New to parasites. Ich or flukes or...?

[chuckdylan]

My royal gramma basslet has white spots on head and eyes that look a lot like sprinkled salt. Mostly concentrated between the eyes. None that I can see on body or fins. Since the body is bright yellow and the head is purple it may just be easier to see the spots on the head. He is scratching on rocks, lethargic, breathing heavily, but eats ok. There is blotches on body that seem darker but may be from scratching. No other recent stress. A tail spot blenny from divers den was added two weeks ago whom is also scratching on rocks but shows no visible signs of infection. Other fish including clowns, chromis, and scooter dragonet all seem healthy. Mixed reef around 18 months old. I want to make sure I know what this is before I begin treatment. Anyone have a diagnosis?

Thanks!
Dylan

 

[chuckdylan]

More info; the fish was scratching on rocks for the past week or so but is just now showing the white spots.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Absolutely no way of telling at this point. Before you added the Blenny were any of the fish showing these symptoms? What and when was the last thing you added before the Blenny? The reason I ask is ich usually does not take down a fish this fast. You could be dealing with velvet or brook which also exhibits spots.

 

[chuckdylan]

The blenny was added on 10-10-2014, so actually almost three weeks ago. I don't remember seeing any symptoms ever in my tank until last week when I noticed the blenny and basslet scratching. White spots just showed up on the basslet yesterday. The last addition before the blenny was the scooter dragonet on 7-20-2014. Only snails have been added since then. I don't remember the date snails were added. Due to my rockscape, catching the fish would require draining almost every drop of water. I have ordered garlic extreme that will arrive tomorrow. I am considering ordering medication via amazon 2-day shipping. Would ordering ParaziPro and treating the display do me any good? Any tips to help diagnose the fish?

 

[Newsmyrna80]

If you are seeing white spots then it's a pretty good bet that you are not dealing with flukes and will need to remove all the fish and put into a QT. There is no reef safe treatment for ich, brook or velvet. Btw garlic will not do anything. Read the stickes at the top of the forum on crypto.
More than likely the Blenny brought something in but it could have been the snails.

 

[chuckdylan]

White spots on dragonet

White spots on dragonet

I came home last night and noticed there are now white spots on the red scooter dragonet body and fins. You can see them on the clear fins in this first pic. He is eating, not scratching, and is acting healthy. The royal gramma basslet is much worse, sometimes laying on side and breathing heavily. Clowns, chromis, and blenny all seem healthy.

I know ich is very rare for an otherwise healthy dragonet. Do you think this is an indication that it is some other parasite?

 

[Newsmyrna80]

They can be resistant but they do get ich. As I said earlier it is rare that ich takes a hold of fish this quickly so you may be dealing with something like velvet. Impossible for anyone to tell you what it is without a skin scrape. You have to do your own diagnosing. Look at images online, read the stickies and try to decipher based on objective symptoms what they have and treat accordingly. If you are dealing with velvet the gramma may already too far gone.