Is this Ich?

Falcon 6 · Jan 5, 2018

I've two fish in a 5 gallon QT for 17 days, a Mimic Tang and a Midnight Angel. Both have been getting along well and and eating frozen mysis, marine angel formula, and seaweed. Last night I came home to the tang lying on his side and breathing heavily, he expired a few hours later. This morning the Angel looked like this.

Whats he got? Ich? How did it come on so fast? Can I save him?

4FordFamily · Jan 5, 2018

The very small dots and the number of them, on top of how quickly this fish succumbed all scream velvet to me.

Treat with copper or CP ASAP. A freshwater bath would provide some temporary relief for remaining fish.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/

Big G · Jan 5, 2018

It's important to note that Humblefish has found that the survival rate increased when the freshwater bath was followed by a bath in acriflavine. Here's the relevant section (in bold). Then treat with copper as explained in the post.

The short version:

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

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.

Falcon 6 · Jan 6, 2018

Thanks for the quick replies guys! 4Ford that write up you linked to was great, very informative.

I called around to the fish stores here, but can you believe none of them have any of the 3 medicines mentioned? I'll have to order some from the States and I fear that will be too late for the Angelfish.

I did a freshwater bath and does the QT with Blue, but I realize that's not likely to help much.