Should I destroy this fish? See photos, ICK?

J

Johny123

New member
I bought this from the fish store like 2 months ago. It always seemed a little sickly. But I noticed these white spots like pretty soon after. They disappear during the day, and vary. The optanistic side of me (or delusional) wants to believe it is sand or something, because it comes off. The fish eats well. Looks a little sickly.

Is this ick? And is there anything I can do because I LOVE my clownfish and purple fire fish and am kisses at myself that I got impulsive and bought a third fish. (Corals in tank, levels are impeccable, no resources for a quarantine tank)

<a href="https://ibb.co/mfed5x"><img src="https://thumb.ibb.co/mfed5x/8_ED75828_0_AD6_41_D8_A0_E9_38_F4_D5_E8_C4_E2.jpg" alt="8_ED75828_0_AD6_41_D8_A0_E9_38_F4_D5_E8_C4_E2" border="0"></a> <a href="https://ibb.co/g16fJH"><img src="https://thumb.ibb.co/g16fJH/4_D1206_E5_91_BA_4_DF9_BAF8_64903_F9445_AA.jpg" alt="4_D1206_E5_91_BA_4_DF9_BAF8_64903_F9445_AA" border="0"></a>
 
Destroy a fish over ich? Maybe find another hobby of you like killing animals.

It's ich, not a death sentence and can be treated and it can live with ich if not treated
 
sw-ich-fish-disease.jpg


Ich is smaller. Ich doesn't protrude from the skin like the picture seems to show. (Have you experienced ich?)
 
Honestly. I thought it was like sand particles. Like they stick to him and then drop off during the day. This fish is a voracious eater. Again I’m sure I’m wrong. So what is this if not ick?
 
(Also everyone is suggesting meds that could potentially kill my coral. I’m not looking to kill hundreds of dollars worth of coral to save a $12 fish. I respect life and definitely do t want to kill a fish...but I also don’t want my other two fish to get Infected.)

What is it?
 
IF IT WERE ME. I would treat for parasites with PraziPro. It is reef safe. I have used it with corals.
 
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If it were me I would put him in a quarantine tank with no sand and see what happens. No more spots for a week then prob sand. If spots appear it may be ich or parasite.
Destroying the fish will not do much to save your other tank inhabitants. If it is a disease it is already in the tank and will take a long time to leave.
And I agree throwing meds at a fish that you are not sure even is sick is risky.


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Johny123 said:
(Also everyone is suggesting meds that could potentially kill my coral. I'm not looking to kill hundreds of dollars worth of coral to save a $12 fish. I respect life and definitely do t want to kill a fish...but I also don't want my other two fish to get Infected.)
Click to expand...
tonysi said:
If it is ich, then your other fish already have it.
Click to expand...

I have a single fish in my tank worth hundreds of dollars alone and it has ich. All of my fish have it now. That is a couple thousand dollars of just fish. Am I worried? No. It's annoying only because when knowledgeable people see the tank, and see the ich, they might judge me a bit. Otherwise, it's not even a thing. All it took was one sick fish. And I have no intention of tearing down this tank for ich. Did it once when new; that was enough. One fish with ich means the whole tank has ich.

If you can treat all three fish, and re-home them for 60+ days while the parasite dies in the fish-free tank, go for it. Otherwise, forget about it. Healthy fish get ich, they lose it, they get it, they lose it. It shouldn't be this way but it's a reality for many. Unless they are really stressed, they will be "ich-free" in a couple of weeks, before it shows up again a month, a year, 10 years from now. And still, nothing will happen if they are healthy.

And that's if it really is ich. Looks it to me but the other posters have good rationale to state otherwise.

PraziPro is relatively safe. I used it just recently on my frag tank (i.e. all coral and only coral) to see if it kills a tank full of monti-eating nudibranchs (it does, btw). No problem, although one type of branching monti didn't like it. It does kill some of the filter worms and things but your coral should be okay.

But in summary, if you can remove the fish for a couple months to treat them, and run the tank fishless, try it out. If not, just leave it. The tank has ich. Enjoy it and when you see the spots again, close your eyes when you feed the fish.
 
Looks like ich to me. My little citron goby had it so bad it looked exactly like what your does. My other fish were just spotted like the above poster showed.

Just went through this with my tank(even though I QT fish, it came in on a snail shell from a CUC replenishment). Lost every one of my fish that were otherwise happy, healthy, and eating(8 total). Unfortunately I do not have the room to QT all the fish at once and they slowly died horrible death. Not sure where everyone thinks these fish can live with ich, but the 2 times I've had it, I've lost all the infected fish if treatment wasn't given in short order.
 
Please don't kill a fish just because you don't want to properly take care of it by quarantining or providing the necessary treatments. I'm sure someone is willing to adopt it so please give it away instead of killing it.
To me it doesn't look like ich but more like flukes or some type of worm but it is really hard to tell from the pic but whatever disease or parasite it may be, it is already in your display tank since non of your fish were properly quarantined.
 
If you can catch it, give it a freshwater dip.

If it's worms/flukes, you can see them fall off. If ich, go through tank transfer method.
 
you do not treat fish in your display tank. Go to Fish Disease forum and diagnose, then treat in a hospital/qt tank, which has neither rock nor sand. The bad news is, if it is ich, a parasite which will already have infested your sandbed, you have to treat all fish and leave the tank fishless for 72 days. It looks, however, like it could be lymphocystis, a viral disease that fish if well fed and not stressed by bad water, can throw off. Google these two ailments and see which looks most like your problem. Sand particles, possibly. Get a magnifying glass and get a better look.
 
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