URGENT Disease ID and treatment Help

[mustangmcdee]

I purchased a pygmy flame angel yesterday. I drip acclimated him for about 4 hours then introduced him into my DT. (I know I should have a quarantine tank) He looked healthy at the LFS and when I introduced him into my tank. Today I noticed that he has small white spots on him. He isn't covered in them but there are a number of them. I believe that it could be ICH but I am unsure.
Please give me any advice you may have. Also what steps should I take to ensure the health of my other tank inhabitants?

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Do you have any other fish in the tank? Try to post a pic.

 

[mustangmcdee]

Yes I do have other fish in the tank. Here is a list:
Fox face
Atlantic blue tang
2 ocellaris clowns
2 fire fish
Green chromis
Blue mandarin dragonette

The tank has been up and running for about a year with no disease issues thus far. I'll try to post a pic later but I don't think I can get a good one. I'll see what I can do.

 

[snorvich]

If the white spots look like salt, it is likely to be ich. Please read the stickies.

 

[mustangmcdee]

Should I remove the angel from the DT since he has only showed signs for a day or two, or is it too late and the DT is infected?

 

[snorvich]

Should I remove the angel from the DT since he has only showed signs for a day or two, or is it too late and the DT is infected?

If you have ich on a single fish, your tank has ich.

 

[mustangmcdee]

What do you think would be my best treatment option? Is there a way to treat it without taking all of the fish out of the DT?

 

[lagatbezan]

Read this, it will give you all the info that you will need.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1992196

 

[snorvich]

The problem is that to make your tank ich free it needs to remain without fish for a minimum of 9 weeks and optimally 12 weeks. The treatment options I favor, if it is indeed ich, are tank transfer as a first choice and copper as a second choice. There is information in the stickies about either. There are two other options: hyposalinity, which I do not recommend because the odds of success are poor unless you execute precisely and Chloroquine Phosphate which may work, but is not a treatment I support. There is a thread in this forum about Chloroquine Phosphate.

 

[mustangmcdee]

Read this, it will give you all the info that you will need.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1992196

I'm going to read the stickies when I get home from work. I was hoping for some advice from someone with first hand experience.

 

[mustangmcdee]

Steve, Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[snorvich]

The sticky that lagatbezan recommended should provide lots of information.

 

[mustangmcdee]

Thanks for everyone's help so far.

After reading a lot of the stickies it sounds like the tank transfer method is the least invasive and shows good results. Here is how I plan to complete the tank transfer. Please let me know if I am doing this right.
I plan to buy two 20 gallon rubber-made totes, and an air pump with multiple air stones.
I'll fill the tote with new saltwater, heater, air stone, and fish. Then I will change tote systems on the 4th morning, washing the old one with a little bleach/water mix and rinsing and drying.
Then I'll repeat every fourth morning for a total of 12 days. Meanwhile I will treat the system with Prime to keep the ammonia down.

Do I need to remove my skunk cleaner shrimp or will he be ok in the DT?
Do I need any lights over the totes?
Since I do not have a QT, what should I do after the 12 days while my DT fallows for the rest of the 9 weeks that it needs?
Am I missing any steps?
Thanks

 

[mustangmcdee]

Also do you think that 15 gallons of water in the 20 gallon tote will be enough for all of my fish?

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Thanks for everyone's help so far.

After reading a lot of the stickies it sounds like the tank transfer method is the least invasive and shows good results. Here is how I plan to complete the tank transfer. Please let me know if I am doing this right.
I plan to buy two 20 gallon rubber-made totes, and an air pump with multiple air stones.
I'll fill the tote with new saltwater, heater, air stone, and fish. Then I will change tote systems on the 4th morning, washing the old one with a little bleach/water mix and rinsing and drying.
Then I'll repeat every fourth morning for a total of 12 days. Meanwhile I will treat the system with Prime to keep the ammonia down.

Do I need to remove my skunk cleaner shrimp or will he be ok in the DT?
Do I need any lights over the totes?
Since I do not have a QT, what should I do after the 12 days while my DT fallows for the rest of the 9 weeks that it needs?
Am I missing any steps?
Thanks

The 1st transfer is done on the morning of the fourth day. The rest of the transfers are done on the morning of the third day. Leave the shrimp in the DT. They cannot host crypto.
No lights needed.
Age old question as to how to quarantine in an uncycled tank. There are many routes. Some people just use Prime ( or something like it) to detoxify ammonia or do a lot of water changes. If you are able to get LR or sand that you trust doesn't have disease you can start seeding a QT now. Also Bio Spira is another way to go. You could probably do a search on it. I know there are lots of threads on this subject:rollface:
Does your mandarin eat frozen?

 

[mustangmcdee]

Thanks a lot. I didn't realize that you could quarantine in an uncycled tank. Truthfully I never gave it any thought. I will definitely do some research on that idea.

Today when I got home from work I noticed that there are no more spots on the Flame angel. I assume that this just the trophont stage dropping off of the fish. However he never showed any other signs that point to ICH. His color is great, he is eating well, he never scratched on any rocks or on the sand. Could this be something other than ICH?

Having never dealt with this before, could I be overreacting/overlooking something?