Marine Ick/Velvet

[MarineDreamer]

Around the middle of August, I finally got a hold of a Red Sea Purple Tang, Zebrasoma xanthurum, which was just a bit bigger than what I wanted for my little 55 gallon, but the algae was starting up and the angelfish needed help. And yup, you guessed it, no quarantine. And the next day the tang was covered in white spots. Nuts. Three weeks later my Coral Beauty Angel, Centropyge bispinosa was dead. Humm. Faster than I would have thought for Ick/Marine Velvet, but I’ll go with it. And then suddenly all the spots on the tang were gone. The wrasse, now the only other fish in the tank, never got infected. There has been no sign of Ick/Marine Velvet on either of the fish since.

So what the heck is going on here? Has anyone heard of Ick/Velvet just disappearing? Maybe it’s something else?

I was thinking of doing the following treatment until everything cleared up, set-up a quarantine tank, treat the two fishes for about thirty days, and let the tank sit without a host? While in the LFS, I saw an Ick treatment that was purported to be “Reef-Safe.” I can’t remember the active ingredient, but it wasn’t copper. The thought had entered my mind that I could use this treatment after the thirty days without a host as a “Knock-Out” punch.

So, what’d y’all think?

Here are some pictures of the tang now. But he's camera shy.

 

[brer]

I have had 1 added fish into my reef just turn up with ich. No QT - guess I've been lucky for years... Its not an option for me to remove all the fish to hospital - I'd need a huge hospital tank. I was going to go with hyposalinity in the display tank - to 14ppt for 4-6 weeks. Does anyone know how the corals and other inverts will tolerate this? I have a mix of SPS, LPS and softies with a cucumber, tuxedo urchin and brittle stars.

 

[loohunter]

We added a goby to our tank and within a week he was showing signs of being sick (ya ya we know QT QT QT and we will from now on!) After moving him to the QT he died that evening(which was better than in the main 200gal). So two days later our blue tang had white spots and that same night all fish were infected. We bought two cleaner shrimps and medicine that we soaked their food in. They were all still eating so they weren't that sick yet. Within 3 days all the ich was gone! and everyone lived

We also have purple tang in our 100 (who had gotten beaten up in our other tank so we moved him) He had ich for about two days than gone. But we also have a couple of shrimps in that tank. Maybe we have been lucky but the shrimps have made all the difference. It beats fishing out everyone and less stressful. Good luck guys!!!

 

[Terry B]

Ich and velvet are not the same parasite. If your fish had velvet or Amyloodinium they would all be dead by now unless you started an effective treatment. Ich looks like the fish have been sprinkled with salt. It is part of the parasites natural life cycle to fall off the fish before it can reproduce. People are often fooled into thinking that the ich is gone only for it to come back worse than before several days later. None of the co-called reef safe treatments work with consistency. The only one even worth a mention is soaking the foods in garlic for a few weeks.

You cannot use hyposalinity with inverts, it will kill them. Move the fish or all the inverts and live rock to another tank before starting hyposalinity.

I haven’t seen cleaner shrimp cure ich. Yes, they perform cleaning activity, but that doesn’t mean that they actually eat ich or cure it. Fish with ich usually continue to eat until close to death. I would be prepared to have the ich come back.

Terry B