Hurt cowfish, possible ich as well...

[Treehrtsme]

Was out of town for about 3 days and trusted someone who should have had enough experience in the hobby to watch over my tanks. The only thing that really needed to be done was feeding the predators as most everything else was automated but when I came home and my quarantine tank with a cow fish that have been living there for over a month now was stuck in the intake of a nano protein skimmer that I don't typically run, and wasn't running when I left. Naturally I turned off the skimmer and he's acting like he's doing fine, eating algae and mysis, but his left fin isn't moving well and there's clear discoloration to the side of his body that was getting trapped by the intake. He's eating and I've turned off lights and all flow, but my issue is I don't think this tank is sustainable without any flow whatsoever. The main filtration was a modified algae reactor. Is there a specific area that would be better to direct the flow or should I just try to disperse it as much as possible with the makeshift spray bar?

I have a hard time identifying ick on cowfish and I was wondering if anyone had any advice or experience. I know treating it on these guys can be tricky. My current parameters are within the ideals and is only tank made is a long spine sea urchin that isn't very long spined right now as well as a Fighting conch. He's somewhere between 1-1.5 inches currently, just growing him out a bit.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Was out of town for about 3 days and trusted someone who should have had enough experience in the hobby to watch over my tanks. The only thing that really needed to be done was feeding the predators as most everything else was automated but when I came home and my quarantine tank with a cow fish that have been living there for over a month now was stuck in the intake of a nano protein skimmer that I don't typically run, and wasn't running when I left. Naturally I turned off the skimmer and he's acting like he's doing fine, eating algae and mysis, but his left fin isn't moving well and there's clear discoloration to the side of his body that was getting trapped by the intake. He's eating and I've turned off lights and all flow, but my issue is I don't think this tank is sustainable without any flow whatsoever. The main filtration was a modified algae reactor. Is there a specific area that would be better to direct the flow or should I just try to disperse it as much as possible with the makeshift spray bar?

I have a hard time identifying ick on cowfish and I was wondering if anyone had any advice or experience. I know treating it on these guys can be tricky. My current parameters are within the ideals and is only tank made is a long spine sea urchin that isn't very long spined right now as well as a Fighting conch. He's somewhere between 1-1.5 inches currently, just growing him out a bit.

Pics are very blue to clearly see (need white light intensity) but these fish are susceptible to bacterial issues as well as ich
The honeycomb scales are raised and often a sign of stress and bacterial issue
Need clearer pics to fully identify issue

 

[Treehrtsme]

Fin movement is coming back


More pics

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Fin movement is coming back


More pics

How long have you had the cowfish?
Ich is tough to see on them, I can't see any ich spots in the photos, but maybe?

In general, a healthy fish won't get stuck to a pump intake. However, cowfish are fairly weak swimmers, so if any fish were to do so, it might be them.

One big diagnostic tool - is the fish still eating?

Jay