Wow, that is an awesome read with lots of good info on ICK. I wish I had read that a week or two ago. The suggestion made for a q-tank/hosiptal tnak in the article is great, much more convienent than keeping the tank running all the time. The life cycle of ICK is also well explained, it really demonstrates how it can thrive in the aquarium

There may already be something similar, but wouldnt it be good to have a section or a " sticky" that contained links to good/helpful articles that provide info on common issues that occur in marine/reef aquariums It would almost be like an FAQ but a "favorite links". Maybe a new forum section where titles of posts refer to the topic of the link and the message body would just contain the link . It might make for a great resource, a person could just go to the section and scan the different titles until he found what he's looking for . It could very easily gorw into a huge source of info if ppl would just quickly post the link of any good articles they've read Just a thought :)

Ich doesn't kill that fast.

Sounds like Marine Velvet. YIKES! Hence you saying it was like dust all over them. Yup that sounds like velvet! Very hard to tell signs & usually a month parasite cycle complete and fish all passed.

Damn I hate diseases. To be on the safe side. I would leave your tank fowl without fish for 6 weeks & QT everything IMO. I learned the hard way.

So sorry to hear about your loses. * Hugs *

Is velvet a partasite also , like ICH ? I t only took 5 days to kill both my fish from the time I noticed anything wrong. B otyh continued eating well until the night before they died.
The people I bought the fish from are due back this week so Im gonna be interested to see how their tnak (the one these fish were in) aired.
Everything that has been put in my tank ( live rock, fish, 1 rock w/red mushroom) has all come from the same place so I am aussiming the isease , whatever it was, must have originated from them, I dont see how it could have been introduced any other way
Gonna do some seaches on velvet and do some reding, thanks fro the comments
Still appreciatte any comments as I have bene having a hard time deter4mining what desease it was for sure. I think if it was ich, it wouldnt have killed the fish so fast and the intial outbreak wouldnt have been so sever, but I could be mistaken

If Reef central was up and running I could direct you to some really great info to read on different types of disease and the signs to look for.

Amyloodinium ocellatum more commonly known as "Marine Velvet" is a parasite much like ich. The difference between the two is ich is small salt like dots that usually cover all through the fins, body, even eyes of the fish like "Samw" on here posted for you. Ich usually doesn't kill the fish unless they are covered and not apply to fight it.

But when you mentioned that both fish died rapidly, had a dust like appearance. Sounds to me like it could be signs of Velvet.
Signs are:
-Heavy Breathing
-swimming near the surface
- Dust like appearance through fins, large white smudged dots
-scratching their bodies up against rocks or objects
-twitching
-frayed fins

Did you have some of these signs. Its usually only seen if you watch fish carefully and notice thier normal habits different. The parasites life cycle acts very quick and if not treated right away you lose your fish before you knew what hit yeah.

IMO, to completely rid of any disease for future fishies & losses you have to keep your tank FISH FREE, for at least 30 days (6 weeks recommended)

Hi bulletsworld

I did have some of the symptoms you mention ( if you go back to my original postas in the thread " help, damsels not doing well' I basically documented everything, even near the start of this thread I noted most of it.

It came on very quick came home one night and the one fish was very aple, almost like she had lost her pigment. Must have been very stressed over something, original infrection maybe ?
After that, she definately go her colro bacck but was not herself at all. She swam erratically, rubberd against rcoks, " hovered " pratially on her side , like on an angle instead of vertically in the water etc. The whie spots showed up qucikly after that, tgetingworse each day ande ven getting some on her eyes. Soon afterwards the samller fish started showing similar symtoms. Both fish continued eating well until the eve before they died, it was really a hard thing to watch and I felt so bad that I couldnt/ didnt help them. By the final day, they had a lot of white spots on them , basically covered looking much like dust from abit of a distance. Up close you could see all the individual white dots. It was 5 days from first sigen to the end.

Now being that these were my fist fish ever, ther possibly may have been some white spots earlier and maybe I just didnt notice. However, there was no change in their behaviour until that first day when the larger fish turned very pale for about 12 hrs. I watched the fish's behaviour very clse which is whyb I know ther ewas no change until that day. Every day , I would spend some time up close to the glass making visuall contact with them, they really seemed to enjoy " visiting". Once they started to get sick, this changed quite a bit and it took some work to get them to come up close
It was rally fustrating especially when I had alredy had them for just over 3 weeks with out any problems, then all the sudden , boom.

