Powder Blue may have ich, help

[jmccown]

OK guys, I am really getting worried. Introduced a very nice, very, very healthy PBT to my system on Saturday. Last night I noticed a few tiny spots on him. He has been eating good and everything, I don't understand. Anyhow, will a UV sterilizer help? I currently don't have a saltwater specific unit, but I do have a big UV sterilizer that I used on my pond. It is an 18 watt unit and is this same one on ebay, take a look http://cgi.ebay.com/Fish-Mate-Pond-...745475638QQcategoryZ20507QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I need some help, not to say it for sure is ich, but I don't want to lose an $80 fish. He is 6" and was in prime health when I got him from Fuji's the other day. He has been eating flakes (Formula One and munching on macroalgae).

I dosed my tank with some RX-P, last night before I went to bed. Got up this morning and my skimmer was going crazy, overflowing, etc. But that's beside the point. What should I do with my PBT. Thanks guys.

 

[marrone]

Reguardless of how the fish looks you should always quaratine all your fish, specially a fish like a PBT as they're ich magnets. If you can get him out of your tank that would be the best thing to do. Place him in a quaratine tank and see if it's is ich or not. If it's ich start doing a hyposaility if it's not ich but another disease then start with a copper type treatment.

Here is a good web site on what to look for and how to treat diseases:

Diseases - Cures

 

[jda]

Sterlizer will help, but it is not a cure.

See if it gets any worse. The fish might fight it off on it's own - which is best. If it is eating a bunch, then there is a good chance.

If it does get worse, catch it and put it in a QT tank with a suitable medicine.

You found this out already, but you need to quit skimming when you dose most meds and other "cures". You might want to consider running carbon afterward along with a water change to get it the med of the system.

 

[Tyrosinase]

I would not recommend trying to get the fish out at this point. It may be even more stressfull for the fish, and I am willing to bet it will be a big pain in the ___. If the fish is eating I would soak some mysis shrimp in garlic and feed that to the fish. You may be surprised at how well garlic soaked food will work against ich.

Also, I have found that keeping the lights off for a day or two will work wonders against ich.

I have used both of these techniques to fight ich on a Hippo and Achilles tang.

 

[marrone]

If a fish has ich it is better to keep lights on either in the tank or near the tank. As when the tank go dark the fish will find their place to sleep and this will cause them to lose some of their resistance. If they're still active they seem to be more resistance and are able to fight off the ich better. You don't need to keep the main lights on but keep a light near the tank so the fish will still keep swimming around.