White flakes on fish

[cypher174]

I just started cycling my 55 gallon tank with 40lbs of Tahitian Moon, 10 lbs of LS, 20 lbs of LR, a small crab (who was in the rock when I bought it) and 5 Damsels. Almost all my chemicals are within range with the exception of Ammonia which is at .25 ppm.
I noticed a few days after putting in the Damsels that 2 had white flakes on their head and tails. Did I get 2 blind fish and they keep rubbing on the rocks, or is my tank infected with something?
Has anyone ever seen this?

 

[firefish3]

I hear fire shrimp are good at getting rid of ich

 

[standish]

Do NOT add a fire shrimp or anything else to your tank mid-cycle.
It sounds like your fish have ich or some other type of parasite. The fish rubbing on rocks is merely scratching what itches.
Once you have introduced ich into your system, the only way to kill it is to leave your tank completely fishless for at least 4 weeks. Inverts cannot host ich, so you may leave those in the tank.
The fish you have will need to be removed to a quarantine tank and treated with hyposalinity. Please read the FAQ sticky in the disease forum for info on q-tanks and hypo therapy.
It is extremely important to quarantine all new fish purchases for 4 weeks prior to adding them to your display tank to avoid this in the future.

 

[barry cuda]

I'd also take a close look at that crab, and post a pic if you can. A lot of hitchhiking crabs can be bad news.

 

[cypher174]

Ok
2 out of the 5 died yesterday. The other fish are not showing signs of ick. I did put kick ick in the tank since I didn’t have a place to QT them. I went out today and bought a 6-gallon to set it up as a QT. I checked all my levels and everything seems to be in good. How long do i wait before introducing the real fish to the tank? And do I QT the new fish before I introduce them to the tank since there won’t be any fish in the tank?
I was under the impression that crabs (inverts) don’t get ick.

 

[tizzo]

Kick ick actually claims to be reef safe, and I knew a girl that used it in her reef with success. But she did say that you have to use it double the recommended time. (or at least she did)