HELP! I am freaking out!!

jenni620

jenni620

Member
Okay, I finally got my first fish last night! :joy: I got two ocellaris clowns! However this morning, I thought I saw a little white spot on one of the fish. :scared: It might just be me being paranoid, but I am afraid it might be ich...the other fish is fine; no weird spots at all. I have read the posts about hyposalinity, but I have a question...Okay, I have a ten gallon tank that I can turn into a makeshift hospital tank if needed, but should I move my inverts in there and hypo the whole display tank just in case? Or should I put the clown with the "spot" in there and just hypo him? Any help will be appreciated! Thanks! I am so bummed out!
 
jdrex

jdrex

Member
Don't worry so much yet. One spot is not going to kill the fish. I have had plenty of fish with one spot one day and gone the next. But I would move the one clown out for the time being. Don't treat the hospital tank water with anything yet. Over medicating a fish or giving it medication for something it may not have is just as detrimental as the parasite itself. The only other thing you need to worry about is the other clown, so keep a close eye on him. The inverts can carry the parasite but it will not effect them. So they should be fine. Just make sure you keep your water quality high so the fish doesn't get stressed out. I would probably give the sick fish a freshwater dip. Just get a cup of fresh water with similar temp and ph to the water it is in and keep it in the cup for around a minute...then put the fish back into the tank.
Good Luck!
 
jenni620

jenni620

Member
thanks...but if the one fish has it, isn't the parasite already in the water? or does it take time to actually get in the whole system? the fish were put in last night around 11 pm after about two hours of acclimation, so maybe the whole tank is still safe? i guess i will just transfer the one with the spot in the ten gallon for now, and if he gets more spots then do the hypo. should i soak his food in garlic? will that help him out a little? thanks for the suggestions :happyfish
 
debbie

debbie

Active Member
Another thing you might want to watch for. I have a coral beauty angel. Every once in a while this beautiful blue fish comes out from behind the rocks covered in white spots. I now know what all this is as a 1 hour later it is not there anymore.
Clowns love love love to brush that sand. Yep, my angel is covered in this sand, I don't know if they play behind the rocks but that angels is absolutley covered in sand. So you might want to watch and see that it is ich for sure and not just sand stuck to it.
Deb
 
jdrex

jdrex

Member
I can almost guarantee you it is not in the water yet, just the fish, so you do need to take it out asap. a lot of time a nice freshwater dip is all it takes to take care of these parasites. I think it would be silly to start to treating the fish as if he had 10 or 20 spots. So no need to stress about garlic and meds right now, just give it time. Your fish won't die overnight. With a hospital tank most of the time a fish is killed because of poor water quality, not the parasite.
 
chickadee

chickadee

Member
it's never a good idea to hypo your display tank... you can kill a lot of inverts you didn't even know you had, and cause a big spike in ammonia. I agree, just remove the spotted clown to the qt tank. soaking food in garlic is good anyway, as it boosts the immune system.
raising the temperature in your tank shortens the cycle of the ich parasite, which burrows itself into your fish's skin and feeds on the dead cells and fluids caused by it's presence. The fish will begin breathing heavily and scratch itself against rocks to relieve some of the uncomfort. After the parasite is full grown, it "pops" out of it's "nest", where it falls to the bottom of your tank and forms a mucous around it where it reproduces dozens to hundreds of hatchlings. Then these little hatchlings float around the tank looking for a host. by removing the fish from the tank, it'll stop this cycle at this point, then the hatchlings will die out and will not be able to rerproduce anymore.
The best form of treatment IMO is to raise the temp in your qt tank to make the cysts "pop" faster and do hypo to kill the parasites as they "pop"
now you shouldn't do this right away, cause it's possible that it's not ich, so watch him in your QT first before doing anything. hope this helps!
 
