Does my Cowfish have ich.

saraeelove · Mar 5, 2019

I recently got my Cowfish 2 weeks ago. I put this little guy in my 40 gallon and planning to upgrade my tank soon.
Does my Cowfish have ich? What do I do? do I have to quarantine or can I put treatment in my current fish only tank.

In tank: 2 clownfish, one cleaning shrimp, 2 firefish, 2 snails. 2 reef crabs, cowfish.
No Corals.

DLHDesign · Mar 5, 2019

Looks like it may be ich, but I'm not familiar enough with that fish to say for certain - there may be other things that is common with that breed that it could also be. Let's check that with the #reefsquad.

As far as medicating the DT - no; you would not want to do that. You have inverts in there, to start with, so meds could very well kill them. But also because you also have live rock and sand in there, and that will cause problems when trying to medicate the fish. Not to mention; anything that would kill the parasites and such could also negatively impact the beneficial bacteria populations. To treat this (assuming it is ich or something similar), you would need a QT for all your fish (where medications can be used) and then leave the DT fallow (without any fish) for at least 76 days. Inverts can remain in the fallow tank.

Kinghugo5 · Mar 5, 2019

Certainly looks like ich. The only treatment option with inverts is hyposalinty, but even then you’re risking losing at least the shrimp.

I would set up a QT and treat with CP or copper.

drstardust · Mar 5, 2019

It appears that ich is the most likely explanation for those white spots. Did you QT any fish at any point? I'd recommend you QT at this point in a separate tank without rocks/sand/inverts. And you'd need to do so for all the fish, not just the cowfish, and letting your display tank go fallow for 76 days to eliminate ich in the system. There are plenty of threads here with instructions on how to go about it. Unless, of course, you'd rather practice ich management, which is your decision. I'd definitely not recommend treating in the current tank, though.

Frtdrmrose7 · Mar 5, 2019

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-cryptocaryon-irritans.191226/

saraeelove · Mar 5, 2019

Thanks everyone for your tremendous help!.

Ok so i will put them in a quarantine tank. Do I put the snails and crabs as well?
I'm assuming every fish, snail, shrimp, and reef crabs goes in the quarantine tank as well.

Will the other fish get hurt or die since the cow fish is the only one with ich so far?

Jvesche20 · Mar 5, 2019

Only fish go in QT. Inverts are fine to stay into DT.

Jvesche20 · Mar 5, 2019

Ich can spread to other fish. If treated your fish can be saved. If not then it can kill the fish. I wouldn't add anything into your DT, but I would leave your DT fallow for 72 days so that way the ich will starve. If you just take out the cowfish and leave the rest in the DT then theres a chance the ich has started its cycle and will infect the other fish.

4FordFamily · Mar 5, 2019

Looks like ich to me, perhaps flukes. I’d do a freshwater dip in a dark bucket first and see if any “sesame seeds” come off.

Then, I’d treat with CP.

Big G · Mar 5, 2019

+1 ^^^ to this exactly. Neat fish.

saraeelove · Mar 5, 2019

4FordFamily said:
Looks like ich to me, perhaps flukes. I’d do a freshwater dip in a dark bucket first and see if any “sesame seeds” come off.

Then, I’d treat with CP.

How long do you recommend to dip the fish?

Big G · Mar 5, 2019

saraeelove said:
How long do you recommend to dip the fish?

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/video-how-to-do-a-freshwater-dip.286639/#post-3487082

Frtdrmrose7 · Mar 6, 2019

76 days fallow

4FordFamily · Mar 6, 2019

saraeelove said:
How long do you recommend to dip the fish?

~ 5 minutes

saraeelove · Mar 7, 2019

4FordFamily said:
Looks like ich to me, perhaps flukes. I’d do a freshwater dip in a dark bucket first and see if any “sesame seeds” come off.

Then, I’d treat with CP.

I did a freshwater dip yesterday and now all the "sesame seeds" fell off... Except for one on his side.

I just did a water change and then took a pictures.. So I don't know if it's sand. I will keep a close eye on the fish to see if anything changes.

4FordFamily · Mar 7, 2019

saraeelove said:
I did a freshwater dip yesterday and now all the "sesame seeds" fell off... Except for one on his side.

I just did a water change and then took a pictures.. So I don't know if it's sand. I will keep a close eye on the fish to see if anything changes.

The sesame seed looking flukes are much larger than sand if you saw “sesame seeds” you definitely have flukes.

saraeelove · Mar 7, 2019

My fish started sitting on the sand bed, foggy eyes, breathing hard, not moving his gills.

He got shy/scared after the freshwater dip and today he looks almost dead. I want to remove him to a another tank so he won't release toxins and to see if he can recover in a quarantine tank.
His body is clear from any flukes or ich but in assuming the dip was too stressful for him or he is still infected. And now I'm worried if he is too weak to start treat with copper

Frtdrmrose7 · Mar 7, 2019

saraeelove said:
My fish started sitting on the sand bed, foggy eyes, breathing hard, not moving his gills.

He got shy/scared after the freshwater dip and today he looks almost dead. I want to remove him to a another tank so he won't release toxins and to see if he can recover in a quarantine tank.
His body is clear from any flukes or ich but in assuming the dip was too stressful for him or he is still infected. And now I'm worried if he is too weak to start treat with copper

IMO if a fish doesn’t survive a properly executed FW dip he was probably too far gone to be saved. I’m crossing my fingers for you, I love cowfish

You did the FW dip yesterday correct? And he’s still sitting on the bottom?

saraeelove · Mar 7, 2019

Frtdrmrose7 said:
IMO if a fish doesn’t survive a properly executed FW dip he was probably too far gone to be saved. I’m crossing my fingers for you, I love cowfish

You did the FW dip yesterday correct? And he’s still sitting on the bottom?

I did the FW 2 days ago and a water change yesterday. He started sitting on the sand bed few hours ago. Maybe all the changes stressed him out too. I will keep you updated.

Frtdrmrose7 · Mar 7, 2019

saraeelove said:
I did the FW 2 days ago and a water change yesterday. He started sitting on the sand bed few hours ago. Maybe all the changes stressed him out too. I will keep you updated.

I think he has something else going on, ich could be in his gills, etc. have you started ramping up copper or dosing CP? A fish normally recovers from a FW dip within an hour or so.