Mystery Disease only effecting Butterflyfish

[Cburt328]

So about two weeks ago we noticed that our long nose butterfly had some spots on him . We thought it was ich so we went down and bought several bottles of ich attack to treat. We treated the tank for 6 days with no luck, I went down to my lfs guy and he pulled out a book and showed me what ich really looks like since I've never had the marine version. We decided that it wasn't likely ich, but more likely some form of bacterial infection, so I took my longnose out of my main tank and put him in our 20 gallon hospital. I ran a 90 gal uv sterilizer, a power head and a 100 micron sock, I did erythromiacin ( sorry if I spelt that wrong), 25% water changes every 24 hours, and a sock change every 48 for 5 full treatments. It appeared to be much better, so I placed him back n my display. The very next day his spots were back just as bad if not slighlty worse, so I had my lfs guy come over and look at him to try and help diagnose it. By the time he came over we noticed that our banner butterfly was also starting to show spots, so we took EVERY FISH out of the tank, and now have thwm in a more managable qt. We have been treating with pimafix and melafix one at night and one during the morning for 6 days now, same situation, 20 gal with 350 gph hob filter, no caebon, and 90 gallon sterilizesterilize r. 2 50% water vhanges in the last 6 days. We have had no luck. Called lfs guy again last night, he suggested turning off the uv, and switchong back to ich attack this morning with a 25% change and after running carbon all night . I wanna get some more opinions here, do I take out the carbon and start ich again? Can I remove my non diseased fish and quit torturing them? Uv? No uv? Please help me out here guys.

Stock is as follows
Yellow tail tamarin wrasse,
Cleaner wrasse,
Mated pair of true oscellaris clowns,
Longnose butterfly,
Black and white banner butterfly,
2 chromis
2 damsels,
And my inverts which are not in qt

Qt is 20 gallon glass with uv 350 gph hob, heater and 12000 k 40 watt light and heater.
Display is 300 acrylic with 2 dual head random wavemaker 3500 gph powerheads, 8x 40 watt 10000k full spectrum flourescents, anotjer 90 gallon uv sterilizer that I don't run, a 400 gallon skimmer, a 3000 gph return , 2 500 watt heaters, a digital tjermostat with cooling fans, and a 55 sump .

Ty n advance ! and sorry for n e spelling errors or typos. Im at work and posting on my phone. Lol

 

[Addicted2coral1]

Can you get a positive Id on the problem. If we could see a pic or if we knew whatnot was we were fighting it will improve out chances.

 

[Cburt328]

I'm gonna try and post a pic, lets see if I can get one. I'd is a huge part of the problem. I have no idea what I'm treating at this point .

 

[Cburt328]

No luck on pic. Atleast now. Phone won't upload. Will have to get to laptop later tonight. Theyre tiny white spots on the fins of both butterflies primarily on the tail fin , and the longnose has a few on his head.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Sounds like ich, you can Google "marine ich", look at images and compare. Ich often shows up first in the fins. You'll see mostly very infested fish, but just compare the individual spots. Any product that claims to cure about everything, especially in a reef tank, will do basically nothing. Avoid the ich attack, it won't help ich.

 

[Cburt328]

Yeah, I've done that. And yes the spots do seem somewhat similar. Mine are softer though , more seethrough, also what ich treatment do u recommend then? And ... I thought ich came on suddenly and spread quickly ... I've been going on 2+ weeks with this. And its only on my butterflies thus far

 

[MrTuskfish]

Ich can wipe out a tank in days or spread very slowly, many factors are involved. Other, similar parasites, like velvet or brooklynella are usually much quicker.

Is there any height to the spots, or they just level with the skin? Are they distinctly white?

If this is ich, copper in a QT would seem the only option, as ALL fish need to be treated. A couple of the quinine drugs seem to work too. They are tough to find, though and I have little experience with them. They are recommended by some very good hobbyists and also require all fish in a QT tank. There is no way to treat ich in a DT.