Reef nutrition

ich, maybe

jamie

Supporting Member
i have a coral beauty. was in qt for 10 days. seemed fine. eating swimming around etc. put in tank last Thursday. was hassled by tomini tang for the fist hour. then seemed fine. they slept in separate sides of the tank. saw them swimming near each other no problems. came home yesterday and i thought i noticed some white spots on the CB. caught him and back in QT. next day no signs of the spots. could she have ich and it only showed up when he was stressed out in my main tank?
 
The white spots from ick aren’t actually the parasite itself. Those you’ll never see. The spots are pretty much mucus produced by the fish’s immune system and show up where the parasite latched on.

If it’s indeed ick then the odds are high the fish did have it while in QT but showed no symptoms. Whether it was from stress or it was the ick lifecycle taking its time is hard to tell.

You have any pics?
 
Then it could be anything then. Ick can be present in your fish without the white spots like @phatduckk mentioned, the spots are not the actual ick. Spots can be other things as well.

It's weird that it came and went away though. Maybe stress effected the fishs skin and just made the spots visible. Not a bad Idea to FW dip and check for flukes, this can look like a spot on a fast moving fish.

Probably get more insight at Humblefish if you could snap a photo. Would also assume since you are only observing that you haven't eradicated anything on any of the fish and that you have only weeded out the big problems like Velvet with some luck. Keeping the fish healthy and strong enough to fight off disease will be your plan as whatever disease may exist will be in QT and DT under observation only. Hopefully this is something manageable since the fish recovered right away.
 
Ya since the spots aren't the parasite itself it would be kinda abrupt for them to show up and go away "instantly". Im not a huge pro - Humblefish would have a better idea.
 
Then it could be anything then. Ick can be present in your fish without the white spots like @phatduckk mentioned, the spots are not the actual ick. Spots can be other things as well.

It's weird that it came and went away though. Maybe stress effected the fishs skin and just made the spots visible. Not a bad Idea to FW dip and check for flukes, this can look like a spot on a fast moving fish.

Probably get more insight at Humblefish if you could snap a photo. Would also assume since you are only observing that you haven't eradicated anything on any of the fish and that you have only weeded out the big problems like Velvet with some luck. Keeping the fish healthy and strong enough to fight off disease will be your plan as whatever disease may exist will be in QT and DT under observation only. Hopefully this is something manageable since the fish recovered right away.
i will do a fresh water dip when i get home to check for flukes. thanks
 
The white spots from ick aren’t actually the parasite itself. Those you’ll never see. The spots are pretty much mucus produced by the fish’s immune system and show up where the parasite latched on.

If it’s indeed ick then the odds are high the fish did have it while in QT but showed no symptoms. Whether it was from stress or it was the ick lifecycle taking its time is hard to tell.

You have any pics?
ill take a pic later today.
 
when yall buy fish do you treat for certain things or just observe? in the past ive only had a hand full of fish due to tank size. i wanna make sure i do it right. i just thought it would be hard to treat things you don't know about. unless there's like a general additive like copper to put in the qt tank. maybe i'll watch that new series from brs about QT'N fish.
 
when yall buy fish do you treat for certain things or just observe? in the past ive only had a hand full of fish due to tank size. i wanna make sure i do it right. i just thought it would be hard to treat things you don't know about. unless there's like a general additive like copper to put in the qt tank. maybe i'll watch that new series from brs about QT'N fish.

You don't want to know my qt regimen for new fish...
 
Its a choice you have to make and what fish you are talking about. It is pretty easy to kill more fish in QT if done wrong than you will loose just tossing them in the tank especially treating with Copper and other meds. Research a lot as it isn't easy. I'm pretty happy controlling Brook and Velvet on hardy fish and tangs, which will clear Ick as well. It only takes loosing a tank full of fish from those to motivate you to control that.

The tank transfer method is easy, requires no meds/testing and is very effective, so I would recommend starting there. Use your observation tank to hold the fish for a few weeks after the transfers are done to get them eating and happy. It is pretty easy to do and you don't need to worry about a whole set of gear that may have copper in it. Humblefish will have a procedure.


