Sorry - I couldn't get the video to play. In a basic sense if a fish is scratching, not breathing rapidly and does not have grains of salt like spots, we tend to think of flukes. If the fish has grains of salt type spots, breathing regularly, it is usually the start of ich. If the fish is breathing at a high rate, and has a dustiness to its body, we think of velvet. There are other diseases of course, but those are the common three.
Now, the spots coming and going on your fish - that is pretty common when ich first gets started; all of the parasites are about the same age and they are all on the same cycle. They can drop off the fish at once, then they reproduce and their offspring come back onto the fish in a day or two, in greater numbers. That's what you need to watch out for.
As far as treatment - copper for ich and praziquantel for flukes are the standards. Copper cannot be treated with invertebrates in the tank, but prazi often can. Stay away from "reef safe" medications, they are often ineffective.
Jay
so, I guess here is my issue. The CB is not breathing rapidly and has never had "grains of salt" type spots, just the larger whiteish patch that when I looked up flukes matches pretty well, along with itching. The tang is not breathing rapidly, and had grains of salt like spots for maybe a few hours tops, except they didn't look raised. I have snails and a hermit in the tank, but no other inverts, it seems to me that the best course of action if I suspect either of these is move those guys over to a small bowl and dose my display tank, then monitor and return them when copper returns to normal ranges. I guess I have a few questions: 1. Is it possible the tang has ich and the CB has flukes at the same time? I mean, I know its
Possible But I'd like your opinion on whether expecting that is realistic. 2. is this something that I can realistically wait-and-see on? What kind of time-frame am I looking at between where I am and losing fish. I want to do my best for these guys but right now I just feel like I don't know enough to make the right choice, is it possible I wait to see if the spots show back up on the tang before treating, or will it be too late at that point? 3. if I do dose my main display after removing the inverts, I know this will be a very loosely educated guess, but what is the likelihood I am never successful with corals in that tank? will the copper always go back down, or is there a realistic chance that its something I'll have to live with until I'm able to change out all the water, substrate, and rocks. and I suppose my last question is 4. If I decide to try and go into ich management instead of eradication, is that realistically enough to be a good fish husband to these guys, or am I essentially resigning to killing them?
Edit: I do want to be clear that I am not taking any of this as medical advice, and I know the burden ultimately falls to me. but you have really been there for me as I start this adventure in reefing, and your opinion is one I've grown to deeply value in this field. If you don't feel comfortable answering any of those that's fine, I don't blame you (and anyone else is welcome to jump in with their opinions as well). I'd just really appreciate your thoughts here. To be honest I am pretty scared for my fish right now, I feel terrible for ignoring the advice to always always quarantine, I feel like I'm in way over my head at this point and am just hoping for a hand. right now I feel like my fish need a much better reefer than I am to help them through this.
Edit 2: if you think it would help I can try uploading the video to youtube and linking it, its only 6 seconds long, and I took it because the CB seemed to be swimming kind of funny on the same side as the lesion, holding his fin against his body, and the video kind of got a better look at the lesion than most of the pictures. I wish I had a better camera.
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