White bug on fish - Night time only

wicked2na · Jan 5, 2013

I have been noticing random white spots on my fish for the past month. Not on all of them at one given time, but a few here and there. I thought maybe somehow Ich had worked it's way into my tank. Well here is the catch, they only come out at night after I turn the lights off, turn on the lights and about 20 minutes later no white spots on the fish. The are almost 1 mm perfectly round, lumpy and larger than any Ich I have seen and leave marks on the fish. Not all the fish get covered and it is not targeting all the fish at one time.

Fish in the aquarium are:
White Cheek Tang, Salfin Tang, Yellow Tang, Powder Blue Tang, Scopas Tang, Flame Fin Tang, Blue Jaw Triggers, Bangai Cardinals, Hippo Tang, Percula Clowns, Anthias

They seem to prefer the White Cheek and the Triggers. A few other fish have had them on them, but not as bad as the White Cheek or Triggers.

Just want to see if this is a reef related bug or a larger problem. I would hate to pull out all the fish for 8 weeks and then put them back in the tank to find out it is not Ich and another type of bug.

FYI I stirred up my sump last night thinning out the macro and the out break seemed worse last night than ever before.

Sorry no pictures yet.

SeahorseKeeper · Jan 5, 2013

Sounds like it could be a parasitic isopod. They come out at night.

wicked2na · Jan 5, 2013

Ohh boy, that doesn't sound good. I'll do some research and thank you for the lead.

jcdeng · Jan 5, 2013

try get some cleaner wrasse and/or neon gobies, cleaner shrimp.

reef boy · Jan 5, 2013

I have had similar encounters in my older tank where when The blue lights went on I could see the same exact thing you are talking about. I always wondered what it was but it was so weird. They would only appear in the blue lights!?!? So I started treating the tank like it was ick and feeding more dosing etc. they finally went away. But I could see the fish scraping them selves on the rock and stuff before I dosed and everything. Two things that you can look out for are fish scratching themselves, white spots (obviously). When I decided to upgrade a while after that I got a cleaner wrasse and let me tell you!! This fish has such a great personality and also he cleans almost all of the fish! A cleaner wrasse would be especially great because you have so many large fish. Just watch out and if you decide to get one make sure you ask the lfs to feed it to make sure it's eating because that can be a problem.
Andrew

wicked2na · Jan 6, 2013

I currently have 2 cleaner shrimp and I am going to go out and pick up a wrasse today, it will be a few weeks before he can go into the tank. I think whatever it is it's home base is in the sump. Anyone know if copepods would attach to fish? I added about 2000 from reefs2go about a month ago. Starting to think maybe it is them or a hitch hiker that came with them. Thanks for all the tips guys and gals.

jedimasterben · Jan 6, 2013

I add macros straight from the ocean to my tank and I've never gotten any isopods. (I collect from the same rough locations as R2G)

Do you ever see any fish flashing? You've got a lot of ich magnets in there.

wicked2na · Jan 7, 2013

No flashing at all, I have never seen Ich just go away while the lights are on. I have seen it fall off and come back with a vengeance (Ich life cycle). I am wondering if it is just ich and maybe the fish that are getting attacked are under some sort of stress. Maybe the 1 degree temp change at night in my tank is enough to stress the fish. I am a strong believer that there is no way to eradicate ick in a reef aquarium, even with a fish-less tank I have read it takes up to 14 months without a host and that even after 14 months it has been known to bounce back. I never have these types of issues in my fish only tanks, but they have always had a cupramine treatment so that nukes out all parasites. If this is ich this tank may remain coral only it is not an easy chore catching fish and you always have to tear the tank apart. Time to set up another 320.

jedimasterben · Jan 7, 2013

wicked2na said:
No flashing at all, I have never seen Ich just go away while the lights are on. I have seen it fall off and come back with a vengeance (Ich life cycle). I am wondering if it is just ich and maybe the fish that are getting attacked are under some sort of stress. Maybe the 1 degree temp change at night in my tank is enough to stress the fish. I am a strong believer that there is no way to eradicate ick in a reef aquarium, even with a fish-less tank I have read it takes up to 14 months without a host and that even after 14 months it has been known to bounce back. I never have these types of issues in my fish only tanks, but they have always had a cupramine treatment so that nukes out all parasites. If this is ich this tank may remain coral only it is not an easy chore catching fish and you always have to tear the tank apart. Time to set up another 320.

Cryptocaryon irritans is not a fan of light, and in some strains the spots will only appear at night. That is a tell-tale sign that your fish are heavily infected.

I've fought ich several times and still have up short against its might. It is one of the most efficient parasites I've ever seen.

One degree is not even a noticeable temperature difference.

It is 100% possible to have an ich-free system. The difficulty level is very high, though. All fish need to be treated with Cupramine or hyposalinity before entering the tank, all corals, invertebrates, macroalgaes, etc would need to be quarantined separately for at least 72 days in a fishless system before being put into the tank, etc. Probably wouldn't be a very healthy system, either, IMHO.

In a fishless tank, some strains only last 24 days, some can last up to 72 (which encompasses 99.9% of all strains). Even with an active host (if it's in your system, your fish are infected, no exceptions), the parasite destroys itself in approximately 11-12 months as long as there are no new strains added (so no new coral, inverts, untreated fish, etc).