Ich or Velvet?

[Mish]

Hi, and Let me give some history to the situation. We had a power outage about 2 months ago. Our reef tank when 5 days with out lights and the temp dropped as low as 62F. We only lost one leather coral, and no fish. Shortly after getting the tank up and running again The bi-color pseudo developed a scratching habbit. I saw no signs of anything on him, but started treatment for Ich. (LFS advice) During treatment I saw white patches toward his tail that came and went. But he was scratching his gills not his tail. The patches have disappeared, and the scratching has come and gone several times. No noticble heavy breathing, and no other fish have signs of anything wrong. As of today, the Pseudo has a very dusty look to the area behind his gills. Still acting normal, but scratching.

What should I do? Is this Ich, or Velvet? Is my whole reef doomed?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[baobao]

You've had the ich/velvet in your tank, but the temperature drop is the catalyst that caused fish immune system to weaken to point where the fishes' immune system compromised. the most conservative avenue would be to remove all the fish and treat them in qt with cupramine.

 

[Mish]

Thanks, I'm not familiar with cupramine. Is that a copper medication? And I guess I don't need to know if it's Ich or velvet, or something else? Just treat.

Sorry, I'm new.

 

[leebca]

The proper diagnosis is very important to the treatment.

You have not observed any spots. That's encouraging as that would likely eliminate any of the disease which cause them.

You have observed 'white patches.' These patches can be areas where the fish's natural coating has been compromised. The usual culprit is bacteria. Your fish was used to a stable environment which, with its current diet, it could handle minor deviations of tank water quality. But with the large swing, the defenses are likely compromised and one of the first things to get a foothold are bacteria. They can and do cause flashing (scratching). All flashing is, is an irritation to the gills. This can be as minor as bacteria or damage, or as serious as parasites.

The scratching and patches can also be caused by a drop in water quality. A spike in ammonia or nitrite can bring on a bacterial infection, too as well as damaging the delicate gills. The shift in temperature just doesn't affect fish, it also affects the bacteria you are counting on to keep the waste matter chemical processes moving to nitrates. If the bacteria suspend or reduce their biological activity, an ammonia and/or a nitrite spike could have occurred. Also, such ammonia and nitrite spikes can damage sensitive gills. If the gills are irritated or damaged from water quality issues, this can cause the fish to flash.

Monitor your water quality; feed the best foods; use vitamins and fat additives to the foods; and include beta glucan to the diet until you're sure of recovery.

The above takes care of the diet part. If the fish shows any additional signs (other than flashing) then you can proceed with a diagnosis for the condition. For now, I'd assume the fish (and gills) are healing and you will help the fish with improved nutrition, and stable, excellent water quality. Lastly, peform your routine maintenace now. Clean up the tank, sump, etc. At least, that's what I'd do.

 

[Mish]

OK, so it might not be a parasite, but bacteria. It seems to come and go, this concerns me. My water quality has been good since the power outage, zeros for ammonia, nitrates, nitrites. I do feed a varity of foods and vitamins. It's been about 2 months since the power outage, I would have thought this fish would have recovered, or gotten worse. Thanks, for the help.

Can anyone recomend a good fish disease book? (with photos)

 

[baobao]

I've heard of book called Fish Diseases by Dr. Nora, but it's very expensive. Ideally, you'd want a microscope. Anyone know where I can get good appropriate microscope powerful to detect Amyloodinium/ Cryptocaron and not too expensive?