White spots that come & go.

[teetee]

In the past few days I have been having whitish spots appearing on some of my fish. They are most noticeable on the fins. The strange thing is that they apear first thing in the morning & acoup[le of hours later they disappear.
These are not air bubbles but indeed some sort of blotchy spot thing. If this is a protozoan of sorts, are my fish fighting them off? Is that possible? Could the prtozoans be in the tank & not affect the fish? I am concerned at this point as I have a semi reef & can not medicate. Should I let things be? All advice very much appreciated. BTW checked all water parameters & all is within norm. Thanks, TT.

 

[beth]

Can you describe the "blotches". Are you talking about grayish white slim or dots that look like salt is on the fish tails. The distinction is important to making a recommendation.
Additionally, you need to start getting a hospital tank setup. In the meantime, feed your fish garlic soaked food.

 

[teetee]

I guess it would be both. On the body there appears to be solid white specks. Not quite dots. The fins have the translucent whitish blothes. Very evident during the morning but come afternoon they sem to disappear. I will monitor tomorrow morning to see what happens. In the meantime I will be fortifying their diet with garlic. Thanks Beth. Hope this description was more helpful.

 

[teetee]

This morning all looks fine . No signs of any white spots/speckss,or blotches. Relieved but still on yellow alert.
Can any inform me on parasites, particularly can they live in a system and not affect a fish? Am I right in assuming that once a fish becomes stressed it then becomes a target.

 

[perps]

I have this same problem with my tank.. And that last time My koran angel died. I have no answers for you all i can tell u is that the i turned on my UV filter and it seems to help. Right now what's happening in my tank is that my dominoe becomes realy pale and has white spots on him. My scats look like there covered with ick.! But i'm sure if i had ick 1. all the fish would have it (ie.g totmato clow, firefish, koran, scats, 4 stripes) and it would be there on a daily basis and not just disappearing. 2. it looks like they go for days looking fine.. then BOOM it's back! Someone please welp me!

 

[beth]

Ok, if we are actually talking about ick, then the spots would, indeed, look like the fish has been sprinkled with salt. Because fin areas are transparent or translucent, the specks may be hard to detect or may appear different then what you see on the fish body.
If we are talking about ick, then the reason the manifestation seems to come and go is because the life cycle of ick, itself, changes. The only time that you see ick on your fish is when they actually attach to the fish. Aside from this, ick will also fall off fish onto your rocks and substrate, then will cycle into a free-swimming form of the parasite, then will re-attach to the fish. Thus, sometimes you will see that the fish will have no visible signs of ick ick, but soon will reappear with an infestation.
If you have live rock, live sand, inverts or corals in your current tank, then you will have to move all fish to a separate hospital tank for treatment of all fish. There is no choice in this regard.
Make no mistake, if you are dealing with ick, you need to treat it. At this point, after you have reoccurring infestations, the problem will only continue until all your fish are overwhelmed. A UV sterilizer will effectively aid in the prevention of ick, but in your case, the situation sounds to far gone for a UV to handle alone. I would strongly recommend, however, that, if you do not have a UV, that you acquire one [quartz sleeve model]
You should get a magnifying glass and closely look at your fish and the spots so that you can make a positive identification of what you are dealing with. However, I feel it is ick. If that is the case, I would recommend hyposalinity.

 

[andymi]

teetee,
Do you have any form of cleaner shrimp or fish in your tank? If so this could be why they are coming and going as well. In all of my tanks I keep cleaner shrimp and have not lost a fish due to ick yet. I have two tangs in a reef tank and both of them will get ick on occassion. The cleaner shrimp will quickly take care of it. Same thing with my FO tank. My adult emperor had ick and the cleaner shrimp took good care of them.
--Andy

 

[teetee]

I have no cleaner shrimps yet after day three the problem is no longer occuring. Still crossing my fingers.
Would any organisms in a live/deep sand bed eat harfmul protozoans if they are on the sand? Curious to know.