Ich - plan of attack

[karid]

I have a 90g tank that seems to have come down with a case of ick. I have 4 fish (clownfish, rabbitfish, fairy wrasse, bicolor blenny). The clownfish is already in QT due to coming down with disease earlier than the other fish.

I thought the clownfish had brook, but I'm not sure. In any case, he's healthy now in QT. However the remaining 3 fish in the display tank are starting to get covered with white stuff (not necessarily like grains of sand, but more like clumps) and are scratching and flicking themselves. The rabbitfish makes frequent stops to the cleaner shrimp station (he's the only one I don't see white stuff on). It sounds like Ich to me, but I've never seen it before so am not 100% certain.


So this is my plan:

1. Remove fish from display tank, freshwater dip for 10-15 minutes, and put in QT tank.

2. Leave display tank fishless for 8 weeks

3. While the display tank is fishless, I will lower the salinity of the QT tank to 1.009 for 4 weeks. Then raise it up slowly to the level of the display tank. Will feed garlic-soaked food. QT tank will only have PVC pipes/containers in it (no live rock).

4. When the 8 weeks are up, put the fish back into the display tank.


Does that sound like a good plan?

THanks!!

 

[Jerry W]

Ity's really important to know what you're treating. Misdiagnosing an ailment and not providing the right intervention might be costly. Describe the clumps you see. Ich will appear as tiny salt-like sprinkles on the fish. How long has the clown been in quarantine and do you know what was wrong with it? What did you do to treat the clown?
Hyposalinity is effective for parasitic outbreaks, but you might be dealing with something different. Any way you can post a picture of what you're seeing?

 

[karid]

Hi Jerry - thanks for helping me out here. As I've never seen any of this stuff, I don't really know what I'm doing - it's just guesswork.

Here's the entire detailed story, with the best pictures I could take. I tried to be a thorough as I could:

1. 5/4/07 (Fri) - I got 2 new true perc clownfish Friday from LFS. I added to display tank (I know - mistake #1, didn't quarantine). They hosted to my frogspawn.

2. 5/6/07 (Sun) - I got a new rabbitfish from a local reefer. I assumed he would disclose if the tank or fish was sick. Again, mistake #2 - didn't quarantine.

3. 5/7/07 (Mon) - that rabbitfish seemed really beat up. I was slightly concerned about his health - seemed to have some white spots, but couldn't tell if it was scratches, bubbles, or parasite. He swims up to the cleaner shrimp and opens his mouth real wide - but they don't do anything.

3. 5/8/07 (Tues) - male clownfish has lesions (white bumpy patches with some flesh coming out), but otherwise is acting, eating, breathing, and swimming normal. Weird. I'm concerned here.

4. 5/11/07 (Fri) - female clownfish develps lesions and white "dusty" patches on her body, but othewise is acting, eating, breathing, and swimming normal. I'm definitely concerned though. Did a 4 min freshwater dip. After talking to some people, I believed it was either brook or an interaction with the frogspawn.

5. 5/12/07 (Sat) - female now has torn fins. The back half of the caudal fin was thin with a hole in it, and eventually fell off. The pectoral fin was shredded and tore off about halfway (it also eventually fell off). She was breathing and eating normal, swimming a little to one side because of her torn fins though.

I'm very concerned. I was told that a 4 min freshwater dip was not long enough and I should do a 10 minute one. I set up a QT tank, did a 10 minute freshwater dip for both the male and female clownfish, and put them both in quarantine. Later that night the female was having problems breathing and was up at the water line gulping air. She died about an hour after I noticed this. The male seemed to be fine. I do not believe this was ich. I don't know what it was. Maybe it really was only an interaction with the frogspawn (they were getting stung) and the freshwater dips just stressed her out too much. Maybe the did have brook. The male remains in the quarantine tank.

6. 5/13/07 (Sun) I notice my bicolor blenny scratching himself and flicking himself. He seems to be breathing hard and is very pale. He has white spots on his head, but I don't know if these are just showing up now because he's so pale (natural markings) or if they are a parasite/disease. It does look like the white spots have relief.

I notice my rabbitfish is taking full advantage of the cleaner shrimp and getting cleaned frequently (now the shrimp are all over him). The male clownfish in QT is fine.

7. 5/14/07 (Mon) I notice my wrasse has white stuff on his head. It isn't like salt, more like...someone blew some flour on him. like a dusting. He is acting, eating, breathing and swimming fine. These are the best picts I could get since he's skittish of the camera:

Blenny condition unchanged, prone to crazy-like swimming behaviour (going out of his hidey hole, freaking out for a few seconds, going back in). Male clownfish in QT is still fine, lesion area getting healed.

So now what do I do? The blenny and the wrasse don't look right.

 

[Cord]

Are the fish breathing faster than normal? This can be a sign of ich, brook, or Amyloodinium. I would Google these diseases for some good pics and reading and see if anything sounds like what your fish have. I recently wrote a post about my clown trigger that had ich, sloughing off its skin. It looked similar to your pics, but it was all over, and he did have the clasic salt grain spots before this, so I know it was ich. And if you treat with hyposalinity, I believe the length of time is 4-6 weeks after all the spots are gone, not just 4 weeks.

 

[karid]

The fish are all breahing fine.

So far, I've not found anything that sounds or looks like what they have - except maybe ich (especially since the blenny is flicking/itching). But I know diseases can look very different depending on the fish, the level of infection, etc. Or heck - maybe it's nothing.

We're going to wait until this weekend to do anthing though (wait until the filter in the QT tank gets ready) - unless something more serious happens in between.

 

[karid]

Just an update:

I removed all 4 fish into a QT tank on Wed. I've been letting them get comfortable in their new environment before I started any treatment and to see if more obvious signs of the problem manifested.

Lo and behold the rabbitfish is covered in the typical and classic "grains of sand/salt" (the cleaner shrimp were probably doing their job in the DT on him). I don't think this killed the clown, but in any event - we have ich for sure. Will be treating with hyposalinity while leaving the DT fishless.