emperor angel- ich?

Y

yakfishin

New member
I have had a 3" emperor in a 20G QT for exactly one week today. He is waiting to go into a 220G display tank. Sunday I noticed 1 white spot on his tail fin. It is still there today. I have also noticed a spot on his pectoral fin, but it isn't very easy to see. I only see it at certain angles when the fin is held away from the body, not when it is held against his body if that makes sense. I haven't noticed any other symptoms. No flashing, no rapid breathing, eyes are clear, and he's eating like a horse. My only experience with ich was a flame angel I had in QT. I remember him having a spot or two when first noticed and within a day he had many more. I'm thinking to wait this out to see if he gets more spots or if anything else changes before taking action. What do you all think? Also, if ich, how long would the spot on his tail remain before falling off. It's been on there for three days now.
 
I would do a treatment of prazipro and make sure you leave the fish in QT for a good 8 weeks if you are not going to treat with copper.
 
RBU1 said:
I would do a treatment of prazipro and make sure you leave the fish in QT for a good 8 weeks if you are not going to treat with copper.
Click to expand...

Seriously. One, maybe two spots and your advice is to treat? How about just observe for a few days? Make sure the fish is eating and otherwise healthy. It's already in a qt. Why treat when it may be nothing. There is always time to treat but IMO he's a long way from there yet.

To the OP. Treat if you want. Be aware though, that, at this point, treating the fish can be more harmful than the supposed disease your trying to cure. IMO ONE spot is not worthy of ANY treatment regimen at this point. Watch the fish for a few days. Even if it is ich, it is not an immediate killer. If it seems to get worse, then you can always treat it. Otherwise as long as it's eating ok and shows no other symptoms, leave it in the qt for several weeks and call it good.
 
i lost an emperor juvie in QT b/c alll i did was treat for hypo. after learning more about angelfish, they are notorious for parasites.

i would make sure to feed it all you can for about 2 weeks, make sure it is eating really well. then do a prazipro and copper treatment.

most fish dont die from ich overnight, i would continue feeding and keep a close eye on the fish.... JMO.
 
Having the fish in QT for a week already leeds me to believe he has been eating good for that week. That was an assumption.....That being said angels are notorious for flukes. Prazi Pro has been for me one of the easiest treatments to do with no ill effects on any of the fish. So yes I would use prazi then monitor the fish.
 
Thanks for the replies. I noticed last night that the spot on his tail looked more like ich. The spot on his pectorial fin has grown more visible, and now there is a spot on his other pectorial fin. RBU1- yes he is eating really well. I feed him a good variety, and he eats all of it with great gusto. I decided that there is a very good chance that it is ich, but that for now it's a very mild case. I figured that before the ich gets any worse and while the fish is still very healthy, I would start dropping the salinity to start hyposalinity treatment. Even though he is in quarantine, I don't want to touch copper. I'm afraid I some point in time I might goof and somehow contaminate my main display. I have another QT tank, and more biollogically active sponges in my main display sump. So I think I might set up the other tank this evening with parameters the same as my current QT, only have it with the correct SG to kill ich. Once the current QT tank is lowered to around 1.0085 I think I'll wait until I see the last spot, and then switch the fish to the new QT tank which would be ichless, except for whatever the fish might bring along, but I'm hoping this might not be much, if at any at all. So I have my battle plan layed out. Let me know if you have any suggestions. I do know to keep a good watch on the ph.
 
Thanks for the links. I'll need to order some to have on hand for any possible future problems. For now, I have already started reducing the salinity, so I think I'll stay on course for hyposalinity treatment for this case.
 
Just an update on my situation. The spots are still on the angel, have enlarged by a bit. I would expect that if it is indeed ich, they would drop off in the next day or two. I did my last fresh water change yesterday evening to bring the salinity down between 1.008 and 1.009. He still looks really good and is still eating everything that is offered. I just hope the spots will dissapear in the next day or two confirming that it is ich. I'll then continue the hyposalinity for another 3-4 weeks.
 
If the spots are in the same location in the fins, haven't dropped off, and are getting larger I wonder if you're not dealing with a fungal infection. I may be wrong but I don't think that ich gets larger after attaching to a fish. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Mike
 
They once were about salt or sugar sized, now appear to be maybe a half size again larger, but are still quite small spots. I'm starting to get concerned that after about five full days of the spots being visible, they haven't yet disappeared. But from what I have read I guess they can remain visible up to 7 days. There are still only three spots visble, one on each pectorial fin and one on the tail fin. I wait until after the weekend and see if they are still visible, if they are I guess I have to start thinking it's not ich.
 
yakfishin said:
They once were about salt or sugar sized, now appear to be maybe a half size again larger, but are still quite small spots. I'm starting to get concerned that after about five full days of the spots being visible, they haven't yet disappeared. But from what I have read I guess they can remain visible up to 7 days. There are still only three spots visble, one on each pectorial fin and one on the tail fin. I wait until after the weekend and see if they are still visible, if they are I guess I have to start thinking it's not ich.
Click to expand...


The parasite can remain on the fish for up to about 14 days.
 
Thanks for the replies. I think he'll be ok. If it is ich, it must be really mild. He doesn't appear to be at all discomforted by the drop in salinty. In fact, I think I dropped the salinity in 5 water changes and after everyone he would immediately start begging for food. I have a flame angel and a hippo tang in my main display tank, and they have both been with me now for 6 years. Neither one will accept food from my hand. The angel accepted food from my fingers the very first time I tried it. I hope he comes through ok because he's already my favorite fish.
 
I'm paranoid with ''ich' myself after a full month of treatment of Cupramine and prazi, I saw similar spots on two of my fishes fin, but never on the body. I monitored for the next two weeks and the spots there seem to come and go, but the fishes acted fine. Before they were flashing and scratching. I think mines were more fungal/bacteria since their spots were more opaque than a sharp dot. HTH.
 
Update on my Emperor. I have come to the conclusion that this isn't ich, but is lymphocystis. The spots have slowly grown larger to the point where it is clearly not ich, but they are still small in comparison to some of the pictures I have seen of lymphocystis, so I guess he just has a mild case. From what I have read, I guess all I can do is provide as healthy of an enviroment and feeding schedule, and it should clear up on it's own. As per my earlier postings, I had started hyposalinity treatment because I had first guessed that this was ich. Now that I know it isn't, should I slowly start taking the salinity up? Or would it be best to keep him in hypo for another week or two just in case he might have ich that has yet to be seen? Any suggestions or opinions?
 
Wouldn't the hypo treatment kill any flukes over a couple of weeks? Is prazipro like copper, in that if a piece of equipment used in the QT tank were to ever get mistakenly used in the display tank it could wipe out inverts and live rock?
 
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