Hippo Tang: Ich, Velvet, or something else?

[japrdthenerd]

2 months ago, my hippo tang and yellow tang developed symptoms of ich. As a result, I took all of my fish out of my display tank and decided to do the tank transfer method.

The ich went away on the tangs and I have been monitoring them in quarantine for a month and a half now. They have been doing great for the most part. Both of them have been hiding a bit more than usual due to the smaller tank space (50 gallons currently).

Today, I saw that my hippo had these weird salt like growths on its body. This time, it does not really look like ich. I am not sure what it is. Any help would be great. Thanks!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Can't really say what those spots are - one is too large to be ich, and the smaller ones, lower down, seem too imbedded to be ich. Do you see ANY spots on the soft parts of the fish's fins? That is a clearer sign of ich.

Blue tangs are prone to idiopathic mucus plugs, little white spots that show up and are just fish's skin mucus, apparently as a reaction to some stressor. Trouble is, that stressor can be flukes or even ich.

TTM sometimes doesn't work if you mess up the timing even a little, and when it does work, it isn't effective against flukes.

You could watch the spots, and if they come and go, changing location, over 24 to 48 hours, then it is probably ich. If they remain in the same place for 48 hours, it isn't ich. You could then try dosing the tank with Prazipro for flukes.

Jay