Help spots forming on fish.

[Slyguy00]

So my tank is about 6 months old, water perameters are all within specs, I do regular water changes, and basically keep everything as good as it can be. But for some reason I have noticed little white spots starting to form on the fins of my two tangs, and no other fish. I havnt added any fish in a few months and everything was fine this morning. How do I tell if this is ich? And if so how do I take care of this? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

[neoh]

I've overcome and saved fish from ich - but you have to act fast *if* it is indeed the parasite. I would keep an eye on it no more than 12 hours from initial inspection. If any abnormal symptoms start occurring, get them into a quarantine tank asap and start a hyposalinity treatment.

Use tank water for the initial quarantine tank then transfer all your fish (yeah - all of them). Tank needs a filter, not really heat but - doesn't hurt. No powerheads, just a tank and a filter.

Slowly start doing water changes by removing the water and putting fresh water in. Do this over a period of 24-48 hours until your salinity is between 1.008-1.010 and maintain it for 6-8 weeks until no signs or symptoms occur. Check for spots, if spots are still seen - another 6 weeks in QT.

My fish are about 5 days away from getting put back into the DT.

I hope it's not ich. But hyposalinity works. I also have cured (cured?) ich with a 8 week cupramine treatment, but it does take it's toll on the overall health of the fish long term and would consider hyposalinty over the latter.

[Slyguy00]

Thank neoh
So assuming this is ich and i do what you just recomended, it leads me to my next wuestion/concern. In order to get my fish out of my tank im gonna have to remove alot of rock and coral. Is there a proper method of doing that? Im hoping i dont lose any corals in this process. Thanks again

[Slyguy00]

Also can ich effect corals as well?

[windcoast reefs]

Okay first off, before you go and stress the fish out further, you need to make sure that its ich. And maybe wait for a few other people to chime in with ideas before you tear your whole tank apart.

A few things you want to ask yourself,

Is it scratching on rocks?
Is it spreading?
Is it eating?
Does it look stressed?
And what does it look like (small pure white dots that are solid, or are they transparent)


Watch the fish for a day or 2, and if you see all the above, then consider treating them, I prefer chloraquine phosphate rather than copper or hypo, its much easier, quicker and allot easier on the fish ( you still need to leave the display empty for 6-8 weeks though)

One thing to keep in mind is that Tangs can form small calcium deposits on there fins (usually kinda transparent and a little larger), so it very well could be that, one of my tangs has 2 spots, they have been on him since I bought him 2 years ago and they are small calcium deposits that have formed on the fin (do a search online and you will see a bit on these)

Also I find that if a fish starts to show signs of ich your much better off to try and keep them fed, add amino acids to the food, and try garlic extract, at least until your sure that you have to take them out of the tank.

And no ich will not spread to corals, only fish.

[Slyguy00]

awesome thanks for the input. Ill look that up right now. And im not really sure if it is ich, just preparing for the worst i guess. They have been scratching on the rocks a bit, and it has gotten worse on my sailfin tang. And i just started to notice small spots on one fin on my yellow tang. But at the same time they appear to be somewhat transparent on the fins, but my sailfin has a spec on his eye to. They both seem healthy and are eating lots. And reading up on it further, i believe the cause to my problem might be the fact that the two of them always seem a little bit agressive towards each other. In the morning I will have to decide what route i need to go. Thanks for the helps guys.

[Madreefer]

Better yet. Go to Oceanic Corals in Aldergrove and talk to Paul.
There's a product he has called Medic by Polyplab. It's totally reefsafe. I bought a bellus angel and did not quarantine. Well I introduced Ick to my tank. Day 3 of a 10 day treatment and no sign of Ick.

[neoh]

Originally Posted by windcoast reefs

Okay first off, before you go and stress the fish out further, you need to make sure that its ich. And maybe wait for a few other people to chime in with ideas before you tear your whole tank apart.

A few things you want to ask yourself,

Is it scratching on rocks?
Is it spreading?
Is it eating?
Does it look stressed?
And what does it look like (small pure white dots that are solid, or are they transparent)


Watch the fish for a day or 2, and if you see all the above, then consider treating them, I prefer chloraquine phosphate rather than copper or hypo, its much easier, quicker and allot easier on the fish ( you still need to leave the display empty for 6-8 weeks though)

One thing to keep in mind is that Tangs can form small calcium deposits on there fins (usually kinda transparent and a little larger), so it very well could be that, one of my tangs has 2 spots, they have been on him since I bought him 2 years ago and they are small calcium deposits that have formed on the fin (do a search online and you will see a bit on these)

Also I find that if a fish starts to show signs of ich your much better off to try and keep them fed, add amino acids to the food, and try garlic extract, at least until your sure that you have to take them out of the tank.

And no ich will not spread to corals, only fish.

+2

As I said - make 100% sure of it before taking the plunge.

[George]

I would get all the fish out to a QT tank to observe and treat them. Without a microscope, you can't 100% identify the disease on your fish. But scratching on rocks and white dots certainly indicate there are some kind of parasites. Most likely marine ich, but a couple other parasites also cause similar symptoms.
I am very skeptical of any marine ich treatments that label reef safe. Polyp lab medic is basically Metronidazole and Peroxide acids.
Metronidazole is an antibiotics. Although there are scientific researches show that hydrogen peroxide can kill some parasites, but marine ich is not listed in the paper.

[Madreefer]

Originally Posted by George

I would get all the fish out to a QT tank to observe and treat them. Without a microscope, you can't 100% identify the disease on your fish. But scratching on rocks and white dots certainly indicate there are some kind of parasites. Most likely marine ich, but a couple other parasites also cause similar symptoms.
I am very skeptical of any marine ich treatments that label reef safe. Polyp lab medic is basically Metronidazole and Peroxide acids.
Metronidazole is an antibiotics. Although there are scientific researches show that hydrogen peroxide can kill some parasites, but marine ich is not listed in the paper.

Well it worked for my fish
Had it not worked I would'nt have suggested to use it.
I have a full tank of SPS corals and had full trust in the guy that told me to use it. Even when he said to double the dose.