Is this ich? Or what is it??!?

[A-dawg]

So fish were not quarantined. I know I know. Here we are though so please help me diagnose. I’m a fish rookie and reef rookie so I’m not sure what this is.

So my blue hippo tang looked fine maybe 3 weeks ago. It would scrap itself on the sand here and there but nothing weird. It started to do it more and more and now it spends all day scraping itself on rocks, power heads etc. It’s whole side is black with bruises and scrapes it looks like. I don’t see the small white specks or anything. To me it looks like bruising and scraping is causing all the viable stuff. My yellow tang just started getting a white patch on its top fin and lower fin. It has a much more distinct little dots. The blue tang didn’t look like ich when compared to pictures on google but the yellow tang is making me re think ich. Help me diagnose what it is please. I’m not sure how to treat it either. I have a lot of very expensive sps frags so I don’t want to do anything that even has a 1% chance of damaging the Corals. I have a 10 gallon I can set up as a hospital tank possibly. Thanks in advance. The blue tang is impossible to photograph so I did the best I can.

 

[HotRocks]

Scratching can be several things. The amount of damage on the fish from scraping though definitely means something irritating is present.

I would start with a 5min FW dip and see if any flukes come off of the fish.

Freshwater Dip

Freshwater Dip What It Treats – Provides temporary relief for a wide range of diseases: 1) Marine Velvet Disease (Amyloodinium ocellatum) 2) Brooklynella hostilis 3) Uronema marinum 4) Flukes (Monogeneans) 5) Black Ich (Turbellarians) Can be used to confirm the presence of Flukes (see video...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[A-dawg]

Scratching can be several things. The amount of damage on the fish from scraping though definitely means something irritating is present.

I would start with a 5min FW dip and see if any flukes come off of the fish.

Freshwater Dip

Freshwater Dip What It Treats – Provides temporary relief for a wide range of diseases: 1) Marine Velvet Disease (Amyloodinium ocellatum) 2) Brooklynella hostilis 3) Uronema marinum 4) Flukes (Monogeneans) 5) Black Ich (Turbellarians) Can be used to confirm the presence of Flukes (see video...

www.reef2reef.com

Thanks for the reply. Will you actually be able to see them coming off the fish? Also anything special or just a 5 minutes RODI water dip? Is flukes spread fish to fish and if so how, from contact? Will Putting the dipped fish in the same tank make them get them again? Sorry I have no experience with this.

 

[HotRocks]

Thanks for the reply. Will you actually be able to see them coming off the fish? Also anything special or just a 5 minutes RODI water dip? Is flukes spread fish to fish and if so how, from contact? Will Putting the dipped fish in the same tank make them get them again? Sorry I have no experience with this.

Yes any fish that share the tank are succeptable. The good thing is if it is flukes the treatment can be done in your reef tank. The treatment is Prazipro. Starting the process of elimination here because it's an easy test.

I'm not saying it is flukes. Scratching is the most common symptom though. You will see little sesame seed looking things come off the fish at the 3-5 minute mark if they are present. The amount of scratching your fish are doing, if it is flukes it should be completely obvious. Let us know.

 

[A-dawg]

Thanks! I’m gonna do this tomorrow. It’s gonna be a pain in the to get the fish out of the tank so I’ll spend tomorrow working on it.

 

[A-dawg]

So I was able to get the blue tang and did the five minute freshwater dip and he was covered with probably 20 flukes so I feel good at least knowing what it is. I can’t catch the yellow tang yet and I know he has them too. my question is if I can treat both them with freshwater dips are they going to just get it back again right away or is this something that possibly you could be beat with just freshwater dips . What is the follow up post care or is it just wait and see what happens

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

So I was able to get the blue tang and did the five minute freshwater dip and he was covered with probably 20 flukes so I feel good at least knowing what it is. I can’t catch the yellow tang yet and I know he has them too. my question is if I can treat both them with freshwater dips are they going to just get it back again right away or is this something that possibly you could be beat with just freshwater dips . What is the follow up post care or is it just wait and see what happens

Treat your tank with Prazi, it is generally considered reef safe.

 

[HotRocks]

You will need to treat with Prazipro. If the infestation is that heavy it would be great to FW dip the fish prior to dosing prazi. Prazi causes the worms to spasm, which can cause irritation and fill damage. In FW they calmly detach. FW dips will remove most but not all. So it is necessary to complete two treatments 5-7 days apart.

 

[A-dawg]

Got it. so is flukes something that will live in the substrate etc. if I remove all the fish and treat them in a hospital tank but I don’t treat my display tank will they still be in the display when I put the fish back in? Might be easier to treat in a small hospital tank then a 130 gallon reef?? Idk but trying to think what is easiest

 

[HotRocks]

Got it. so is flukes something that will live in the substrate etc. if I remove all the fish and treat them in a hospital tank but I don’t treat my display tank will they still be in the display when I put the fish back in? Might be easier to treat in a small hospital tank then a 130 gallon reef?? Idk but trying to think what is easiest

If you can remove all the fish and place them in a QT to be treated that is a fine way to do it.

The display will need to stay fish-less for 6 weeks to erradicate any flukes left behind.

Or you can just treat them in the display and be done with it. Either way works.

 

[A-dawg]

I’m gonna run it in my display. Dose it and wait 7 days and dose again. I’ll update later on the fish and almost more of a mystery is long term coral health. I dosed chemiclean in my other tank and it took two weeks and then half my coral started to die. That’s what I’m worried about and what I’ll be looking at most.