What are these white speckles on my fish ?

[Sailfinguy21]

I noticed these white speckles on my fish come and go. Note the tank has been in hyponsalinity for over 2 months at 1.007-1.009 so it isnt ich.

Its not lymphocystis i dont think its too small too be that and it goes away through out the day.

Ot cant be velvet its too small in numbers for that and id have 4 dead tangs and a host of other dead fish lol.

It litterally looks like a grain of sand.. I do use oolite sand which is powdery sand almost.. but i dunno. A sailfin tang i got from a local guy.. big tang probly 9 inchs long had the same speckles on it and it was in a 300g tank so i dunno if its sand.. dont think it is.


So if it isnt ich which there is no way its ich (plus its too small for ich cysts) in hypo for over 8 weeks.. isnt velvet.. what are these like i said they are no bigger then powder like specs of sand and ill see it on the fish one minite.. then maybe later in the day or the next day its gone.. or somewhere else.

 

[EmdeReef]

is it on every fish or just one? How often do they come and go?

Unfortunately, hyposalinity is difficult to maintain properly and there are some strains of ich that can survive it. Not saying that it is ich.

@HotRocks?

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Hypo is easy to maintain.. where did you get thats its hard.. Its 10x easier to maintain than normal salinity. Litterally 10-20% of the water has to evaporate for a 1.001 change in salinity.

I see it on the naso tang. The sail fin tang. And my bi color angel.. i dont see it on my coral beauty. Yellow tang. Foxface. My damsels. Or clownfish.. or my gobies. Oh and i dont see it on my tomini tang either.. its usually just on my naso tang

Ive seen ich for over 2 decades in fresh water and years in salt water.. the specs are 2x smaller then what ich cysts get too.. Its hard explain. They are extremely tiny. But i do see them on a few fish, but they will be on the fish one minute then gone the next.


How often is hard to tell.. ich will come suddenly and be there for 3-7 days from what ive observed and get bigger as well.. ich also tends to go after the fins on fish first. This is usualy on random spots

These spots.. just show up randomly.. will be gone in like an hour or a few hours or the next day.. and they dont get larger. One day ill see none.. the next i might see 1. Then like today ill see 4 or 5.. but they dissapear after an hour or a few hours.. its very strange man.

 

[HotRocks]

Hypo is easy to maintain.. where did you get thats its hard.. Its 10x easier to maintain than normal salinity. Litterally 10-20% of the water has to evaporate for a 1.001 change in salinity.

I see it on the naso tang. The sail fin tang. And my bi color angel.. i dont see it on my coral beauty. Yellow tang. Foxface. My damsels. Or clownfish.. or my gobies. Oh and i dont see it on my tomini tang either.. its usually just on my naso tang

Ive seen ich for over 2 decades in fresh water and years in salt water.. the specs are 2x smaller then what ich cysts get too.. Its hard explain. They are extremely tiny. But i do see them on a few fish, but they will be on the fish one minute then gone the next.


How often is hard to tell.. ich will come suddenly and be there for 3-7 days from what ive observed and get bigger as well.. ich also tends to go after the fins on fish first. This is usualy on random spots

These spots.. just show up randomly.. will be gone in like an hour or a few hours or the next day.. and they dont get larger. One day ill see none.. the next i might see 1. Then like today ill see 4 or 5.. but they dissapear after an hour or a few hours.. its very strange man.

Hypo won't eliminate velvet. It could be velvet since you describe them in small numbers. It could be hindering the parasite. Put the fish in a salinity of 1.020 and see what happens.

The description you provide resembles velvet and as small as this spots are I don't know what else it may be... Unless like you said it's sand. Which I agree with you is doubtful.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Well salinity in my main tank going up. Its at 1.015 now. From 1.008 a few days ago. So well see what happens. But these specs i noticed during hypo.. not like suddenly since i raised the salinity.

If its velvet ill just do cupramine at .35ppm for a few weeks i guess once salinity is back to normal. But ill keep observing it.

Lets assume it doesnt get worse during normal salinity. What do you suggest i do then ? If it doesnt get worse in normal salinity.. it cant be velvet am i right ?

 

[HotRocks]

Well salinity in my main tank going up. Its at 1.015 now. From 1.008 a few days ago. So well see what happens. But these specs i noticed during hypo.. not like suddenly since i raised the salinity.

If its velvet ill just do cupramine at .35ppm for a few weeks i guess once salinity is back to normal. But ill keep observing it.

Lets assume it doesnt get worse during normal salinity. What do you suggest i do then ? If it doesnt get worse in normal salinity.. it cant be velvet am i right ?

If it doesn't intensify as salinity increases it may not be velvet. Once you are north of 1.020 velvet should be able to run it's raging cycle pretty easily. I agree copper is the best route if spots begin to appear larger in number over the first 3-5 days at the higher salinity.

Can you catch the fish?
If it's sand and you put the fish in a small container with tank water. Use a baster and try to blow the spots off the fish. If sand they should come off. If it's parasitic they will not.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

No hes aay too fast and my tank has like 140lbs of rock in it. The minute i put a net in he darts.

Id have to rip the tank apart.

Ill just keep raising salinity over the next few days and watch it.

Also i have a secomd yellow tang in my coral tank with a fish that came with that sailfin tang with the same spots from a friends 300g tank.. yellow tang has nothing on him.. so i dunno.

So frustrating man..