Ich or worse?

[tingram]

Just saw one of my tangs hiding in the corner of the tank which is very abnormal and on closer inspection of the other two they have white spots over most of their bodies, and so does one of my clowns and a foxface. I'm not sure if this is ich or possible marine velvet.

I tried looking at other articles but wasn't able to get any information from them..

please help!

PS. I had a Flame Angel die on me out of teh blue last week, could these be linked?

The picture makes it tough to see, but the tang wouldn't keep still!

 

[stingythingy45]

You have to get those fish out of there and into a hospital tank pronto!
I don't think that's ich as I've had my run in with that BS.This could be your second guess.....velvet.
And yes this could all be linked.Man,you have some high dollar fish there.I hope you can save them....Good luck.

 

[tingram]

Thanks Bob, the bad news is that I dont have another tank to put them in, I'll have to see if I can setup a rubbermaid container or something...


any suggestions on what to treat with? I hear copper but also that tangs are very sensitive to that too and it could make them worse...

 

[kevin2000]

Any new fish additions lately? Also ... do you have an estimate on how long the tang has looked like that?

 

[Percula9]

If you don't want to use copper, try Rid-Ich, formalin and malachite green.

 

[Percula9]

If you don't want to use copper, try Rid-Ich, formalin and malachite green.

 

[tingram]

kevin2k, the tang didnt look like that yesterday, i'm shocked he looked so bad in that little amount of time...

percula, thanks for the suggestions, guess I'll have to check out the LFS tomorrow as soon as they open...

PS. I did add two B&B clowns a couple of weeks ago but they look fine, so far!

 

[jmicky41]

If it is velvet, take action now. Velvet is much more lethal than ich. I bought a fish that came down with velvet soon after I got it. I don't think mine will survive. It went from just a few spots and acting/feeding well, to covered with spots on deaths door in just a few days.

 

[downhillbiker]

copper is good use COPPER POWER. it is a great product that works but isn't as potent. you can double the doseage and not kill the fish, even tangs. i treated a regal tang and tomini tang with it and they were fine. you have to pull out your carbon on the filter, otherwise any copper treatment is filtered out, but run your filter, just without carbon.

 

[downhillbiker]

but dont start by doubling dosage. just start with the 1 oz per 20 gallons. mark your bottle with sharpie marker on the side with 15 lines on the 16 oz bottle.

 

[kevin2000]

My 02

Based on looks it would appear the fish has brooklynella (aka clownfish disease) or perhaps Velvet. If so the downside is that the cure for Brooklynella is formalin while the cure for velvet is copper - unfortunately you can't use either in your show tank and you should not use both at the same time (fromalin increases the toxicity of copper).

You might consider giving the fish an extended formalin bath and then after "rinsing it" place it in a QT and treat with copper .. should have both basis covered.

Here's a link discussing how give a formalin bath

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/formalinbaths.html

Here's a link discussing how to use cupramine (copper)

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/cupramine.html

Both brook and amylo (velvet) are contagious and much more lethal than ich.

Hope this helps.

 

[tingram]

is the copper power OK for anemones too?

 

[tingram]

thanks kevin, all i can say is "yikes"...

looks like i have a lot of work ahead of me...

 

[stingythingy45]

NO!!!
You can't use copper with any inverts!!!
You can't use copper with LR as well!
The only way to treat is like Kevin stated in a hospital tank or if you have to a large tote.Copper will wreck your display tank in a matter of minutes.

 

[tingram]

Thanks, just checking since I wasn't 100% sure... It's going to be fun getting them all out of there...

 

[tingram]

BTW- I wasn't able to find any formalin, the closest I could find was the safe alternative Para Guard, hope that works...

PLan is to dip in a 5G bucket for about an hour and then into the larger rubbermaid container, I'll just have to do them a couple at a time...

How long before you think I can put them back into the tank? Will they be ok as soon as the spots have gone?