catch and test? I read that flukes don't always infest every fish. What are these "dead" white flukes going to look like? We talking 5 specs 100's?

Pair of clowns, damsel, yellow eyed tang and yellow tang.

 

[snake42490]

Okay... So I did a freshwater dip on my female clownfish for 12 minutes. I may have seen two tiny specs of something, but honestly they looked like specs of dust that were just floating on the surface. I saw nothing fall off and "sink" to the bottom. If I did have flukes how many would I be seeing on the bottom of the container?

 

[b0bab0ey]

I have done FW dips before, I boil my tap water and let the hard metals bind and buffers the water then I cool it down to the temp of the tank. What fish would be the best to catch and test? I read that flukes don't always infest every fish. What are these "dead" white flukes going to look like? We talking 5 specs 100's?

Pair of clowns, damsel, yellow eyed tang and yellow tang.

Well, the YT would probably be the most susceptible and that is the fish you saw the white dot on. So, if you were gonna do it to one, the YT would be the logical choice. BTW, Flukes isn't as big a deal as Ich. There's even a reef safe treatment for it - PraziPro.

Basically, when you do the dip then after several minutes you should see white specs falling out of the fish. Most likely coming out of the gills (if it's gill flukes). Use a clear glass container and you'll see their dead little bodies on the bottom even after you take the fish out. I've always just used RODI to do a f/w dip. A little trick I learned over in the reef chemistry forum is to squirt some tank water in the f/w just before the dip, to match the pH.

 

[snake42490]

Okay, definitely wasn't going to be catching the tang.. He knew I was coming lol. I have prazipro on hand and do know that I could use it in the DT. If this happened to be flukes how long do you it would take to start seeing some signs that would for sure identify it? I know the YT had the spot, but from what I read flukes are not visible.. This spot was definitely visible!