Another ich question

USMA36 · Jan 23, 2018

right now I have a Yellow Eye Kole, a Coral Beauty, and a Bangai cardinal in QT. They have been in there about 3 weeks after bringing home from LFS. Only treatment was prazipro and metro when they were first added. Yesterday when I turned in the lights my coral beauty was covered in white spots (Atleast 50) He had nothing the day before or the weeks prior. I figured great. I guess it’s time to treat with cupramine. Within a few hours all the spots were gone. Is it possible I mistook debris from rock where he sleeps as ich? I pulled the piece of rock I keep In the tank while just observing and I started cupramine at half the dose. . Should I raise it to the full dose and do the full treatment? I know angels aren’t all that tolerant of copper and I would like to avoid it if I can. Could ich trophonts have fallen off that fast when nothing was visible the day before? There’s no signs in the other fish and they’re all eating and swimming as normal. I wish I grabbed a picture in the morning when he was covered but I did not.

Maritimer · Jan 23, 2018

Raise copper slowly - I've got a coral beauty, flame and regal in Coppersafe as I write this, but have been raising it slowly, over the last several days. Ich - and velvet - can hide in a fish's gills, showing no white spots at all. If you do decide to go with copper, it's got to be at full strength - but can be shortened in duration, if you can move the fish to a second, clean, QT.

That having been said, ich has to stay on a fish for 3 days plus, so I don't think that what you saw was ich.

~Bruce

melypr1985 · Jan 23, 2018

Do you have a picture of the spots? I would lean towards velvet here as well. You'll want to get the copper level up to therapeutic for sure and leave it there for the full 30 days, unless you decide to transfer to a new sterile QT like Maritimer mentioned.

For what it's worth, I keep many, many angels of all kinds in coppersafe with no issues.

USMA36 · Jan 23, 2018

What makes you think velvet? He has no signs and symptoms whatsoever? Sorry no pictures of the spots. They were only there for a couple hours tops after I turned the lights on Monday morning.

melypr1985 · Jan 23, 2018

USMA36 said:
Yesterday when I turned in the lights my coral beauty was covered in white spots (Atleast 50) He had nothing the day before or the weeks prior.

This is why. It speaks to either velvet or brook. Though, velvet usually sticks around longer than a few hours, having a fish "covered in white spots" isn't normal for just a little debris either. It's a tough call without pictures to help. To be clear though, velvet and brook have been known to present in ways that are dissimilar to the norm.