Fill bucket with water from DT and replace (free water change with every transfer). 2-3 Days later fill another bucket with DT water and pour bucket into colander to catch fish and move into the new bucket and repeat. Use 2 buckets, 2 heaters and new cheap air stones and just let them air dry for a few days before re-use. You can toss in treatments along the way that can be expanded a lot if you ID other issues.
 
Last edited:
when yall buy fish do you treat for certain things or just observe? in the past ive only had a hand full of fish due to tank size. i wanna make sure i do it right. i just thought it would be hard to treat things you don't know about. unless there's like a general additive like copper to put in the qt tank. maybe i'll watch that new series from brs about QT'N fish.
I only buy fish that have been QT'd already. I've exchanged at least 6 messages with a QT vendor just today =)

I used to QT inverts and coral too (just let them chill in a fallow tank for 60+ days each). I may or many not do the invert/coral QT going forward tho.
 
I only buy fish that have been QT'd already. I've exchanged at least 6 messages with a QT vendor just today =)

I used to QT inverts and coral too (just let them chill in a fallow tank for 60+ days each). I may or many not do the invert/coral QT going forward tho.
Where’s a good place to get fish that has been QT’d. It’s not a common practice. @under_water_ninja QT’s his fish. But other than him I don’t know of any other LFS that does it. I think marine collectors does as well.
 
Here’s some pics not very good. Fish is very shy
 

Attachments

  • 5D06D54F-3DD3-459B-9CB3-2BE45EC9B6EB.jpeg
    5D06D54F-3DD3-459B-9CB3-2BE45EC9B6EB.jpeg
    71.3 KB · Views: 142
  • 7025AEAF-1659-43A6-BEB4-00262DF4DA15.jpeg
    7025AEAF-1659-43A6-BEB4-00262DF4DA15.jpeg
    68.4 KB · Views: 131
  • BD5779DE-A118-41CA-B71B-19F37E64A76C.jpeg
    BD5779DE-A118-41CA-B71B-19F37E64A76C.jpeg
    70.2 KB · Views: 133
  • 39933612-77AF-4D47-8331-B20BDC168180.jpeg
    39933612-77AF-4D47-8331-B20BDC168180.jpeg
    70.9 KB · Views: 136
Got some better pics during the fresh water dip. There was some little white dots inside. I don’t know if it was flukes. In the video I watched at humble fish web site They seemed to be a lot bigger Then no spots on the fish itself
7D492EED-4767-4BDC-8CE0-814F51BC4A49.jpeg
 

Attachments

  • B3366331-72FC-420D-B887-E780BFA935DD.jpeg
    B3366331-72FC-420D-B887-E780BFA935DD.jpeg
    87.1 KB · Views: 130
  • 6CA2B367-E849-4370-A85B-81DABD39E0A5.jpeg
    6CA2B367-E849-4370-A85B-81DABD39E0A5.jpeg
    80.4 KB · Views: 128
  • 71DCD459-5E2E-441C-BB18-2D41A3CBFDAB.jpeg
    71DCD459-5E2E-441C-BB18-2D41A3CBFDAB.jpeg
    91.3 KB · Views: 130
  • 095D044E-EFC2-4439-B3BE-2EA5C3B7C953.jpeg
    095D044E-EFC2-4439-B3BE-2EA5C3B7C953.jpeg
    87.7 KB · Views: 123
Can’t say for sure, but that is compelling evidence of flukes if you saw something that looked like flukes on the bottom of the container.. Flukes come in all sizes. There are so many spots on the specimen container, hard to see what is what. Could be salt spots from what I see here. Are all those white dots from the fish?

Probably safe to treat the CB for flukes and watch your DT carefully as you have no way of knowing if the CB had flukes already or they were already in the tank. They are hard to see on some fish due to color, pattern and location. No matter where the flukes came from, assume it’s in the DT now. I can give you 2 doses of Prazi if you are around or you can try some of the other methods. Flukes should not be a big deal if you don't let them get bad, just a challenge.

Have a cleaner shrimp? It should help, but not eradicate.

Watch you fishes breathing and eyes and look up all the symptoms of flukes so you can be aware if they do show up and make a plan for what you want to do if they do. Keep watching for other signs of anything as you can't say it is flukes for sure at this point unless you can take a good Marco photo of one.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top