white spots due to old age?

[osufarker]

I have an established 125 FOWLR with a wet/dry and a 40 gallon refugium. I would say the system has a total of 180 gallons of water in it. Live stock list: Queen Angel, Yellow Tang, Naso Tang, Coral Beauty, Mandarin, 2 ocellaris, 2 damsels, 1 gold neon goby, 1 blue neon goby, as well as snails, cleaner shrimp, and starfish. My water parameters are all in check 0 ammonia 0 nitrites 10 nitrates ph 8.1 temp 81
My blue neon goby has white spots on him that look like ich, but I have not added any fish for quite some time and no other fish show any signs of disease. I have never had ich in the system that I am aware of. I quarantine all new fish.
This fish is quite old and I think it may be dying of old age (not sure of the lifespan of these fish). Are there any factors related with old age that would make him appear to have white spots?
I hear conflicting information; some say ich is always in the water and stressed fish will get it, and others say it has be introduced (which makes more sense to me).
I'm not real worried as all my other fish seem to be doing great. I though about trying to catch it and just euthanize it, but I doubt I could catch the thing.

 

[beth]

Have you ever exp ich in this tank or with any of these fish and not treated the situation?
It could be sand. How long has this fish had this, and, aside from this, how is the fish acting and eating?
Can you post a pic up?

 

[osufarker]

To my knowledge none of these fish have ever had ich. I don't have a digital camera here so I can't post a picture. The fish acts kind of sluggish. The fish also stopped performing any cleaning duties, but that was several months ago before any other signs. I'm pretty convinced that this fish is dying of old age. Maybe from the stress it has gotten ich? The only thing I can figure is that the ich came in with some liverock I bought or something like that. Is it possible to bring in ich through liverock/sand or inverts?
The other thing is that this fish has had these white spots for going on two weeks, and they have never gone away. Doesn't ich fall off after a few days and then return later? I'm not sure what to think as all my other fish are doing great.
I have seen fish with sand particles stuck to them and this doesnt look like that. I looked at it with a magnifying glass this morning and now I am thinking that maybe the spots are under the skin. I don't know what to think. Do you suggest that I do anything? It would be a great undertaking to net this fish out of the tank. I would probably have to remove all of my rock. I don't want to stir up the tank and stress my other healthy fish if not necessary.

 

[beth]

It doesn't really sound like ich. Is this fish still eating?

 

[ericholcek]

usually i wouldnt recomend treating a fish if oyu dont know what is wrong with it, but if you have a quaratine tank, try dosing maracyn-2. It is safe and if it is a bacteria the antibiotic should take care of it.

 

[osufarker]

The fish is still eating. I think I'm just going to let it go and see what happens.