Can this be ICH?

prohopper · Mar 13, 2011

I woke up this morning to go to work and took a look in my tank to find my perc completely covered in what looks to me like ich. He was covered in literally hundreds of tiny white spots. He seemed to be swimming fine but breathing a little faster than normal. My tank lights have been off all night. I unfortunately had to leave for work thinking the worst. When I returned home from work today to my surprise my little clown looked perfect. No sign of anything at all. I have no idea what happened. Now my daylight light just turned off for the night and have been off for about an hour and sure enough the clown looks horrible again covered in hundreds of small white spots. I will post pictures that show this but the pictures don't show the severity of this at all. Can someone confirm if this is ich or possibly another parasite or disease. I have never seen ich completely disappear in a matter of 6 or 8 hours.

prohopper · Mar 13, 2011

Forgot to mention it is a 14 gallon biocube. Just the perc and a yellow watchman goby with a few hermits and snails. Nothing added in the past week. Yellow watchman looks fine with no visible spots at all

nikesb · Mar 13, 2011

the ich dropped off his skin, but it is still in your tank. it will bloom again and could possibly kill your fish, or your fish can live through it and develop immunity (partial or full). to completely rid of ich though, you will have to take your fishes out and treat with hyposalinity or copper and let the tank sit fishless for 6-8 weeks

prohopper · Mar 13, 2011

Does ich just "drop off" the fish completely like that within a few hours? I have had ich in the past and have never seen it disappear completely in a couple hours. I'm not saying your wrong just wasn't aware that can happen.

nikesb · Mar 13, 2011

definately. when i first had my flame wrasses, they would have ich before they go to bed, and would have no signs the very next morning. the parasites that are visible are the stage where they will drop off and disappear into the sand until they burst and become free swimming again.

deejeff442 · Mar 13, 2011

ich is visible on livestock for 5-7 days not hours.search life cycle of ich here .hypo kills the ich in the reproduction cycle and copper in the free swimming cycle .

nikesb · Mar 13, 2011

maybe im blind but im pretty sure the very next day, the ich wasnt visible. in his pictures, dont know if its before an after, but i still see visible ich

beth · Mar 13, 2011

I can't really see much in the picture, but the description you give sounds like ich. While ich will drop off as part of its life cycle, then return, it will not drop off and return over night. Ich will have the appearance of coming and going though it is still there. If this a new fish?
I would recommend hyposalinity treatment for both fish.

prohopper · Mar 13, 2011

I woke up this morning to find him dead. My goby however still shows no signs. I am going to have to try and get him out of the tank somehow today and set up a QT of some sort. If i were to treat the QT with copper, how to you transfer the fish back into the main tank without bringing any copper along with him?

prohopper · Mar 13, 2011

Beth, No this was not a new fish. I have had him in there for at least a month. The yellow goby has been in there for about 12 days as he was my last addition.

deejeff442 · Mar 13, 2011

we have all lost fish to ich .sorry about your clown.
if you treat the clown in a qt with copper i wouldn't worry about him bringing the copper to the dt if you net him.but i would suggest looking at hypo like beth said.i keep hypo at 1.007-1.008.if you go over 1.009 just for one day the ich might be able to multiply and you have to start over.since most qt's are small 10-30 gallon with the water evaporating it dont take long for the salinity to raise up.copper is tricky if you haven't done it before.the test kits are tough to read and the tank will absorb some of the copper so the mix wont be strong enough and in affective.hypo is much easier for a first time treatment.
good luck either way you go.and i am sure you learned when you add any new livestock being fish ,lr,corals anything that comes wet it can have ich on it.so its best to always keep a qt running for new arrivals.
if it werent for ich this hobby would be so much easier

deejeff442 · Mar 13, 2011

correction i meant treat the goby in qt.

prohopper · Mar 13, 2011

Thanks for your response. I think I will go with a hypo treatment first. Being that as of right now the goby is my only fish, when he is in QT can i add more coral to my display tank? As i understand it ich only lives off of fish correct? And being "fishless" for 8 weeks seems to be the right amount of time to rid the tank of the parasite?

deejeff442 · Mar 13, 2011

sure can.i would add the corals right away just to make sure the corals didnt come from a tank with fish that have ich.i added 3 corals to my 250 and a week later the fish had ich.so i qt everything now.ich is the biggest pain to deal with.
only fish have ich on them but if the ich is in the swimming stage it can be in any water.if you add the corals to the dt right away when you take out the fish even if the water the corals are in have it.the tank is still fishless for the 6 weeks it takes to hypo and all the ich will die without a host.

beth · Mar 13, 2011

Copper in a newly set up QT is very likely to fail. Do you have corals and live rock in your current tank?

prohopper · Mar 13, 2011

Quote:
Originally Posted by Beth http:///forum/thread/384507/can-this-be-ich#post_3368523
Copper in a newly set up QT is very likely to fail. Do you have corals and live rock in your current tank?
Yeah I have a handful of blue leg hermits, some small snails and a few bristle stars that came as hitchhikers on my live rock. As for corals just 2 small colonys of green star polyps

beth · Mar 14, 2011

No hypo in the display tank then.
Do you have a refractometer? Take a look at the article on hyposalinity, linked in the FAQ topic at the top of forum. If your other fish gets ich, this is really your only viable option as I see it.

prohopper · Mar 14, 2011

Quote:
Originally Posted by Beth http:///forum/thread/384507/can-this-be-ich#post_3368617
No hypo in the display tank then.
Do you have a refractometer? Take a look at the article on hyposalinity, linked in the FAQ topic at the top of forum. If your other fish gets ich, this is really your only viable option as I see it.
I read your article a few times. Very well written and easy to understand. I appreciate your responses and I hope all goes well with the goby.

beth · Mar 14, 2011

You could wait to see if he gets ich. But, in the meantime, get ready with a QT.....perhaps, thinking of a permanent QT so that something like this can be avoided in the future.
Good luck.

tannersmith200 · Mar 20, 2011

Ich sucks
I had a nightmare with it about 5 months ago. I QT'd my fish for 12 weeks and I had to totally redo my aquarium. Took out all corals and placed them in a QT tank and took out all sand, LR and placed new rock and sand.
After about $700 later, my tank is ich free and fish are super healthy.
Glad to have that behind me

Can this be ICH?

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