Ich Question after Hypo Treatment

[MarkDarnell]

Back in December, my blue hippo tang started showing signs of Ich. I read a ton of advice here on R2R and decided to go through a Hypo Treatment. I have went 5-1/2weeks in a Hypo tank for all of my livestock. I have seen zero spots on any fish for 5 weeks straight and in those 5 weeks, I actually did a complete 100% water change by moving my fish from an old tank to a brand new tank. Three days ago, I started to raise my salinity. All my fish looked good. My last "salt increase" was last night. Today I got home and my Blue Hippo shows spots again. They didnt show up until today.

So my question is this: Is there a disease or parasite that resembles Ich, but is actually something else?

 

[MarkDarnell]

My yellow tang has a spot on it also. Right above its eye. Again just showed up today. Will try to get pics of the blue tang spots also. All the fish are swimming and eating without issues. Thinking of doing the tank transfer method next...

 

[Humblefish]

Lymphocystis can start off as small white dots, but is mainly seen on the fins & spines. One genus of flukes (Neobenedenia) is white & visible to the naked eye, and is mainly seen around the face area.

Unfortunately, you wouldn't be the first person to have hyposalinity fail you. Yambot (in 2003) proved that hypo resistant strains of ich do exist.

 

[MarkDarnell]

I was just reading the sticky post about Ich. Was it you, Humblefish, that said the tank transfer method does in fact work? My livestock is 1 Yellow, 1 Hippo, 2 Clown, 1 Neon Cleaner Goby, 2 PJ Cardinals, and 1 Starey Blenny. Nobody but the Tangs show anything and it just showed back up. Before the spots showed up today, there has been no spots or anything, really no issues at all during Hypo except an ammonia spike due to a lapse in water change. That was about 2 or 3 weeks ago.

I already have a 10gal tank that I can use for the transfer method, was going to go buy 1 more. I also have a 29gal that I have had the fish in for the Hypo treatment.

 

[Humblefish]

What I am seeing on the YT looks too big to be ich. Post more pics if you can; especially of the hippo tang.

 

[Humblefish]

TT is my preferred treatment method for ich; but be sure it is, in fact, still ich we are dealing with here.

 

[Triggreef]

TT is my preferred treatment method for ich; but be sure it is, in fact, still ich we are dealing with here.

Plus one. Doesn't look like ich to me on the yt. Ich is only one out of thousands of reef fish parasites....

 

[MarkDarnell]

Here is a picture of the blue tang. He has been swimming all over the place, so it took me a bit to get a good picture of him. He also, just today, started to do his scratching against the PVC fittings, like he did when I first started the hypo back at Christmas. Ill try and get some more pictures of the YT now.

 

[MarkDarnell]

Here is the best picture I could get quickly of the YT

 

[Humblefish]

What I am seeing on the hippo looks like ich. The thing on the YT could be the beginnings of HLLE or even a slight bacterial infection. Either way, all fish must be re-treated for ich. I've copy & pasted below how to do TTM:

Tank Transfer Method: Treats Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) only.

How To Treat - Tank transfer (TTM) is probably one of the most underused and underappreciated resources in our hobby. To properly execute TTM you need two tanks (or buckets), with dedicated equipment for each tank (not to be shared between the two). I personally use 2 of the 10 gallon tanks to do TTM, each with its own heater, thermometer, air stone, airline tubing and PVC elbows for hiding places. This is how TTM is implemented:

• Day 1 - Fish is placed in initial QT.
• Day 4 - Roughly 72 hours later transfer the fish to new tank. The time of day you do the transfer is unimportant, but never exceed 72 hours from the last transfer. The temperature and SG of the new tank should match the old one perfectly, so you can just catch & release (no acclimation). Transfer as little water as possible with the fish.
• Day 7 - Repeat.
• Day 10 - Repeat.
• Day 13 - Repeat and done (fish should now be ich free).

After transferring, immediately sanitize the “old tank” and all equipment using bleach or vinegar. Rinse well. Let air dry thoroughly before next use. The air drying is the sterilization process when using vinegar, or detoxification process when using bleach.

Simply put, this process works because you are literally outrunning the parasite’s known life cycle. If a fish is infected with ich, trophonts will leave the fish at some point during the TTM process, and the encysted stage doesn’t have enough time to release theronts (i.e. free swimmers that re-infect the fish) before the fish exits the tank. Ammonia isn’t much of a concern with TTM, because every 3 days the fish is placed in a new tank with new water; or you always have the option of using ammonia reducers, such as Amquel or Prime, in conjunction with TTM since there is no risk of negative interaction because no medications are present. However, you do have the option of dosing Prazipro (if you need to deworm) at the onset of “Day 4” and “Day 10”; transfers 2 & 4 respectively. Just remember if you do this that you can’t use any ammonia reducers while Prazi is present in the water.

One of the cons to tank transfer is the amount/cost of saltwater needed to do it. For example, using my 2-10 gallons I go through 50 gallons of saltwater before the TTM process is complete. However, a thrifty hobbyist can use water stored from a recent display tank water change to implement TTM. Obviously, this only works if you are 100% confident that your display tank is disease free and don’t siphon anything off the bottom. ;-) The other problem with TTM is netting the fish every 3 days. That concern can be somewhat alleviated by using a plastic colander in lieu of a net to catch the fish (square ones work better than round ones):

Pros - Chemical free solution to ich, highly effective when performed properly, can be combined with deworming via Prazipro.

Cons/Side Effects - Cost (if using all new saltwater), time/effort expended, probably somewhat stressful on the fish being caught every 3 days.

 

[MarkDarnell]

Humble, thank you for the advice. I will start that treatment right away. One question, I do this with normal saltwater correct? 1.025 is what I keep everything at now

 

[Humblefish]

Humble, thank you for the advice. I will start that treatment right away. One question, I do this with normal saltwater correct? 1.025 is what I keep everything at now

Yes, that is fine.