Ick or not Ick

mcsd22

Member
I have had my 46 gallon for about 2 years. Never had a ick problem before. All levels are good and I am feeding flake, home made shrimp meal with garlic, brine and blood worm on occasion. LR 50 pounds, LS 40 pounds 2 percula clowns, 2 pajama cardnials, 1 blue tang, 1 flame angel. Snails and blue hermits and a cleaner shrimp. Several corals also and all doing fine until yesterday when one of the clowns started showing some white specs on his tail. Today he is breathing heavy and staying at the top of the tank. Also noticed the flame has white flecs, tiny, tiny specs on his tail. Is this ick or something else?
 

lion_crazz

Active Member
Sounds like it is parasitic. What are the water levels in this tank? (ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, salinity, temp, pH, and kH)
Their diet does not sound very good at all. The blood worms and brine are pretty much worthless as staple parts of the fish's diet. You have it right that the fish need at least 4 different types of foods, but the brine and blood worms should not consist of 50% or even 25% of the fish's diet. I would recommend getting some nutritious frozen foods such as formula A and B, reef formula, algae formula, frozen kelp, mysis shrimp, etc.
 

lion_crazz

Active Member
8.6 is a bit high for a pH. Do you know your alkalinity?
Like I said, I feel the diet is insufficient and could cause stress down the line if the fish are not being fed properly. If the pH and kH are out of whack though, that could be a possible cause for parasitic problems as well.
 

lion_crazz

Active Member
Fix the diet problem for sure.
How old are your test kits? Have you had these levels double checked just to make sure all of them are accurate readings? What are you using to measure salinity?
 

mcsd22

Member
Using a hydro but its same as lfs and levels are reading the same as well. Do you think it could be the start of ick?
 

lion_crazz

Active Member
Sounds like it could be the start of ich, but there is no reason for it to attach to the fish all of a sudden. All of your water levels sound fine. The only partial problem I have with your tank is the fish's diet.
 

mcsd22

Member
I dont have a QT so do you think I should start with the kick ick. They claim its reef safe but say you should remove your carbon media? If I pull the carbon will I have a amonia spike. I have a fluval along with a back pac skimmer. The skimmer is also bio but will it take the load. And as far as water quality my condi is fine.
 

lion_crazz

Active Member
Kick Ich and Stop Parasite are both "reef safe" products to be used against ich. I personally like Stop Parasite more because it focuses more on the fish, rather than the ich because we both know that the ich is not the thing you want to focus on. That is not being killed by the product being added to the tank. The only thing that directly kills ich is copper. Stop Parasite focuses on helping the fish get rid of the ich, whereas Kick Ich focuses more on getting rid of the ich by itself - something that cannot be done unless you use copper.
Removing carbon will never cause an ammonia spike. A tiny amount to no biological bacteria is being held by the carbon. I change the carbon on my tank every week usually.
 
Top