Wondering if the Tank has Ich

[Katie3G]

I will start by stating that I do think there is ich in the tank and I am in the process of setting up two hospital tanks (20 gal and 10 gal). Before I stress the fish (and myself) I want to be sure that the tank does indeed have ich.

My 55 gal tank has been running since mid June with 55 lbs. of live rock and aragonite sand. I placed 2 oscellaris clowns in the tank during the first week of August (first fish) and have had no problems with them. I added a neon goby at the end of August and about 3 weeks later (mid September) I added a banded goby and an orange spotted shrimp goby.

About 3 weeks ago I noticed a white spot (about the size of dot that a medium tip ball point pen makes) on one of the pectoral fins of the banded goby. The spot remains on the fin - it has neither increased or decreased in size. The fish does not seem to be bothered by the spot - no rubbing against rock or flashing on the sand. The fish is also active and eats well.

About 2 weeks ago I noticed a white spot (about the size of a dot made by a medium tip ball point pen) on one side of the neon goby. The spot stayed for about 5 days and then disappeared. The spot actually seemed to fade away over 2 days (but that could be the front glass becoming slightly less clear). The neon goby did not seem bothered by the spot - no rubbing against rock or flashing. The fish ate well and swam about as usual.

Last Wednesday the neon goby had about 4 or 5 white spots, one in what appears to be the exact same spot as the first one. Again, the fish had no flashing, was eating well and swimming about normally. By Saturday afternoon the spots had disappeared.

No other fish in the tank has been affected by these white spots. All the fish seems perfectly healthy.

My question - do my fish have ich? If one suspects yes, should I simply quarantine the fish in the hospital tanks for eight weeks or treat them with copper?

 

[beadlocked450r]

Well first off no copper!I had similiar problem with yellow tang,I did a few things,first I bought a cleaner shrimp because they eat ick and other parasites from the fish.second slowly raise your water temp to 82,I also bought a grounding probe,it will stop any stray current from stressing tyour fish out as stress can also trigger ick. Hope this helps,I have yet to have any problems since I did these thingsalso once spots go away keep water temp at 80

 

[Katie3G]

Thanks Beadlocked. My goal is to have an ich free tank. So if the spots are indeed ich then I will be removing the fish from the display tank and placing them in quarantine/treatment and leaving the DT fish fallow for at least 8 weeks.

 

[beadlocked450r]

Well swapping fish from tank to tank my cause the ick to come back.also the lower your salinity the less likley you are to get ick.before you go to the extreme try the cleaner shrimp and raise your water temp.when you get the shrimp you will see it pick at the fish and that's when its eating the ick,we call it the car was as mine hangs in a cave and the fish swim in and get cleaned and swim out.pretty cool to watch

 

[lhm nole]

Not to be rude but cleaner shrimp do not eat ich and temperature has no affect on saltwater ich cycle and just lowering your salinity a little does nothing to ich unless you go hyposalinity. Feed your fish well and hopefully they will overcome it if not always qt the new guys to help prevent future outbreaks.

 

[potterjon]

Man, ich is a tough one. I believe there are two schools of thought on ich.
1- It is physically transferred into the tank and there fore if you control everything going in it, you can get rid of the ich in the tank by quarantining and letting tank be fallow for 8-12 weeks.
2- Fish have ich and it presents itself when the fish is stressed.

Which one you go with has everything to do with how you treat it.
Personally, I would just get some good food with some amino acids and stay up on water changes. Hospital tanks are a real pain and they can be much more stressful on the fish, in my opinion. I used to go with theory number one, but after a few bouts with ich, I now go with theory number two. I don't set up hospital tanks anymore. I used to have Powder Brown Tang that would just show up with a couple of spots every once in awhile, then they would disappear. This went on for a few years. I did eventually lose him to ich and none of my other fish came down with it.

 

[steelhead77]

Please, for the health of everyone involved, at this point take a wait and see approach. Chasing fish around with a net because you see one or two spots is not good for anyone (either you or your fish). There is a point where you can pull them and treat, but you are not there yet. I know that there are a lot of people here who will tell you that you MUST remove and treat the fish or your tank is doomed. This is just NOT true. Many people have just as much success keeping good water parameters and making sure that the fish keep eating well. Look at my Purple Tang:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/steelhead77/3526844642/" title="Prince_Ich2 by steelhead77, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3402/3526844642_841f746b6a.jpg" width="500" height="343" alt="Prince_Ich2" /></a>

I never put him in a treatment tank and there were about 7 other fish in there with him. None came down with it. After two weeks this guy fully recovered. Two years and two tank upgrades later and I have not had another outbreak. I would say that my tank is ich free. It can be done.

If your fish are still eating and swimming and acting normal, leave them alone for now. Like I said, there is always time to pull them out and treat them if really needed.

 

[skibum9884]

I agree with some of what's been said here. If you're not dead set on having an "ich-free" tank, you could leave the fish in the tank and try to improve water quality and feed lots of good high quality foods enriched with garlic.

If you must have an ich-free tank, you're going to have to remove the fish and leave the DT fallow for 8-12 weeks. During that time I would treat the QT tanks with Cupramine.

A cleaner shrimp will not solve your problems though. I agree with others that netting the fish can be very stressful and compound the problem. For this reason I'd recommend trapping the fish using an acrylic box. Much easier for you, and less stressful on the fish.

 

[Katie3G]

Thanks for all the replies. I do want an ich free tank. I also have a fish trap. Hospital tank treatment with copper it will be.