Ich in my DT?

[Ryan Friman]

Hello, we just setup a 125g tank about a month ago. We are concerned about some of the fish. One tang has a chunk of flesh making on his side. Also, most of the fish seem to be getting white spots on them. We are thinking it is Ich but, we want a second opinion.

We have two 20L tanks and a 55g. Would it be okay to put the two tanks and a trigger into one 20L, and the damsels, one wrasse and clown fish into another 20L? Or are there other alternatives. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[HB AL]

Water probably isnt optimal since tank had been running only one month so one of them brought the disease in and now they all will have it. Hard to tell from the pics but its either ich or velvet, if its velvet your gonna need to start treatment fast.

 

[Ryan Friman]

Here are some better pictures of the sailfin

 

[Ryan Friman]

All of our water parameters are spot on. Is that what you mean by water isn't optimal?

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Looks a little powdery to me, resembles what mine looked like with velvet. Let's get the experts in to see your pics.

#reefsquad

 

[Crabs McJones]

How long have the fish been like this? Whether its ich or velvet treatment is similar. Move everything over to a quarantine tank and treat with copper, and let the display tank sit fallow for a minimum of 76 days. I'm thinking its ich

 

[tiggs]

I'm far from an expert, but it kinda looks like velvet on the kole and ich on the sailfin

 

[Ryan Friman]

The sailfin started 2 days ago. Our trigger had big white splotches probably pea size, powdery looking on his fin but, I figured that was from him always going in the rocks work.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I'm far from an expert, but it kinda looks like velvet on the kole and ich on the sailfin

I was sort of thinking the same thing. That'd be a heck of a double whammy if that's the case.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

I see what your saying about the sailfin now. That stinks...

 

[Big G]

Any other symptoms? Heavy breathing, hiding from light, swimming into a powerhead, loss of appetite?

 

[Ryan Friman]

We have 7 damsels, two blue green chromis, sailfin tang, kole tang, blue jaw trigger, 2 clown fish, lyretail wrasse, and a file fish. Do any of them need to be treated in a different solution? Will the all fit in a 20L, two 20L's, a 55g, or any other combination?

 

[Ryan Friman]

Big G, no everyone is out and about, and they are all eating. The two tangs are constantly picking at the rocks, too.

 

[Big G]

Big G, no everyone is out and about, and they are all eating. The two tangs are constantly picking at the rocks, too.

I'd consider placing them all in the 55 for treatment. Much easier to have all that water to buffer the bio load from that many fish. Copper would do nicely for all of the fish. If you are confident it's Ich, you can take a bit more time slowly ramping up the copper, especially for the wrasse. Small regular doses spread out rather than just a couple of big doses. We are recommending using Copper Power lately. Too many problems with Coppersafe.
Here's a treatment chart link created by our own Meredith that helps you to decide correct treatment med for Ich and velvet: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-and-treatment-guidelines-with-chart.283450/#post-3449648

 

[HotRocks]

I would say it appears to be both ich and velvet. Kole definitely velvet. Signs of ich on sailfin body and velvet on tail. The sailfin may be eating but he looks thin to me.

Do you have a QT tank?

 

[Ryan Friman]

I am setting up the 55g now. The only LFS with copper has Cupramine. Will that work?

 

[Crabs McJones]

I am setting up the 55g now. The only LFS with copper has Cupramine. Will that work?

Yup
Cupramine is fully charged (ionic) copper, and has a therapeutic range of 0.4-0.5 mg/L or ppm. You would use a Seachem or Salifert copper test kit for Cupramine, as those are capable of reading copper in the low range

 

[HotRocks]

Yes it will work, if it's all you can get. I personally prefer chelated. You need to start asap in order to increase survival rate.

Break the total (total meaning both doses as instructed on bottle) copper dosage up into several smaller doses every few hours or how ever many doses your schedule allows over the next 48 hours. You will want to be therapeutic in the next 48hrs max.

Here is @Humblefish plan of attack for velvet.

5 minute freshwater dip

• Immediately afterwards, perform a chemical bath (in saltwater matching SG/temp the fish came from). You have two options:

1. Acriflavine (preferred) - Do the bath for 75-90 minutes, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain acriflavine: Acriflavine-MS and Ruby Reef Rally. DO NOT mix acriflavine with any other chemicals.
2. Formalin - Do the bath for 30-60 minutes max, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain formalin: Formalin-MS, Quick Cure, Aquarium Solutions Ich-X, Kordon Rid-Ich Plus. Use protection (rubber gloves, face mask, eye protection, etc.) whenever handling formalin as it is a known carcinogen! However, you can add Methylene Blue to the formalin bath (1 capful per 2-3 gallons of bath water.)

• After the bath, place the fish in a QT pre-dosed at 80mg/gal using Chloroquine phosphate. In theory, copper (exs. Cupramine, Coppersafe, Copper Power) should work just as well as CP. However, due to how fast velvet can reproduce you don’t have the luxury of slowly ramping up the copper level as is normally advised. Therefore, the fish needs to be placed in a QT with copper already at minimum therapeutic levels. This is the advantage CP has over copper in this particular situation.
• While in QT, use a wide spectrum antibiotic (exs. Seachem Kanaplex, Furan-2) for the first week to ward off any possible bacterial infections. Secondary bacterial infections are very common in fish with preexisting parasitic infestations such as velvet.
• Keep the fish in CP or copper (at therapeutic levels) for one month. However, you can transfer the fish into a non-medicated holding tank for observation after just two weeks (explained below). DO NOT lower the CP or copper level before transferring.

 

[Ryan Friman]

do you reccomend having all the copper in at once or raise it gradually over 48 hours?

 

[kp1991]

Take those fish out and qt them in a hospital tank and do a massive water change in your dt and let the dt fallow for 76 days its the only way unfotunately..... fw dips will help b4 qt act now they will perish very quickly mine did when i had this problem i waited to long