White dots on fire fish

[Mattie H.]

I just bought an exquisite fire fish about a week ago. In the past day or two, he's started to develop white dots on one side. He keeps rubbing himself on nearby rock and on a big star polyp colony next to where he's hanging out. The bumps look a bit raised. Not sure if they're fuzzy or not. I can't get a good picture, because he's always facing with his good side to me.

Any thoughts? Could it be from stress and it'll go away on its own? Or should I start treating the tank? Maybe kanaplex + focus during feedings?

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Sounds like ich to me. Got a pic ?

 

[Mattie H.]

Sounds like ich to me. Got a pic ?

Here are a few, but they're not very clear. I'll try to get a better pic if I can, but all I have is the camera on my phone.

 

[Dom]

Not enough info to educate a guess.

What else can you tell us about your fish? Heavy breathing? Swimming into flow? When did you add him to your tank? Did you QT before placing him in the DT?

 

[Dom]

Here are a few, but they're not very clear. I'll try to get a better pic if I can, but all I have is the camera on my phone.

I actually think I see the bumps your writing about. They look too big to be flukes.

 

[Mattie H.]

Not enough info to educate a guess.

What else can you tell us about your fish? Heavy breathing? Swimming into flow? When did you add him to your tank? Did you QT before placing him in the DT?

He seems otherwise healthy, eating fine. No heavy breathing or struggling to swim. Added him one week ago. I don't QT before adding - my tanks are primarily invert and coral, not too many fish.

This tank is a 3 year old 75 gal with sump. There's maybe 8 small fish in it. Everyone else healthy.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

He seems otherwise healthy, eating fine. No heavy breathing or struggling to swim. Added him one week ago. I don't QT before adding - my tanks are primarily invert and coral, not too many fish.

This tank is a 3 year old 75 gal with sump. There's maybe 8 small fish in it. Everyone else healthy.

I would FW dip him and look for flukes. He’s flashing to try to manually remove something from his skin.

 

[Mattie H.]

So if it could be flukes or it could be ich, will it go away eventually or should I treat with both kana and metro to be sure? And will this end up in my other fish as well?

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

For flukes I have had good success with api general cure which contains praziquantel and metro . But I treat the affected fish in QT. If it’s Ich, you’ll need to QT all as they would most likely would all be infected by now . Fallow for 76 days in your DT.

There are methods from both ich camps where one say let the fish immune overcome the ich with good nutrition

and the other camp say to eradicate the ich with treatment to your fish and kill off the remaining parasites in your main tank by going fallow for 76 days.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Metro or Kanaplex will not treat flukes or ich. Prazipro treats flukes and copper treats ich.
If you have flukes all of your fish will need to be treated and the same for ich.

 

[rkpetersen]

Looks like flukes to me, not crypto.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Yes both are contagious and if it’s either one will infect your other fish.

So if it could be flukes or it could be ich, will it go away eventually or should I treat with both kana and metro to be sure? And will this end up in my other fish as well?

 

[Mattie H.]

Metro or Kanaplex will not treat flukes or ich. Prazipro treats flukes and copper treats ich.
If you have flukes all of your fish will need to be treated and the same for ich.

I don't think this is ich. I had an ich problem in a tank about 25 years ago. I still remember it. These dots are pretty big, much different than what I remember ich looked like. I've Googled flukes, this looks much more likely.

I won't be able to catch all the fish to move them to a QT... I have too much coral growing across multiple pieces of live rock to move anything much around. Can I treat the DT with Prazipro?

Will Prazipro kill the bristle worms? I have tons in the tank. And what about the dusters? I have small hitchhiker dusters here and there, and one big Hawaiian duster. I'm worried about a level spike if I kill off a whole bunch of stuff at once as I treat.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I don't think this is ich. I had an ich problem in a tank about 25 years ago. I still remember it. These dots are pretty big, much different than what I remember ich looked like. I've Googled flukes, this looks much more likely.

I won't be able to catch all the fish to move them to a QT... I have too much coral growing across multiple pieces of live rock to move anything much around. Can I treat the DT with Prazipro?

Will Prazipro kill the bristle worms? I have tons in the tank. And what about the dusters? I have small hitchhiker dusters here and there, and one big Hawaiian duster. I'm worried about a level spike if I kill off a whole bunch of stuff at once as I treat.

I agree I don’t think it’s ich either, Prazi is generally Reef safe but warns about worms, feather dusters etc. I’ve never dosed my DT but if you have to maybe get some biospira to help with any potential spike.

 

[Mattie H.]

I agree I don’t think it’s ich either, Prazi is generally Reef safe but warns about worms, feather dusters etc. I’ve never dosed my DT but if you have to maybe get some biospira to help with any potential spike.

That's a good idea. Thanks so much for the advice. I think I still have a good bottle of One and Only sitting around from another tank set up. I'm ordering a bottle of Prazipro now. Wish me luck...

PS... The white dots are now visibly wiggling around under the flesh of the fish. Definitely worms.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

That's a good idea. Thanks so much for the advice. I think I still have a good bottle of One and Only sitting around from another tank set up. I'm ordering a bottle of Prazipro now. Wish me luck...

PS... The white dots are now visibly wiggling around under the flesh of the fish. Definitely worms.

You might also want to get some Ruby Reef Rally in case they are worms that Prazi won’t kill and you need a formalin product.

 

[Dom]

PS... The white dots are now visibly wiggling around under the flesh of the fish. Definitely worms.

Man... this sounds terrible. I'm sorry. Posts like this make me extremely reluctant to add fish.

 

[rkpetersen]

Man... this sounds terrible. I'm sorry. Posts like this make me extremely reluctant to add fish.

Not without thorough QT first, anyway.
For me, the QT environment is much less conducive to fish health than my DTs.
Somewhat like hospitals not being the best place for human health either.
I'd rather lose fish in QT than contaminate my DTs, though.
Most do make it but too many don't.

 

[Mattie H.]

Man... this sounds terrible. I'm sorry. Posts like this make me extremely reluctant to add fish.

The reason I'm so clueless about what to do is because this type of thing is fairly rare for me. I've been reefing on and off since 92, never QT'd my fish. I've almost never had a fish parasite. A fish in the store that looks nice and healthy usually is.

But not always, clearly...

 

[Dom]

The reason I'm so clueless about what to do is because this type of thing is fairly rare for me. I've been reefing on and off since 92, never QT'd my fish. I've almost never had a fish parasite. A fish in the store that looks nice and healthy usually is.

But not always, clearly...

I find the consensus to be that there is a high rate of infection in the wholesale industry. There may have been a time when you might get away without QT, but I recommend it to anyone who asks me.