Disease or bite mark?

[Shallow Planet]

I am currently fighting ick in the tank right now and one of my starcki damsels has an injury on his head. Is this from the ick causing him to scratch or is this a bite mark. I do have 4 other starckis in the 220g tank but they never actually aggressive towards each other. Only other fish are flame angel, couple tangs, and a couple wrasses.

Thanks!

 

[Marinebionerd]

It looks like some missing scales...probably scratching. For ich I use this stuff called hypercure it's a miracle you can find it online

 

[JEREMY82]

There are several different ways of treatment for ich. If you Google it you will see plenty of ich remedies. The fish looks like it scratch it self on some rocks just use your phone for a few days and get pics of fish mark if it looks worse in a day or 2 you may have some more work but if camera pics show its reducing then no worries

 

[Maritimer]

The photos suggestion is a pretty good one - photos are more reliable than memory in determining if something's changing over days or longer.

That could be the beginning of a bacterial infection though, which would be best treated with antibiotics in a quarantine environment. Furan-2, Kanaplex and Metroplex can be used together - along with copper - although you'll want to do everything you can to keep oxygen levels up in the tank while treating.

I'm not aware of any reef-safe treatments for ich that actually eliminate the parasite, though some do seem to reduce its numbers / intensity. Most of the treatments that do eliminate ich can be absorbed by liverock, so treatment in the display can be difficult. (Quarantining an entire 220 gallon tank's worth of fish isn't easy, either!)

The link is a terrific outline by Humblefish, regarding treatment for bacterial issues: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bacterial-infections.191511/

~Bruce

 

[4FordFamily]

That looks to my like velvet and a potential infection. Act fast! Copper in a qt. All fish. Good luck!

 

[Shallow Planet]

Thanks for the replies. As for treating the ick, I am just working on feeding and getting the fish to fight it off themselves. No point in a QT if I dont fallow the entire tank. I dont think this fish has velvet as its just that one patch of missing scales. I just couldn't tell if maybe something was picking on him. All fish are still eating and acting fine.

 

[melypr1985]

It could certainly be an injury from scratching on the rocks, but it does appear to be lightly infected. You can feed vitamins in the food to bolster the immune system, but you may end up needing antibiotics. Those can be fed in the food, but that's a really slow way of doing things. Treating the water is a much better way to administering antibiotics in a situation like this, but you can wait until you think he needs it. An acriflavin bath would help as well either way you go on treating. It should halt the infection and possibly allow the fish to start fighting it off and healing before the bacteria can take hold again.

 

[4FordFamily]

Unfortunately, I suspect you'll have a rough two weeks

 

[Shallow Planet]

Update 2 days later...

 

[aykwm]

In this picture its more clear that this is an injury. I would add vitamins to the food like selecon, and also add metroplex & kanaplex to avoid any bacterial or fungal infection that might occur from the open wound.