Looks like ich, now what?

[Bleigh]

So im fairly certain my mocha clownfish has ich. It’s a freshly started tank with live rock, live sand, 2 clowns and that’s it. Can I treat the tank directly and the start a qt process for any organisms brought in from here?

If I need to allow a fallow period, I almost wonder if I’d be better off just starting over with my cycle while the fish are being treated.

I managed a near no-cycle with the live rock/live sand/and bacteria in a bottle. I’m assuming that if I follow the same steps, my cycle would be done by the time the fish were done with treatments in the qt. If I can just treat the tank itself and not add any other organisms to it without first doing a qt and treatment cycle, that would be nice as well.

 

[HotRocks]

Being a clownfish, it's probably Brook. It could be in the early stages. Does the right fin have spots and look like there is a white slime on it? Or is it just the pic?

Personally I would move to a QT to treat once you determine for sure what it is that you are dealing with.

Allow tank to be fallow or break it down and sterilize everything if you so choose. I would fallow instead of having to bleach all of your LR.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brooklynella.247938/

 

[Oshengems]

Feed them good keep those guts full try variety in food frozen specially when my fish get spots or nip tails I feed then good few days later their good

 

[Ardeus]

If it's brook you should treat them now, it kills extremely quickly.

 

[Bleigh]

I tried to get a better picture. I will need to practice this fish photography thing some...

It doesn’t look like the pictures of brook. Would it just be better to just treat for all the things in a ht? Like I probably should have done initially?

 

[Ardeus]

It does look like brook.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Would it just be better to just treat for all the things in a ht? Like I probably should have done initially?

I would, you can do copper + metroplex or CP as a one and done treatment.

 

[HotRocks]

Do you have copper and Metroplex on hand or CP?

 

[ngoodermuth]

Do you have copper and Metroplex on hand or CP?

Jinx

 

[HotRocks]

Jinx

Lol! Great minds think alike

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Definitely treat in QT with copper as stated above. Your live live rock will absorb the copper if treated in your DT.

 

[Oshengems]

Crazy

 

[Ardeus]

If the tank has no corals and given that it's so young I would just treat the whole thing with chloroquine.

 

[Bleigh]

I went back to the lfs. The owner thinks it looks more like ich.

The fish fought SUPER hard for about 5 minutes when I put them in a few days ago. He said that probably disrupted the slime later a bit. My nitrites are a little high still. He said that may be stressing them enough for the parasite to be bothering it, combines with the a little bit of injury from the fighting. He gave me some vitamins and another bottle of bacteria. He said to let’s try building their immune system first. He also has some hospital tanks. He said I can bring them there and/or just get a new pair from him. Either way he said to keep a super close eye on it and if it changes from the small white spots at all to bring it back and we’ll deal with it as needed. Very happy with his support. Hopefully it is just ich and we can take care of it with the better food.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I went back to the lfs. The owner thinks it looks more like ich.

The fish fought SUPER hard for about 5 minutes when I put them in a few days ago. He said that probably disrupted the slime later a bit. My nitrites are a little high still. He said that may be stressing them enough for the parasite to be bothering it, combines with the a little bit of injury from the fighting. He gave me some vitamins and another bottle of bacteria. He said to let’s try building their immune system first. He also has some hospital tanks. He said I can bring them there and/or just get a new pair from him. Either way he said to keep a super close eye on it and if it changes from the small white spots at all to bring it back and we’ll deal with it as needed. Very happy with his support. Hopefully it is just ich and we can take care of it with the better food.

That might work if you want to start “ich management “ but you will always have to be prepared for any new fish to become infected. If you QT the fish at his store or at home and let your tank go fishless for 76 days you could eradicate it from your tank ((assuming it is ich).

 

[Bleigh]

That might work if you want to start “ich management “ but you will always have to be prepared for any new fish to become infected. If you QT the fish at his store or at home and let your tank go fishless for 76 days you could eradicate it from your tank ((assuming it is ich).

Still looking like spots of suger, so ich, this morning. Going to try and boost her immune system. We started vitamins and garlic on the food. This is the food we’re feeding:



My husband and I talked about it a bit more. We’re pretty committed to getting a much larger tank in the coming months, but just aren’t ready to make that large of a purchase at the moment. We’ve decided that at most, this tank will ever have 4 fish. Maybe not even that many. The main goal is to use this to figure out issues before we encounter them in a more expensive thus more risky way. We are going to do ich management for now, but will quarantine everything before we start the big tank. If we end up using any corals or rock we have set up in this tank in the big tank, we’ll make sure it sits fishless for 3 months to allow for a fallow period.

As far as the fish, one isn’t affected at all. And the one that is affected, is still chasing the smaller one. Still getting to watch the seizure dance. Hope we can get her to pull through.

 

[Bleigh]

Just got home and she seems to have WAY less spots than she did yesterday. She also is seeming a little bit more feisty! So looks like the right direction.

 

[Bleigh]

Spots are nearly gone. She’s eating much better and playing with the other clown fish. Her gills aren’t as puffy. The vitamins seem to have been the trick. Keeping a close eye on her and water parameters either way. I’m very relieved though.

 

[jabberwock]

Good to hear. I had an ich outbreak early on in my 32 gallon system. I also "managed it" successfully. Have not had a re occurrence yet in 5 or 6 months. Good luck!