My powder brown has spots

[RayKeeper503]

Hello all. I have a question about my powder brown tang... he’s new to the tank... only 4 days. Looked fine in the LFS. Brought him home and after acclimation he was fine as well.

The next morning still fine... eating and swimming no problem. My kessil goes on around 4:30pm and shuts off around 10pm.

Later that evening he had a bunch of white spots on him. Now I’m upset because I have never had ich in my tanks. I figured let me just wait it out. The next morning he had nothing on him but came back at night when the lights were on.

Are these stress marks? Or is it ich?

My tank has been operating for about 2 years. I have a pair of gold bar maroons, coral beauty, a flame angel, some wrasse and everyone gets along for the most part. I also have a carpet of star polyps, a leather polyp, lots of zoa, Kenya trees, an elegance, 3 rbta, 1 gbta that my clowns love and grow

Please help thanks

 

[Sashaka]

Definitely looks like ich to me.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/treatment-options-index.247573/

 

[RayKeeper503]

It looks like ich to me as well. Was just odd that the spots completely disappear over night and return by the evening.

 

[Mariette]

Didn’t think stress marks can appear on fins Looks and sounds like ich to me sorry. and good luck. Lots of ppl on here to help you with treatment options. Good luck

 

[RobW]

Straight up ich!

 

[RobW]

No quarantine before introducing him to your tank?

 

[RayKeeper503]

I did not quarantine this fish. It was a gift and when I got home from work it was in the tank... my wife knows how to acclimate into the DT and I was very upset that she put it into the DT

How could I be so mad at her after she bought me a gift it was a tough situation. Now I’m stuck with this fish in my reef... what’s the best thing I can do??

 

[Sashaka]

It looks like ich to me as well. Was just odd that the spots completely disappear over night and return by the evening.

My guess is that the lighting at night was more conducive to seeing the spots than in the light of daylight. I know if I really want to see the condition of my fish I have to look through the side glass panels because of the way my lights shine down in my tank. The amount of light and light angle is everything...at least for me.

 

[RobW]

I did not quarantine this fish. It was a gift and when I got home from work it was in the tank... my wife knows how to acclimate into the DT and I was very upset that she put it into the DT

How could I be so mad at her after she bought me a gift it was a tough situation. Now I’m stuck with this fish in my reef... what’s the best thing I can do??

That's a tough one. Do you have a quarantine setup or can you get one setup. Do a freshwater dip on him and treat him with some copper based meds in quarantine.

 

[RayKeeper503]

My guess is that the lighting at night was more conducive to seeing the spots than in the light of daylight. I know if I really want to see the condition of my fish I have to look through the side glass panels because of the way my lights shine down in my tank. The amount of light and light angle is everything...at least for me.

The tank is in a room with many windows... no sun directly hitting the tank but in the morning the room is very lit up. 8am this morning this fish had not a single spot on him but the night before he was covered.

So this is where my confusion is

 

[RayKeeper503]

That's a tough one. Do you have a quarantine setup or can you get one setup.

It really is a tough one... I have it Setup I just don’t think I’ll be able to get the fish out of the tank

 

[Sashaka]

The tank is in a room with many windows... no sun directly hitting the tank but in the morning the room is very lit up. 8am this morning this fish had not a single spot on him but the night before he was covered.

So this is where my confusion is

Two things: First, check out the life cycle of ich. Many people believe their fish is cured when in truth the ich has just dropped to the bottom of the tank and entered a cyst stage! It WILL come back 10 fold each time it reproduces. https://www.researchgate.net/figure...h-the-surface-mucus-and-take-up_fig1_51720908
Second, I've seen and cured enough fish with ich to have seen how light hits a fish can sometimes fool us into thinking the problem is gone when in fact it is not. I'm not saying that this is happening in your case, but it is a possibility to consider. View your fish from different angles and under more direct lights (strong flashlights work well sometimes) to get the best views of your fish. It might help.

In any event, you have ich in the tank and you will need to make some decisions about how you're going to go about treating all the fish in the tank and whether you want to manage ich or eradicate it all together. None of the steps to cure your fish will be fun for you or the fish, but if you act fast your chances of saving some or all of your fish go up. If you need more advice about how to setup a sick tank, let us know.

