BiColor Foxface Ich?

[LouisianaReef]

So no signs of ich yesterday, woke up this morning and my foxface was covered in white spots and thought to myself great, I have ich in my display and ran out the door. I just got home and no more white spots about 6 hours later. That seems too fast for it to be ich to me. No other signs of illness. I can see tiny white “grains “ floating around in the water column so maybe whatever that is was just stuck to his slime coat? I know the floating stuff isn’t ich, can’t see that with the naked eye. Ideas? Micro bubbles from the skimmer?

 

[vetteguy53081]

So no signs of ich yesterday, woke up this morning and my foxface was covered in white spots and thought to myself great, I have ich in my display and ran out the door. I just got home and no more white spots about 6 hours later. That seems too fast for it to be ich to me. No other signs of illness. I can see tiny white “grains “ floating around in the water column so maybe whatever that is was just stuck to his slime coat? I know the floating stuff isn’t ich, can’t see that with the naked eye. Ideas? Micro bubbles from the skimmer?

While ich can spread every 24 hours, please post pics and even videos under white light intensity for best assessment and recommendations

 

[Birdman Broham]

Ich doesn’t stay persistent on your fish. It will leave the fish to find a hosting spot. Best thing to do is remove your fish for 60-120 days and allow the ich cycle to complete

 

[LouisianaReef]

While ich can spread every 24 hours, please post pics and even videos under white light intensity for best assessment and recommendations

I didn’t have time to take pictures this morning and fish looks normal now. I’ll still take a couple and post in the thread nevertheless

 

[vetteguy53081]

I didn’t have time to take pictures this morning and fish looks normal now. I’ll still take a couple and post in the thread nevertheless

It can be sand or trophants have dropped off to reproduce. Keep an eye on it and ich cycle is 45-60 days - Not 2-4 months

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hopefully just sand grains or dust motes. Ich does come and go pretty quickly at first though.

Jay

 

[MnFish1]

It could be anything as @vetteguy53081 and @Jay Hemdal have said - however - the sooner the spots re-appear - the more likely its a parasite IME

 

[LouisianaReef]

Thanks for the insights. Working has been killing me with OT here lately. As of now the foxface isn't showing any spots. I'm going to keep an eye on him for now.

 

[MnFish1]

Ich doesn’t stay persistent on your fish. It will leave the fish to find a hosting spot. Best thing to do is remove your fish for 60-120 days and allow the ich cycle to complete

Correct - however, the recommended fallow period is not 60-120 days but rather 45-76 days as @vetteguy53081 alluded to

 

[LouisianaReef]

Correct - however, the recommended fallow period is not 60-120 days but rather 45-76 days as @vetteguy53081 alluded to

I agree. For the moment I am going to start ich "management" via UV for now just in case. I have a bigger setup on order that I am waiting to be built so I will likely do the fallow period when the new tank arrives and use the 300 as an QT to medicate. The foxface is in my 300 setup right now and it would be hard to breakdown, catch and medicate all the fish in the system right now. I don't have the resources to separate everything.

 

[blaxsun]

I had something similar with my foxface, and best everyone could determine was it got stung by something (possibly a torch or anemone) - as the white dots disappeared after a few hours. Not sure if this is what you're seeing on your foxface.

 

[LouisianaReef]

I had something similar with my foxface, and best everyone could determine was it got stung by something (possibly a torch or anemone) - as the white dots disappeared after a few hours. Not sure if this is what you're seeing on your foxface.

Mine were not like that.

 

[blaxsun]

Mine were not like that.

On the plus side, that rules out one thing it isn't.

 

[LouisianaReef]

On the plus side, that rules out one thing it isn't.

The spots he were showing appeared to be ich to my eyes, but the thing that throws me off is there are tiny white "grains" throughout the water column. I know that the spots that I can see freeflowing in the water isn't ich as the parasite itself is too small to see with the naked eye. It's very possible that it's tiny pieces of sand thrown up because there is a small yellow stingray in there that is always going under the sand.