HELP- Ich/Velvet

[marc-reef-uk]

Hi guys,

Had PT in about 3 weeks. He’s been doing fine but yesterday when doing a water change he lost some colouration and got stressed. Today he was fine and back darting around and eating but this evening he seems lethargic and has developed these spots. Any thoughts?

Water parameters are good and stable. He’s still eating etc. just concerned

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi guys,

Had PT in about 3 weeks. He’s been doing fine but yesterday when doing a water change he lost some colouration and got stressed. Today he was fine and back darting around and eating but this evening he seems lethargic and has developed these spots. Any thoughts?

Water parameters are good and stable. He’s still eating etc. just concerned

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

The photos pretty clearly show marine ich, Cryptocaryon irritans. Tangs can also get mucus plugs that look like ich, but those are larger and are not often seen on the soft fins like this is. After doing tank work, fish can also get sand caught up in their mucus coats that can look like ich, but those typically drop off in a day or so and don't return.

The spots may come and go over time, but if it is ich, there will likely be a general increase in their numbers over a few days to a week. When the spots become in the hundreds, you'll start to see other symptoms like not eating well, lethargy, etc.

So - what to do? That can be an issue. If there are other fish in the tank, and if this is ich, they've been exposed and may also start to show signs of infection. Untreated, this can prove fatal to the whole tank if it gets out of hand. Treatment for this is coppersafe or hyposalinity in a treatment tank (since this cannot be done with invertebrates present).

In mild cases of ich, "ich management" will sometimes work, but cannot be totally relied on. Here is a post I made about that:

"Ich Management"

Because this topic continues to come up, I wanted to create a sticky thread so that it is more easily referenced. Please understand that I am NOT presenting this as an optimum method for controlling marine ich, just putting it out there for people who want to try it. Also, do not pick and...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[marc-reef-uk]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

The photos pretty clearly show marine ich, Cryptocaryon irritans. Tangs can also get mucus plugs that look like ich, but those are larger and are not often seen on the soft fins like this is. After doing tank work, fish can also get sand caught up in their mucus coats that can look like ich, but those typically drop off in a day or so and don't return.

The spots may come and go over time, but if it is ich, there will likely be a general increase in their numbers over a few days to a week. When the spots become in the hundreds, you'll start to see other symptoms like not eating well, lethargy, etc.

So - what to do? That can be an issue. If there are other fish in the tank, and if this is ich, they've been exposed and may also start to show signs of infection. Untreated, this can prove fatal to the whole tank if it gets out of hand. Treatment for this is coppersafe or hyposalinity in a treatment tank (since this cannot be done with invertebrates present).

In mild cases of ich, "ich management" will sometimes work, but cannot be totally relied on. Here is a post I made about that:

"Ich Management"

Because this topic continues to come up, I wanted to create a sticky thread so that it is more easily referenced. Please understand that I am NOT presenting this as an optimum method for controlling marine ich, just putting it out there for people who want to try it. Also, do not pick and...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

Hi Jay,

Thanks for taking the time to reply and the really useful information.

Slightly confused as the fish has nothin on it bar one small spot today :/ is that normal?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi Jay,

Thanks for taking the time to reply and the really useful information.

Slightly confused as the fish has nothin on it bar one small spot today :/ is that normal?

As I mentioned, ich spots will come and go at first. Then, if it is just sand stuck to the fish, the spots will go and not return. You need to monitor it very closely over the next few days.

The reason why the ich spots can seemingly go away, is that initially, the parasites are all on the basic time schedule - they attack the fish at the same time, then they all drop off to reproduce at the same time. Eventually, their population become more out of sync and you'll see spots all of the time, in increasing numbers.