Does my goby have Ich?

[reddevilant]

Hello. I am a total newbie when it comes to fish disease so I am looking for some assistance. Today when I went to feed my 90g tank I noticed my Black Clown Goby had 2-3 white spots on one side of its body. My Yellow-striped Cardinal may have had one as well but it was hard to tell. So is this ich?

I read up on copper treatment on the Humble Fish website but I have never had to treat fish for anything so I welcome any and all info, advice and tips you may have. I recently started a 40g tank as a grow out tank for just macro algae that I could use as a QT tank. Would I have to remove the macros when I move the fish there? My most recent additions to the tank were the Yellow-Striped Cardinal and a plating blue sponge. Those were both added almost exactly a month ago and the fish has been totally healthy in that time so this feels like it came out of nowhere. The cardinal was so small when I got it and it has grown so much in a month so it's been doing really well. I even had another cardinal produce eggs recently for the first time. The tank has been doing really well and stable for a while so if this is ich it'll be really disappointing.

I also read @Jay Hemdal post on helpful info to provide so I'll copy and past that below with my tank info. Thank you for any help you can provide.


Aquarium Parameters:
Aquarium type: Fish-only
Aquarium water volume: 90 gallons
Filtration type: 2 HOB Seachem Tidals
Lighting: Hygger LED, 2 Kessil A180 Suns
How long has the aquarium been established? 1 year

Water quality (be sure to indicate what measurement units you are using)
Temperature: 76F
pH: ~8.3
Salinity / specific gravity: 1.025
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: ~11.0
Phosphorus: ~0.07
Alk: ~9.7

In-depth information:
Have you lost any fish to this problem yet? No
Are any invertebrates affected? No
Are the affected fish still feeding? Yes
What remedies have you tried so far? None

Digital image of the fish with the health issue, taken under white light

 

[Mikosreef]

Looks like it.

What fish do you have in the 90 gal tank?

Option 1
If the fish is eating fine, put some selcon in the food you feed to help boost health.

If its a fish only tank (no inverts such as snails etc, no corals) s you can slowly lower the salinity to 1.01 over a couple days to help eliminate ich.

As long as the fish are eating well, they should be ok.


Option 2
keep everything the same (dont lower the salinity) and get a skunk cleaner shrimp.

 

[reddevilant]

Oops, deleted the wrong thing when I copied and pasted. I have fish (just cardinals and clown gobies), a peppermint and skink cleaner shrimp, porcelain crabs, and a whole lot of macro algae. No corals.

 

[Mikosreef]

I would just mix in selcon to the pellet food, as long as the fish are healthy, they should be able to beat it

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello. I am a total newbie when it comes to fish disease so I am looking for some assistance. Today when I went to feed my 90g tank I noticed my Black Clown Goby had 2-3 white spots on one side of its body. My Yellow-striped Cardinal may have had one as well but it was hard to tell. So is this ich?

I read up on copper treatment on the Humble Fish website but I have never had to treat fish for anything so I welcome any and all info, advice and tips you may have. I recently started a 40g tank as a grow out tank for just macro algae that I could use as a QT tank. Would I have to remove the macros when I move the fish there? My most recent additions to the tank were the Yellow-Striped Cardinal and a plating blue sponge. Those were both added almost exactly a month ago and the fish has been totally healthy in that time so this feels like it came out of nowhere. The cardinal was so small when I got it and it has grown so much in a month so it's been doing really well. I even had another cardinal produce eggs recently for the first time. The tank has been doing really well and stable for a while so if this is ich it'll be really disappointing.

I also read @Jay Hemdal post on helpful info to provide so I'll copy and past that below with my tank info. Thank you for any help you can provide.


Aquarium Parameters:
Aquarium type: Fish-only
Aquarium water volume: 90 gallons
Filtration type: 2 HOB Seachem Tidals
Lighting: Hygger LED, 2 Kessil A180 Suns
How long has the aquarium been established? 1 year

Water quality (be sure to indicate what measurement units you are using)
Temperature: 76F
pH: ~8.3
Salinity / specific gravity: 1.025
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: ~11.0
Phosphorus: ~0.07
Alk: ~9.7

In-depth information:
Have you lost any fish to this problem yet? No
Are any invertebrates affected? No
Are the affected fish still feeding? Yes
What remedies have you tried so far? None

Digital image of the fish with the health issue, taken under white light

Too few spots and too large to be ich. This looks like lymphocystis which is a viral condition often associated with poor water conditions and/or diet.
Your test results indicate Zero ammonia and Nitrate.
ARE YOU BUY CHANCE USING API test Kits?
If so, they are very known to produce false readings and your ammonia and nitrate may be higher than indicated.
Pritine water conditions and diet such as LRS fish frenzy, spirulina brine shrimp, Hikari marine cuisine will take care of dietary needs, fats, aminos, etc.
Add garlic extract to foods occasionally for immunity health and Selcon vitamins as mentioned for overall stamina.

 

[Korkuc36]

Yes that could very well be ich. You can QT the fish and treat with copper in a separate tank from invertebrates and corals. If you don't have the means for that all you can really do is what has been mentioned above . I had an ich break out and I mixed the food with garlic to encourage eating to help them stay healthy. 2 fish died and 2 fish lived

 

[reddevilant]

Too few spots and too large to be ich. This looks like lymphocystis which is a viral condition often associated with poor water conditions and/or diet.
Your test results indicate Zero ammonia and Nitrate.
ARE YOU BUY CHANCE USING API test Kits?
If so, they are very known to produce false readings and your ammonia and nitrate may be higher than indicated.
Pritine water conditions and diet such as LRS fish frenzy, spirulina brine shrimp, Hikari marine cuisine will take care of dietary needs, fats, aminos, etc.
Add garlic extract to foods occasionally for immunity health and Selcon vitamins as mentioned for overall stamina.

