HELP!!! My fish has white spots.

[Pickles]

My royal gramma has white spots on him. They are mostly on his tail and a few on his fins and belly. What is this, what should I do, and what causes it? Please help me!

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Carefully study the following:

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27003

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27155

 

[Pickles]

So...sadly is sounds like ich. The worst thing is its sunday at 8pm and nothing is open. I feel so sad and helpless. Will my fish more than likely be dead by tomorrow? A few days ago i added a xenia coral. Could that have brought it in my tank?

 

[loohunter]

it should be ok till tomorrow however i cant promise that. get to treating as soon as you can

 

[Pickles]

what a sad day...he is my fist fish.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Its no problem, hyposalinity is a piece of cake and the fish will be disease free ij no time.

 

[Pickles]

From what I read about hyposalinity, I am supposed to have a whole seperate tank and leave him in there for four weeks after the last white spot is gone? Is the correct. If so, is there a more realistic solution for someone (like me) who is new to all this and is not wanting invest in more equipment?

 

[krisfal]

Not really, the other choice is to use copper, but it also needs to happen in another tank as it will infuse your rock and will make it toxic to inverts. Copper treatment also requires a test kit to make sure you keep safe levels.

You can pick up a real cheap 10 gal setup with filter and light at walmart ($30 I think), then all you need to buy extra is a cheap little heater. A hospital tank is a good investment as you should QT all new fish.

All the fish in your system need to be treated at this time, if one has ich all the rest are likely to show up with it soon. To get the ich out of your main system it should remain fishless for a minimum of 8 weeks.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

What all is in the tank? Other fish? Live rock? corals? inverts?

 

[Pickles]

Here is what is in my 75 gallon tank

I have about 50 pounds of live rock, a cleaner shrimp, they royal gramma (he is who I can see the white stuff on), a bangaii cardinal (not sure if he has it) and a xenia coral and about 16 snails.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

How long have you had the two fish? Can they be returned to the store? If you leave your tank fish free for 2 months (inverts and corals are OK) your tank will be ich free again. New fish will need to be quarantined from the display and treated as necessary with Hypo or copper before introduction to the display.

 

[Zimmerman]

Sorry to butt in - does ICH just appear in spots? I have had my clown - only fish in the tank for 2 weeks and no spots and then just a little while ago it looked you look after a sunburn and you start to peel. But it was not white spots. Please tell me I dont have this in my tank - PLEASE

 

[krisfal]

Sorry to butt in - does ICH just appear in spots? I have had my clown - only fish in the tank for 2 weeks and no spots and then just a little while ago it looked you look after a sunburn and you start to peel. But it was not white spots. Please tell me I don't have this in my tank - PLEASE

Zimmerman,
Yes, ich usually appears as spots. But just because it might not be ich does not mean you are ok, clownfish are susceptible to several diseases. I would suggest putting a new post in the marine fish forum, it will get better attention over there. The mod, Lee is both very knowledgeable and very helpful, as long as your willing to read and listen. It helps also if you can provide information about your system, how long everything has been set up, how long you have had fish etc. Cannot have too much info. And a good picture is always worth a thousand words.

There are also a lot of stickies in the marine forum you can read to help.

Here is a link I keep that has a lot of picture of fishes with different conditions. http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=127010