I definately plan on keeping the tank without any fish for at least 6 weeks, maybe even 8 . I am also gonna pick up a samll 10 gal tank to use as a q-tank from now on. Do you all q tank everythign you add including rock and coral ? I guess you must or it really wouldnt be worth doing it with the fish would it ?

Everything else in the tank seems fine, al lthe crabs sanils etc are fine still. Chemistry is normal and temp is 78 as always Like I mentioned , ppl from which I purchased all my stuff will be back this week so I can contact them and see if anything showed up in any of thier tanks. I'll be really confused if nothing shwoed up there, that wouldnt make much sense

Captainhemo,

Yup seems like Velvet to me. Its a nasty parasite! :evil:

Definately leave the tank fowl (FISH FREE) for over 6 weeks.

I QT EVERYTHING now. I learned the hard way and lost to many cool fish due to diease. It seems like most fish in the large LFS have something.

Heartbreaking this hobby can be. But you know what, I admire you for being able to go on. I read alot of people quitting after a heartbreaking event where there whole tank was wiped out & all their favorite friends passed. As sad as this may sound, I cried my little eyes out when my first baby porcupine Puffer died (puff ditty). I loved that fish is character so much. It was heartbreaking to watch puffy take his last breath. I called my BF back then crying, he thought I lost my marbles. I was so sad and feeling helpless.

So I admire you going on.

Pm me if you would like me to send you any info. Reef central http://www.reefcentral.com/ has a great forum on disease & cures.

Best of luck to you.

*hugs *

Lee

Hi ,

Thanks fro the comments, its much appreciated.

I was finally able to get out to my dealers. The remaining Dommino's in the same tank mine came from are just fine. I dont get it.
They are the only two fish ever to be in my tank, everything else in my tank is also from the same place and none of thir tanks have any problems .
One thing they did tell me is that alot of fish carry the ICH parasite but dont actually get sick until something either stress's them severly, or compromises their immune systems. Now if this is true, wouldnt you see the ICH each time the parasites cycle reached the " on fish " stage ?
Also from the picutres I have seen now, I'd have to say it looked more like ICH but a very sever e amount of it
I've read alot of the reefcentral disease section, but its really hard to tell the diff between velvet and ICH unless you actually see them both and compare them
The other thing I noticed was some white spots on the galss of my tank. Upon closer indspection, they are alive and have legs !! I did some poking around on reefcentral, and found an article int he " ask dr. xxx" section . It looks as if they are type of jelly fish which can show up at times in the aquarium. It says they are ahrmless so I'm assuming they were not a contributing factor. The article had phots as well and it definately looked like the same thing. Has anyone else had similar " white spots with legs" on the glass of their tanks ? The article also said they can dissapear as qucik as they showed up.

At this point all I know is the tank is gonna stay wo fish for 6 weeks or more as I cant seem to find out for sure what it was that killed them. I know that it was a parasite but which one I cant decide. Pictures suggest it was ich but like you said, it dosent usually kill so fast ( less than a week from first sign)
I'm also still very confused about how this even got inthe tank , I really expected tosee some sick fish at my dealers place last night but with everything healthy, even in the same tank as my fish came from, its just added alot more confusion to all this

Yes, the "little spots with legs" are common in newly set up tanks and yes, the will go away.

I still think it was ick from your description. To me the time line also seemed about right for ick.

Sounded like ich to me right from the beginning. Don't be confused about the "supposed" inability to catch ich after the prescribed dormant period is over. I have come to view ich as a deadly form of the common cold. make sure everything else is fine in the tank and the fish should be able to overcome the everpresent ich. I know many will disagree with this statement and there will be those who will side with me. Just what I have learned after a few decades of keeping fish.

Stressed fish will get ick. How else do they tell you something is wrong.... :razz:

I just threw an icked fish in more suitable accomodations in another tank. NO more ick. (the trigger and grouper seemed to be causing some stress to the heniochus)

Pay attention to what is CAUSING the ick. Then the shrimp/garlic/etc come into play. I can certainly understand how it can be a problem if you are new to the hobby.

Understand what is stressing your fish. It can be as simple as a temp problem, or a flow problem, or an aggressive tankmate, or obviously water quality issues....alkalinity is a big stressor for fish...I found that out years ago with that coral-vital apple juice. :rolleyes:

In the interim, my treatment of choice would be hyposalinity. :mrgreen: