blue hippo white patches (not ick)

[Grnorton]

ok so I've posted several times about this strange phenomena that i have been dealing with. I thought for sure my hippo had ich from my cheato introduction but i have yet to see any actual true ich characteristics 4 weeks later after treating the whole tank with chloroquine phosphate. no other fish has white spots, nobody is flashing and everybody appears happy and healthy. Now, my hippo gets these white blotches. they are a little bigger than it maybe 2x as big but they aren't raised they are mostly flat just discolorations, they last for several days 5-7 then they disappear. That cycle was what made me think some strain of ich for sure, but it hasn't spread to anyone else, it hasn't gotten worse. does anybody have any idea what this could be? is it possible he has the lympho virus and is just healthy enough that he keeps fighting it off?

 

[Grnorton]

also there are never really more than 2 or 3 spots. looking at them again they are somewhat raised towards the end of the life cycle. I'm just stumped here. if I've got lymph then there is no reason to tear down the whole tank, hospitalize everyone and let the tank fallow for 8 weeks, but if its ich then I'm going to have to

 

[Deinonych]

Can you post a picture?

 

[Grnorton]

i can't he is too shy when i get that close. but i can say that if you google blue hippo with ich, he looks nothing like any of that. and again he never scratches or shakes or anything like that

 

[ThRoewer]

That nobody else shows symptoms doesn't mean it isn't ich.
I have right now a very low level ich infection in my tank going and only a few fish actually have ever shown visible symptoms. Some had spots for one or two waves and then nothing anymore while others never showed anything at all. Even the worst affected fish (Grammas & Regals) are looking mostly clean now and don't show any of the typical behavior anymore.
Had I not seen the clear spots when the flare-up started two months ago I would think I'm chasing ghosts.

I also had it before that all fish seemed clean and only the one tang in the tank had ich.

As many have experienced, fish can happily live with a low level ich infection for a long time. Ich may even die out after a while if the fish develop enough immunity or resistance.
But trusting on that is always a risky business: one problem with the tank that impairs the fish's immune system and you may face a full scale ich outbreak virtually out of nowhere.

Tangs are usually a good indicator - if there is ich in your tank they are most likely to display some symptoms.

 

[Azedenkae]

On regals in particular those white patches are comon, and will go away. Assuming it is not ich.