Ick?? Pop Eye?? Body Fungus??

cjqsmom

Member
I thought my tank had Ick so I pulled the rock and lowered salinty to 1.009.
The spots on my hippo tang have not disappeared.
My Large Purple tangs color is really faded when the lights are off and not as bright as my other when they are on.
After lowering salinty My blonde naso tang got pop eye and now he has brown/blackish spots on him.
The spots on my hippo are large looking to me not little specks and they are all over his body and not so much on the fins.
I am medicating with SW Maracyn but now my tank looks nasty it has a green/yellowish tint to it and it is foaming like crazy. Stopped using the skimmer since it was filling every three minutes and thought that was pulling the medication out of the water.
Can someone please help
Trying to put pics in
The sm purple overnight woke up with spots.




 

cjqsmom

Member
Forgot to mention
Salinty 1.009
Amonia 0
trIte 0
trAte 20
PH 8.22
Also the fish are still eating strong and I am adding Selcon and garlic to the food
 

mantisman51

Active Member
I have my fish in a QT tank right now. I started lowering the sg to 1.009 on Friday night and they've been in 1.009 since yesterday morning. My yellow tang still has ich spots, but like yours, is eating fine. I lost all my fish (except the puffer) to ich a year ago and can tell you that as long as they are eating, you don't have to get too worried. My puffer, last year, showed signs of ich for about a full week after I started ich treatment. I'll defer to more seasoned aquarists, but I believe all you can do is wait it out at this point. You've done all you can. I've never read or heard of using hypo and medication before, though. Each method has a negative impact on the stress of the fish and I wonder if both at the same time might be over-kill. I don't know, but I would definitely have lots of new water ready and waiting.
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Are the spots in the pictures really that bad on the fish? Ich can take a week or so to fall off of the fish after hyposalinity is reached. If the fish are as bad as they look then consider doing a FW dip on them. It is a last resort for extreme cases. You must make the PH and temp of the FW match the tank that they are in exactly. Dip them for three to five minutes. Stay with each fish for the entire dip. If you see that the fish are badly stressing then pull them out early. Are you using Maracyn in the display or do you have a skimmer on the QT?
 

cjqsmom

Member
Yes the spots are that bad. I am doing this in the display since my QT is only 20 gallons and I thought putting all the fish in the QT would stress them evenmore. The spots have been on the hippo like this for over a week possibly 2 wasnt sure if it was ick or not since on the hippo the spots are so large. What about the dark spots on the naso tang
 

cjqsmom

Member
Does it look like ich on the hippo because the spots are large in my opinion. I have hard ich before and these are alot bigger.
 

cjqsmom

Member
Can someone give me some ideas on what to do next?
Do I run the skimmer?
All Fish are still eating but my hippo tang is corner hiding is this normal?
I am really afraid to do a freshwater dip since they are all really stressed now and dart away when I come near except for my naso who will get in my face when trying to examine the others.
 

mantisman51

Active Member
Running the skimmer won't be a problem, they still need the protein removal. Make sure there's no carbon in any filters you mave have running.I haven't dealt with "black" or "hard" ich, but I assume they have exoskeletons, which would make hyposalinity and copper effective still. I am seriously not a fan of copper. I've kept FW aquariums for 23 years and have NEVER had good luck with it. Seems like if the fish are to the point of hiding and not eating, generally the copper medication finishes them off-quickly. That's why I'm trying hypo for the first time. I used theraputic (exact) doses of copper safe last year within 2 days of the first external signs of ich and the fish went from ok to dead within 12 hours. I know people here are sold on it, but if I were in your shoes, I'd be very careful with dosing.
 

cjqsmom

Member
Since I have ran meds for 5 days I need to do a 25% water change so I think I will run the skimmer to remove the water then replace. I think I may attempt a fresh water dip today. Hope they do well with it.
 

fishy7

Active Member
Hey CJ,
Ick is a pain in the but and that is pretty much sums it up.
I have lost fish to ick but quickly learned a few tricks and have never lost a fish since.
I bought 3 new fish about 2 months ago.
1 1/4' naso
7" purple
3" sailfin
All were looking real good for about 2 days then the next morning, all three were covered! Looked like they were in a snow storm.
1) FEED FEED FEED. I fed them algae sheets 2 X's per day
2) Soakded mysis/squidd/and other frozen foods in selcon and garlic and fed small amounts 2 times per day
3) I did not drop salenity or mess with any meds. This adds more stess.
4) Keep things normal as best as possible. Lights and so on.
5) Fish can fight it....just boooost their immunity.
 

cjqsmom

Member
Thank you Fishy,
I have been feeding them as usual maybe a little bit more then normal. Feeding algae sheets but have learned that if I clip it then most gets into the filter so I have been dropping a rock covered with it and rubberbands and its last most of the day like that giving my slow to the food hippo a chance to get some too. Salinty is already lowered so I am just going to wait and see I think I will hold of on meds for a day or two and see what happens. Still working on the water change as I am only pulling the water from the skimmer but so far pulled 9 gallons out. I just dont want to lose my babies.
Celeste
 

cjqsmom

Member
refractometer(spelling) and ph is 8.21
Also when I was watching the fish today I noticed my purple tang was picking/biting the white things off of my hippo tang it got 3 or 4 until the hippo got spooked.
 

cjqsmom

Member
Still under hypo and now my hippo and small purple tang have ich back.
I did a fresh water dip on the small purple tang last night since I noticed he had ich again. Didnt get it all off but seen some of the ich fall off. Didnt want to lose hime he was in fresh water for 4 minutes.
When I woke up today the hippo tang was covered again with the big ich spots.
Nothing has changed in the tank it has been 2 weeks since all signs of ich disappeared and now its back what do I do?
Even my naso tangs eye healed and no one has cloudy eyes anymore.
Salinty is still at 1.09
What should I do now?
 
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