Ich but not ich?

[Grnorton]

ok reefers here i am again, staring ich in the face. or at least i thought. I carefully qtd all my new fish for 4 weeks and treated with chloroquine phosphate, marycyn 2, and prazipro. Well, I got something when i introduced some chaeto. It showed up on my blue hippo tang and my hippo tang only...its been 4 weeks since i noticed it and nobody else has developed a single spot. starting from day 1 i monitored for a week, dory got spots 5 or 6 white crystals type spots and then they were gone. then about day 7 or 8 they came back so i of course just assumed ich. SOOO knowing my luck thus far in the hobby i have yet to add any inverts or corals to the system so that i could treat the whole display with chloroquine phosphate. 40mg/gal is what i dosed. ok so. 2 weeks into treatment. (to start treatment i disconeccted my refugium and am going to leave that with the chaeto fallow for 8 weeks, turned off my skimmer, uv and lights) Dory has a spot that started as a white blotch on her body, and shrunk slowly over a few days into a crystal type spot and now just looks like a spot of ich. is this just the final stage of the ich parasite dying off or am i treating for ich and dealing with something entirely different? any input would be appreciated. all my parameters are in perfect order. so please dont start asking about that, ive checked them time and time again, ive installed a grounding probe in the display and the sump. im stumped on this one.

 

[Grnorton]

come on now, somebody has to have some type of insight on this one

 

[Louis Z]

Did u have any inverts in the tank ? I am curious how they fared. I don't know what to say . I never thought that whole tank treatment would work . Since it takes only one to survive and unlikely the med would penetrate everything . Someone in another forum did mention a diatom filter is useful in keeping numbers down. Maybe a uv filter may work. I think that maybe a combo of all would help keep parasite numbers low but not 100% eliminated. Have you tried the fallow period if you are unwilling to take tank apart. Not treating the refugium also makes the tank treatment moot. All it takes is a parasite waiting in the refugium to migrate all the way up to the tank and begin again. I think the dose to actively treat an infection was about 80mg/gallon . Jay hemdal in advanced aquarium stated the doses. It's been awhile but I think that was the dosage . Sounds like a lot of prayer that it will work. I wouldn't want that monkey on my back and wondering when it would show up again . Other options is to make this a non fish tank. Setup another one for fishes that have been qt and treated. I know this sounds crazy but that's my penny's worth of ideas.

 

[Louis Z]

Sorry ,mentally skipped the part where u said no inverts. It wouldn't take much to replace the sand . Could u replace the rock work?

 

[microlady]

Could the tang possibly have lymphocystis virus and not crypto?

 

[Fish Keeper82]

I had something similar happen in my tank. I qt every thing for 8 weeks. After some new coral additions i noticed one white spot on my blue hippo tang a few days later. The one spot disappeared and all looked well for a few days . Then about a week later 4 spots . Then they all disappeared again. Followed by more the following week. Fearing this was ICH i was preparing for a full hospital tank and fallow Day Tank. Then it suddenly went away and i have not seen it again in months. The blue tang was the only fish to show these spots.I
Im still not sure if it was ich or not. But it looks to be gone for now and all tank looks great. I belive it might have been something else that came in on the coral. The white salt like spots seemed a bit bigger than any ich ive sen before but not by much.
I think its gone for good but only time will tell.