Early signs of ick

[Jesse Depass]

Yesterday I spotted a few small white spots that might be ick on one of my clownfish, and today I’ve noticed an occasional flashing against the rocks from my Melanurus wrasse. All fish are eating aggressively and acting normal. I’m debating if I should just monitor it and keep up good husbandry, treat the two fish showing signs using the tank transfer method, or take out and treat all the fish and run a fish less tank for 88 days?

 

[Gablami]

Sometimes I’ll see a few specks of detritus or sand on my fish that will be gone within the day. I would say, wait until you know it’s ich. And once you know it’s ich, if you have the ability to treat all fish and go fallow I would. Option two of treating the two affected fish only is not a good option.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

What @Glabami said - You want to have a definitive diagnosis before taking the measures you will need to take.

Watch the spots carefully, if they don't drop off in 36 hours, it isn't ich. If they all drop off, it might be "dust" but it also might be that the ich trophonts all start off on the same cycle, so they do tend to drop off all at once, but then return in greater numbers! The trick is to be ready to treat all of the fish with copper or the TTM method if you have that ability. You need to be geared up and ready to go because you won't have a whole lot of time to start the treatment once you positively identify it as ich. When it hits the exponential growth phase, the treatment may not work quickly enough to save the fish.

Jay

 

[Jesse Depass]

Thanks for your input, I’m going to take your advice and see what happens over the next few days.