I use API for Ammonia/Nitrite and Hanna for everything else. The tank has been well established for a year and nothing major has changed recently. No deaths or any discernable potential source of ammonia. I dose microbacter7 once a week and dose a variety of Brightwell products for Nitrates, Phosphates, and trace elements. I also have a lot of macro algae that never let any nurtient/element spike, nor has any gone sexual.

For diet, I use Hikari products. I take an empty Hikari tray, cut up and mix several different products including Spirulina brine and mysis, vitamin enriched brine, regular brine and mysis, rotifers, cyclops, and mega marine to have a variety of foods every day.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I use API for Ammonia/Nitrite and Hanna for everything else. The tank has been well established for a year and nothing major has changed recently. No deaths or any discernable potential source of ammonia. I dose microbacter7 once a week and dose a variety of Brightwell products for Nitrates, Phosphates, and trace elements. I also have a lot of macro algae that never let any nurtient/element spike, nor has any gone sexual.

For diet, I use Hikari products. I take an empty Hikari tray, cut up and mix several different products including Spirulina brine and mysis, vitamin enriched brine, regular brine and mysis, rotifers, cyclops, and mega marine to have a variety of foods every day.

I would recommend getting a second reading on ammonia + no3 by taking a water sample to a trusted LFS that does not use API kits and see what reading they come up with

 

[reddevilant]

Yes that could very well be ich. You can QT the fish and treat with copper in a separate tank from invertebrates and corals. If you don't have the means for that all you can really do is what has been mentioned above . I had an ich break out and I mixed the food with garlic to encourage eating to help them stay healthy. 2 fish died and 2 fish lived

I'm definitely going to order garlic and Selcon. I recently started a 40g tank as a grow out tank for just macro algae that I could use as a QT tank. I had used established filter media from the 90g so it's already fully cycled. My only concerns is moving 8 fish into a tank less than half the size of their current home for the duration of the treatment. They're also relatively small fish for a 90gal so I might have to fully pull apart the tank to catch them all which I feel like would just stress them out a lot.

 

[reddevilant]

I would recommend getting a second reading on ammonia + no3 by taking a water sample to a trusted LFS that does not use API kits and see what reading they come up with

Ok, will do. I'm home tomorrow so I can do that and pick up garlic extract and Selcon.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hello. I am a total newbie when it comes to fish disease so I am looking for some assistance. Today when I went to feed my 90g tank I noticed my Black Clown Goby had 2-3 white spots on one side of its body. My Yellow-striped Cardinal may have had one as well but it was hard to tell. So is this ich?

I read up on copper treatment on the Humble Fish website but I have never had to treat fish for anything so I welcome any and all info, advice and tips you may have. I recently started a 40g tank as a grow out tank for just macro algae that I could use as a QT tank. Would I have to remove the macros when I move the fish there? My most recent additions to the tank were the Yellow-Striped Cardinal and a plating blue sponge. Those were both added almost exactly a month ago and the fish has been totally healthy in that time so this feels like it came out of nowhere. The cardinal was so small when I got it and it has grown so much in a month so it's been doing really well. I even had another cardinal produce eggs recently for the first time. The tank has been doing really well and stable for a while so if this is ich it'll be really disappointing.

I also read @Jay Hemdal post on helpful info to provide so I'll copy and past that below with my tank info. Thank you for any help you can provide.


Aquarium Parameters:
Aquarium type: Fish-only
Aquarium water volume: 90 gallons
Filtration type: 2 HOB Seachem Tidals
Lighting: Hygger LED, 2 Kessil A180 Suns
How long has the aquarium been established? 1 year

Water quality (be sure to indicate what measurement units you are using)
Temperature: 76F
pH: ~8.3
Salinity / specific gravity: 1.025
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: ~11.0
Phosphorus: ~0.07
Alk: ~9.7

In-depth information:
Have you lost any fish to this problem yet? No
Are any invertebrates affected? No
Are the affected fish still feeding? Yes
What remedies have you tried so far? None

Digital image of the fish with the health issue, taken under white light

While the spots do look too large to be ich, this is a smaller fish, so I can't rule it out 100%.

One trick is to keep an eye on the location of the spots - if they are still in the same location after 48 hours, it probably isn't ich. If the spots come and go, showing up in new locations, and generally increasing in numbers, it is more likely to be ich.

Garlic and Selco in food do not cure ich. If a fish has poor nutrition to begin with, these additives can improve that, and in turn improve the fish's disease resistance, but most aquarium fish already get a pretty decent diet.

Jay

 

[reddevilant]

Good news! It very much seems like it may have just been lymphocystis! I moved the goby to my 40 gal tank to be able to more easily observe him. After a day the spots began to clear up and it looks likes he's been spotless for at least 48 hours. I read that it usually takes a week or two to go away so I wonder if he had it for longer than I realized. He is by far my smallest and youngest fish so I may have missed it.

About two weeks ago, I did stir up the sand bed and use a turkey baster to blow water through my rockwork (the largest rocks have a lot of large holes and mini tunnels through them) to clear out any trapped detritus. So maybe there was a bit of an ammonia spike. Since he's the youngest and smallest fish, maybe that's why he was the only one to have any symptoms. I found it odd, if it was ich, that it would appear on the goby first and not the newest cardinal that I had added. Especially, since the cardinal has been doing so well for over a month before I noticed the spots on the goby. None of my other fish have any sort of spots, lesions, etc. which also makes me think it was just lymphocystis. I'm going to keep the goby in the 40 gal for at least a couple weeks just to be sure.