chickadee

chickadee

Member
just fyi, a freshwater dip will only kill parasites that are no longer in the protection of the cyst. But if it's still in that stage of the cycle, no one has found any treatment that will kill the parasite while it's embedded in the skin. that's why you qt, so you can kill the parasites as they exit the cysts
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by JDrex
I can almost guarantee you it is not in the water yet,...
I have NO idea how you can assume that based on the life cycle of ich... there is a great chance any water from the pet store the fish came from was swarming with it.
The most important thing to do right now is to identify what is wrong with the fish.
Removing just one fish and treating it is a bad idea. If it is a contagious disease then you MUST assume it has infected the tank. Once you have identified the disease treat the fish in a seperate aquarium (not your display).
You probably should take a picture of the fish and post in the disease forum.
Hope that helps!
 
jenni620

jenni620

Member
Thank you everyone! The clown actually did have two spots this morning, but one spot fell off, so I assume that WAS sand or something from the rocks or something. The other spot is still there...as for posting a pic, I will try, but the fish are really small and so is the spot. As for the freshwater dip, I thought that was not really the best way to treat ich....hmmm. So if the parasite is in the water, how do i get rid of it without hurting my inverts? Would I just leave the fish in quarantine for a few weeks and the parasite in the display tank will just die off on its own? Thanks everyone!
 
chickadee

chickadee

Member
exactly. Removing any hosts from the water where the ich is will cause the ich to die because it has nothing to feed on. I believe it has to be about 6 weeks, or so for it to be completely effective.
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Jenni, this is why so many people preach QT tanks...
Not lecturing you
I know you are concerned about the fish right now and don't want anyone telling you what you did wrong...
To answer your question; Yes.. you remove ALL of your verts for 4-6 weeks. The life cycle of ich includes a period where they must be attached to a host. They cannot host on inverts so you remove a portion of their life cycle habitat by removing your fish.
Having said that, I've read that occasionally ich cysts have survived for months in an aquarium.... Basically, once ich enters your tank it has a slight possibilty to show up again in the future.
Again, hope that helps!
EDIT: Because I went brain dead and confused verts with inverts...
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by chickadee
exactly. Removing any hosts from the water where the ich is will cause the ich to die because it has nothing to feed on. I believe it has to be about 6 weeks, or so for it to be completely effective.
and journeyman, thanks for the info, you're a real hero
 
chickadee

chickadee

Member

Originally Posted by 1journeyman
To answer your question; Yes.. you remove ALL of your inverts for 4-6 weeks. The life cycle of ich includes a period where they must be attached to a host. They cannot host on inverts so you remove a portion of their life cycle habitat by removing your fish.
do you mean, "you remove ALL of your fish"?
don't want to confuse the poor girl...
 
jenni620

jenni620

Member
thank you for the help again, everyone.
Yes, yes, yes....I know about the QT tanks. I have done everything else perfectly so far...of course the one thing I slack on and then this happens!

Well, hopefully this panic attack was all for nothing...I came home from work and there isn't anything on him anymore...maybe it was just some sand? either way, I am going to keep my eye on him for the next few days and I am getting the QT set up tomorrow...don't want anymore lectures!
just kidding

Thank you again so much everyone. Hopefully I won't need to use this info, but it's good to be informed just in case! I value all of your opinions very much!
 
hatessushi

hatessushi

Active Member
Why is everyone assumming the fish has ich? She said the day after she put the fish in the tank it had a white spot and everyone immediatly assummed it was ich. My last 2 fish had white spots and it was not ich. Nowhere in any of Jenni620"s thread did it say where on the body the white spot was. No one even asked any questions about the acclimation, QT of new fish or anything.
Mine actually has Lymphocystis (also know as cauliflower disease) which is white and starts out as looking like a small white spot. In my case this was caused stress. After feeding properly and soaking food in garlic and vitamin in both cases it disappeared. I found out what they had by posting on this sight both times and providing enough info for others to give their opinion.
Unless jenni620 provides more information other than "a spot" everyones assumptions could be wrong and therefore the treatment being advise could be wrong and even more stressfull. jmo
 
hatessushi

hatessushi

Active Member
Oh, jenni620 can you post a pic of the fish and should the spot as best you can? Also, what other fish do you have in the tank and did you QT the fish for a few weeks before you put it in the DT?
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by jenni620
, but I am afraid it might be ich...
Hatesushi, this is what she lead us to believe in her first post. I told her to take a picture...
 
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