Help -White Spots

[Mental1]

I wrote earlier that my foxface was mauled by my sailfin tang. I am recovering from a couple of minor sugeries and could not drive. My husband checked the closest fish store but they had no maracyn 2. The foxface has been in a qt, eating well and seeming to heal for about a week, but today I awoke to find white spots all over his body. He ate a little bit of food but the nori from last night was untouched. I do have the API Triple Sulfa Anti-Bacterial medication which I have put in the tank but he is not looking good. Any other suggestions? Tomorrow I can get some maracyn 2 -- I can drive again -- any suggestions would be most welcome.

 

[ronjeremy]

white spots??? can you get a pic or describe them?? are they ich trophonts or discoloration spots????

 

[Mental1]

I looked at some pictures of ich and I guess that is what it is -- he is thin, and beat up so I guess he is stressing. Will stop the antibacterial I guess, move slowly towards hyposalinity and treat with garlic. I think he may be sensitive to copper too -- skin is fairly thin. I read some more stuff and treated some fresh nori with garlic and he ate it right up. Will keep that up -- any other suggestions?

 

[ronjeremy]

if one fish is infected, the tank is infected and all livestock(fish) must be treated, not just the one with symptoms..it might help to put him in qt anyway and let him recover from his beating

 

[Mental1]

he's been in the qt for about a week since he got beaten -- he developed the ich while in quarantine after seeming to get better. The wounds were healing and he was eating -- not sure but I guess the whole thing has stressed him so he developed the ich AFTER being in qt for a week. The display tank is fine... see first post.

 

[ronjeremy]

ich is not just a phenomemon.it can't just develop...it is a parasite..it came from your display apparently, unless you brought in something wet from your lfs to your qt tank..

 

[Mental1]

Well -- there is no evidence in the display tank of ich. I don't really know what is happenning except that he developed ich after being in qt for over a week. His color is bad this morning so I am going to test the water of the qt -- I am not really sure what to do -- he is not looking good at all. He may have had ich all along -- I have had him for years. The stress maybe just brought it out in the qt tank. At different points over the years I would see a small white spot on some part of his body and wonder if it was ich but it would go away in less than a day so I did nothing. That's the only thing I can think of. The qt tank had only been set up for 3 days -- I had the sponge from the filter in my sump for about three weeks. But who knows -- I haven't had time to test the water -- I will do so today.

 

[Mental1]

well -- just tested nitrates -- at least 100 ppm -- so he is stressed because the water quality stinks. I did a water change about 5 days ago and scrubbed the bottom of the tank but he is at least 6 inches long and this is a 10 galloon tank. I thiink I will do a 50% water change using water from the display tank today and tomorrow and he should be feeling much better. I will keep up with the garlic and will still move to hyposalinity to deal with the ich. Any other suggestions or ideas?

 

[ronjeremy]

are you positive it is ich???? i would definately get the nitrates down..i would mix up some new water for that an aerate it over night....also, the display doesn't have to show signs of the parasite...it can be in there and not show up on some fish for a while..the spots shouldn't go away in one day though..they stay on the fish for several days before falling off...that's one reason i am wondering if it is ich.....make sure before you lower the salinity...ich generally looks like grains of salt on the fish...also, lowering your salinity down to 1.019 will help with stress(only in the qt tank)

 

[Mental1]

I can't get a picture to upload -- I don't know if he will make it through the night. He's upside down in the corner near the heater. Just discovered the salinity is 1.040 -- am not sure why this is happening -- I have been mixing water all day -- think I have to do a change now or he will die. I measzured salinity when I did a water change -- was high but not this high. I have been adding fresh water slowly. I think the room is haunted -- i have another small tank in that room and the salinity is also 1.040 and I keep adding fresh water but can't get it down in that tank either. Must be small tank issues... If you can send me your email address in a pm I will email you a photo -- haven't ever had time to get the software loaded to shrink photos.

 

[ahullsb]

You can look at some of my posts about my tang with ich. I am about to treat him in a day or so. I was told to qt him in a large rubbermaid container rather than my 10 gallon. I'm sure it was because trying to maintain perfect parameters in a 10 gallon and the fact that tangs probably wouldn't adjust very well to a tank that small anyway. Please let me know how it works out. As I said, I am about to try this for the first time myself!

 

[Mental1]

he's dead.

 

[ronjeremy]

1.040!!!!! holy crap!! i'm sorry to hear about your loss..that really sucks....ahullsb, what kind of tang are you treating and how big is it??? the rubbermaid will be harder to treat the fish in..you have to watch closely for the last trophont to fall of..in the rubbermaid, it will be almost impossible to observe..keeping the 10g completely blacked out will help with the stress of the tank..only turn the light on to observe the fish.