 

[RobW]

It really is a tough one... I have it Setup I just don’t think I’ll be able to get the fish out of the tank

I hear ya there. May have to disturb the tank a bit. I had ich on only one fish and that was way back when I was new in the hobby. I was able to save him through quarantine and treatment.

 

[Mariette]

Two things: First, check out the life cycle of ich. Many people believe their fish is cured when in truth the ich has just dropped to the bottom of the tank and entered a cyst stage! It WILL come back 10 fold each time it reproduces. https://www.researchgate.net/figure...h-the-surface-mucus-and-take-up_fig1_51720908
Second, I've seen and cured enough fish with ich to have seen how light hits a fish can sometimes fool us into thinking the problem is gone when in fact it is not. I'm not saying that this is happening in your case, but it is a possibility to consider. View your fish from different angles and under more direct lights (strong flashlights work well sometimes) to get the best views of your fish. It might help.

Yup. It WILL come back. Then fall off. Then come back. Then fall off. Each time it comes back, it’s worse. Visibly worse. It’s what they do.

 

[RobW]

@ngoodermuth we need your help with this guys powder brown. Pronto!

 

[RayKeeper503]

Thanks for all the help. I’m going to attempt a freshwater dip on the tang. He’s only been in the tank for 3 days... do you still recommend treating all the fish? Or can I get away with trying to save this tang?

 

[RobW]

Thanks for all the help. I’m going to attempt a freshwater dip on the tang. He’s only been in the tank for 3 days... do you still recommend treating all the fish? Or can I get away with trying to save this tang?

I'm no expert but I would probably treat them all. I would let others that are better experienced give you those answers

 

[RayKeeper503]

Two things: First, check out the life cycle of ich. Many people believe their fish is cured when in truth the ich has just dropped to the bottom of the tank and entered a cyst stage! It WILL come back 10 fold each time it reproduces. https://www.researchgate.net/figure...h-the-surface-mucus-and-take-up_fig1_51720908
Second, I've seen and cured enough fish with ich to have seen how light hits a fish can sometimes fool us into thinking the problem is gone when in fact it is not. I'm not saying that this is happening in your case, but it is a possibility to consider. View your fish from different angles and under more direct lights (strong flashlights work well sometimes) to get the best views of your fish. It might help.

In any event, you have ich in the tank and you will need to make some decisions about how you're going to go about treating all the fish in the tank and whether you want to manage ich or eradicate it all together. None of the steps to cure your fish will be fun for you or the fish, but if you act fast your chances of saving some or all of your fish go up. If you need more advice about how to setup a sick tank, let us know.

I fully agree with you. I was just explaining my specific situation. The room I saw very lit and looking at him at all angles showed no sign of ich but it was clear as day back in the night when the lights were on.

In any case, with the help of you all, we have confirmed it is definitely ich and I will do a freshwater dip on the tang.

A bit more info...the tank has been up and running for 2 years. Never had any type of ich or diseases in here before and I heard these guys are prone to it

 

[RobW]

I fully agree with you. I was just explaining my specific situation. The room I saw very lit and looking at him at all angles showed no sign of ich but it was clear as day back in the night when the lights were on.

In any case, with the help of you all, we have confirmed it is definitely ich and I will do a freshwater dip on the tang.

A bit more info...the tank has been up and running for 2 years. Never had any type of ich or diseases in here before and I heard these guys are prone to it

Got to get those copper meds going and up to treatment level. Hannah checkers are good. You have to be in the 1.75 ppm to 2.0 ppm range I believe for it to be at a therapeutic level. Someone can correct me if I may be wrong.

 

[clown and friends]

I fully agree with you. I was just explaining my specific situation. The room I saw very lit and looking at him at all angles showed no sign of ich but it was clear as day back in the night when the lights were on.

In any case, with the help of you all, we have confirmed it is definitely ich and I will do a freshwater dip on the tang.

A bit more info...the tank has been up and running for 2 years. Never had any type of ich or diseases in here before and I heard these guys are prone to it

You have to treat the whole tank if you want to get rid of it completely. All of the fish need to come out and get copper or hypo treatment and then leave the tank fallow for at least 8 weeks but probably should be longer. Ich is now in your system or may have been already and this is the first fish to get it this noticeably. You can treat the tang only if you want and he will get healthy but when you put him back in he will get it again. Just how ich works unfortunately...had this happen to me as well with my fish. Lots of great threads on treatment options on here but fallow is the only way to eradicate.