Ich or Velvet?

Instigate · Mar 31, 2018

I'm not experienced enough to tell. Does this look like ich or velvet? I'm leaning towards velvet from looking at other photos. I've got him and a Yellow Watchman Goby in a 20g QT. Dosed a 1/4 dose of copper power so far. Both fish were clean when I got them yesterday. The Goby eats if I squirt the food right at him but he's too timid to come out too much around the CBB. But the CBB eats like a pig thankfully. Some video is uploading.

DancingShark · Mar 31, 2018

If the two I'll choose Ich

Big G · Mar 31, 2018

Any other symptoms? Breathing heavy, hiding from light, swimming into a powerhead or other flow, twitching, flashing?

4FordFamily · Mar 31, 2018

Ich, but I’m sure it isn’t velvet.

Instigate · Mar 31, 2018

Big G said:
Any other symptoms? Breathing heavy, hiding from light, swimming into a powerhead or other flow, twitching, flashing?

Not hiding from light, not breathing heavy, not swimming into flow. I have observed some head twitching.

Big G · Mar 31, 2018

Instigate said:
Not hiding from light, not breathing heavy, not swimming into flow. I have observed some head twitching.

I'm leaning Ich. Few spots and large not small like velvet. Twitching would be the parasites attacking the gills and annoying your beautiful CBB.
Be thankful your CBB is eating - rare to find one eating. So it's ramp up slowly the copper. Small doses AM, lunch, PM, rather than one big daily dose. Feed high quality foods rich with protein and vitamins. Be on the look out for a secondary bacterial infection. Those bacterial infections go sideways real fast with CBBs. Do you have a broad spectrum antibiotic on hand? Some have found Ruby Reef Rally as a good initial bath to ward off and or treat early bacterials. Or a stronger medication like nitrofuracine green powder if you even begin to see one of those red spots startup. Time will be your enemy. And few CBBs respond once a bacterial starts up.

Instigate · Mar 31, 2018

Big G said:
I'm leaning Ich. Few spots and large not small like velvet. Twitching would be the parasites attacking the gills and annoying your beautiful CBB.
Be thankful your CBB is eating - rare to find one eating. So it's ramp up slowly the copper. Small doses AM, lunch, PM, rather than one big daily dose. Feed high quality foods rich with protein and vitamins. Be on the look out for a secondary bacterial infection. Those bacterial infections go sideways real fast with CBBs. Do you have a broad spectrum antibiotic on hand? Some have found Ruby Reef Rally as a good initial bath to ward off and or treat early bacterials. Or a stronger medication like nitrofuracine green powder if you even begin to see one of those red spots startup. Time will be your enemy. And few CBBs respond once a bacterial starts up.

Yes, I've read about the CBB and bacterial infections. Thanks for the info. I do have metro/kana/furan as well as ruby reef rally on hand. I've been feeding selcon soaked mysis, hikkari super angelfish preperation, fish frenzy, and spiralina enchiched brine shrimp. He even ate some nori when I was testing what he would eat yesterday. I tried live baby brine shrimp but they were too small for him to bother with. I'm so glad people are saying ich. The bumps looked so small I was worried it was velvet.

Big G · Mar 31, 2018

Most times the velvet can be seen first on the pectoral fins with the light at an angle. So numerous you can’t count them.

Brian1f1 · Mar 31, 2018

Yes, agree it’s almost certainly ick. Awesome that the CB is eating. Also awesome they were in QT!

Instigate · Mar 31, 2018

Some video from tonight:

Video from the day I got them:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-first-fish-tank.317153/page-8#post-4598345

Humblefish · Apr 1, 2018

I’m pretty sure that’s just ich.

An eating CBB will usually handle copper treatment fine, but Chloroquine is what’s ideal to use on them (because it does not suppress appetite.)

Your other option would be TTM: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tank-transfer-method.192655/

Instigate · Apr 1, 2018

Humblefish said:
I’m pretty sure that’s just ich.

An eating CBB will usually handle copper treatment fine, but Chloroquine is what’s ideal to use on them (because it does not suppress appetite.)

Your other option would be TTM: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tank-transfer-method.192655/

For sure, I wasn't able to get a scrip for CP. So it was either sketchy ebay meds or Copper Power. It's too bad you need a scrip for CP... I would much prefer to be using that.

Humblefish · Apr 1, 2018

Instigate said:
For sure, I wasn't able to get a scrip for CP. So it was either sketchy ebay meds or Copper Power. It's too bad you need a scrip for CP... I would much prefer to be using that.

I kinda went butterfly crazy for a while, and ran a bunch of different species (Petco rescues) thru CP with no ill effects.

Of course, I failed to realize it would be difficult to rehome butterflyfish because most of the people I know have corals.

Instigate · Apr 1, 2018

Humblefish said:
I kinda went butterfly crazy for a while, and ran a bunch of different species (Petco rescues) thru CP with no ill effects. Of course, I failed to realize it would be difficult to rehome butterflyfish because most of the people I know have corals.

Why do they have to be so beautiful and want to eat all my tasty corals!?

melypr1985 · Apr 1, 2018

Just an FYI... the head shaking you saw is a natural feeding response from butterflies. They are known to do the head shake often.

Instigate · Apr 1, 2018

melypr1985 said:
Just an FYI... the head shaking you saw is a natural feeding response from butterflies. They are known to do the head shake often.

Good to know!

Instigate · Apr 3, 2018

As of last night the copper should be at 1.5ppm by my calculations but test kit looks more like 2.0ppm. Going to do another test right now in better light. Maybe I'll take a sample to the lfs to double check. But both fish are still looking and acting healthy. The copperband continues to eat anything and everything I put in the tank.

HotRocks · Apr 3, 2018

Instigate said:
As of last night the copper should be at 1.5ppm by my calculations but test kit looks more like 2.0ppm. Going to do another test right now in better light. Maybe I'll take a sample to the lfs to double check. But both fish are still looking and acting healthy. The copperband continues to eat anything and everything I put in the tank.

Just Curious, as I am recently working a lot on copper testing. How many gallons is your QT? How many ml of Copper Power have you dosed?

Instigate · Apr 3, 2018

HotRocks said:
Just Curious, as I am recently working a lot on copper testing. How many gallons is your QT? How many ml of Copper Power have you dosed?

20 gallon QT. I've added 18ml so far. Bottle says 1fl oz(~29.5ml) gets you to 2.5ppm. So if it takes about 30ml to get to 2.5ppm I would do 5 doses of 5.9ml. But I wanted to aim for 2.0ppm. So if 5 parts of that dose gets you to 2.5ppm 4 parts should get you to 2.0ppm right? Mathematics is not my strong suit so I would love for someone to double check my thinking.

In short I'm planning on 4 doses of 6ml per day (broken down to three 2ml doses throughout the day) to get me to 2.0ppm concentration in my 20 gallon QT.