 

[Mental1]

ahullsb -- if you use the 10 gallon tank and your tang is big (I measured my foxface before we cremated him- can't do the toilet thing and the ground is frozen- 6 inches) be prepared to monitor water quality daily and do daily water changes. Someone suggested that is what I should have done -- which is true -- 2 surgeries, narcotics, visitors and holidays made me incompetent. He was improving and then suddenly he went downhill and it was too late to save him. My fault completely.

 

[ahullsb]

It is a blue tang that is about 3 inches long. The people I bought the tank from had the tang and a goby in there. I was about to trade him to someone with a larger tank when it developed ich. I keep getting mixed opinions on whether to keep him in a small dark tank, or a large one. In a 10 gallon can you really see everything fall off? I have a canister filter I bought and was hoping that with a container the size of my display tank that I could treat all of the fish. I was planning on hyposalinity and wasn't going to treat with copper since I'm new to all of this.

 

[fishyvet]

Sorry for your loss mental1, I can relate to the stress of watching a fish fall ill. I am a big fan of the rubbermaid tote for treating ailing fish. Several months ago my 7in blond naso became acutely ill (went off food, rapid loss of body condition). We moved him into the rubbermaid and put the UV sterilizer on it. We did water changes on him every other day and it was perfect for keeping him quiet and removing him for treatments. When he didn't get better, we put the lid on the tote and took him to the doctor. I've lost 2 fish in a 20gal glass qt (prob due to stress issues) and I'll never go that way again. Best of luck treating your blue tang ahullsb.

 

[Mental1]

I would like someone to explain to me what happened to the fish -- the symptoms of - I guess -very bad water quality. So the water was okay for say ten days. There was some evaporation and I added fresh water. I also did one 30% water change. I did not measure the parameters until it was too late. Monday morning he had white spots. ronjeremy is the only one who asked questions. There were others who read the post but no one else chimed in. Was it too little information? Did most people assume ich? Are white spots also a symptom of ammonia poisoning? I was not thinking water quality at all -- I was initially thinking a bacterial infection due to the beating he took -- he had exposed bones in his tail. I did the worst thing I could have done under the circumstances -- I treated the tank with antibiotics and turned the filter off. I also started running water -- because I thought the best thing would be if I did a water change in the display tank -- I could use some more of that water to change the water in the QT. The filter was off for about 20 hours -- Tuesday morning he looked worse -- he was white -- I immediately turned the filter back on. Then a light finally went off in my usless mind (can you tell I am at angry at myself?) and I tested the water. The water was mixing but had not been mixing for long and was not warm enough. I waited too long. I did do a 50% water change Tuesday night but it was too late. So white spots ... anybody know what too high ammonia, salinity and nitrates do to a foxface? Give him white spots -- but what are they?

 

[ronjeremy]

The filter was off for about 20 hours -- Tuesday morning he looked worse -- he was white -- I immediately turned the filter back on. Then a light finally went off in my usless mind (can you tell I am at angry at myself?) and I tested the water. The water was mixing but had not been mixing for long and was not warm enough. I waited too long. I did do a 50% water change Tuesday night but it was too late. So white spots ... anybody know what too high ammonia, salinity and nitrates do to a foxface? Give him white spots -- but what are they?

your filter was off for 20hrs?? no water movement?? without a pic, it is hard to tell about the spots...stress can cause discoloration...were the spots just discolorations or actual bumps??? it could have been a combo of things that killed the fish..the salinity alone could have done it, but add in ammonia, stress,no water movement(no oxygen or gas exchange), and it is a death sentence...

 

[Mental1]

I did have an aerator going but that was it -- but the white bumps showed up before the filter was turned off. The instructions with the antibiotics says to turn off filters. I guess I could have removed the filter media and kept it running. But I am having another white bumps theory -- what if the foxface was sick -- that caused the weight loss -- not losing out on food to the tang. After all -- he and the tang have been together for years so why the sudden change? Then -- what if it wasn't the tang who attacked him -- after all we were gone and I just assumed it was the tang. Maybe -- somehow -- I am not sure how -- he got caught in one of the seios? Anyway -- I was feeding him up in the QT, the exposed bones in his tail fell off and he appeared to be healing. Then the water went south, that caused the infection to come out as white bumps and then I pretty much finished him off with the next few stupid things I did. I never tested thre ammonia but I assume it got bad -- the nitrates and salinity were bad enough. ( oh -- it was 1.030 not 1.040) 40 PPT -- I blame it on my addiction to pain drugs. Just kidding. I did get pcitures but you cannot really see very well. It was white bumps -- looked like pimples -- all over his body.

 

[ronjeremy]

could have been lymphocystis ..the water quality plays a big factor in that, although it still could have been ich...1.030 is not just deadly, but it can cause alot of extra stress on the fish