Possible white spot

[idgy]

I thought I just saw one on my fish dash up against a rock. I am not sure, looks like a white dot on him but could be a speck of sand.

If not sand, what should I do if it is marine ick? I do not have a hospital tank and I have shrimp and zoos in the tank.

 

[trido]

Both of my tangs had ick when I came home from a 4 day camping trip the other day. They get stressed when Daddy isnt home and the feeding schedule changes from 8PM to 3PM ( or whenever my 21 year old feeds them). I dont do anything at all for ick and never have. IMO, for a mild case, stressing the fish out even more cant be helpful. Long story short. Reduce any stress factors and feed well. Of course, 98% of reefers will not advocate this method.

 

[ronj]

what kind of fish is it??.. how long have you had it? has it ever had any signs of ich before?? have you added ANYTHING new into the tank recently???

 

[Frankie]

I would wait and see how it looks in a day. Keep a close watch on the tank in the mean time. You don't want to treat for anything until you are 100% sure you know whats up.
If it does turn out to be ich, I used a product thats reef safe successfully called Focus by seachem. I have not had ich since then. It has metronidozole in it.

 

[ecobalance]

act now,don't hesitate

The best way to cure ich is to observe new fish closely[perferabley in a quarantiene[wrong spelling o well]and at the first signs of itching,scratching,or the dreaded white spots,remove and place in fresh water,of same temp,and a little tank water[very little]will get the ph to the same as tank.Watch closely,depending on fish it will first lie on the bottom for few minutes and than slowly begin to swim around.The only fish i,ve ever lost to this method would be a hippo tang.Try to leave as long as possible ,half hour minimum,and be sure not to put the water back into tank.I drain water through a net and leave fish completly out of water in cup ,than jently slide it back into water.This will also remove marine lice,flukes,and a few other simmiular looking creatures.If you wait till tommorrow than you waited too long and your problems are just begining.Soooooo get off that puter and dip that fish now.

 

[idgy]

The tank has been up for close to 3 years. It is a royal gramma which I have had for over 2 years. No signs of ick before, about a month ago I added a blue spotted jaw fish and 2 firefish. But after a week every once calmed down and for the last 3 weeks everyone is fine and there is no territory wars going on.

 

[BTTRFLYGRL]

Wow! Lots of false information here..Leebca is the one to answer your questions..Here's a sticky from his forum

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

 

[idgy]

Will MI eventually kill he fish? What to do if you have no hospital tank?

 

[idgy]

Thoughts on these products: RxP Parasite Treatment, Stop Parasites, Garlic Elixir.

 

[trido]

Will MI eventually kill he fish? What to do if you have no hospital tank?

The first response answers these two questions.
Not necessarily. I mild case if marine ick can be fought off quite easily by a healthy fish. My hippo tang has has it twice in the last year. I have have several other fish overcome small cases of it as well. I have never QT'd and have never lost a fish due to ick.
Reduce stress and feed well.

 

[ronj]

place in fresh water,of same temp,and a little tank water[very little]will get the ph to the same as tank.

freshwater baths do not do anything for ich!!! hypo or copper are the only 2 guranteed methods

 

[Frankie]

Wow! Lots of false information here..Leebca is the one to answer your questions..Here's a sticky from his forum

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

You must be talking about the fresh water dipping bull. I don't post if i don't know what i am talking about. This dipping will just cause more stress on an already sick fish if you ask me.
The best thing to do at this time is wait and see what happens. IF the fish is diagnosed correctly with ich, it could fight it off with it's own immune system. Best not to jump to conclusions atm.

 

[ecobalance]

Fresh water bath

For those of you who think fresh water baths are useless,than i must have some really special water at my end of the block.I,ve sucessfully treated[yes treated]white spot at least 50 times with a simple fresh water dip,and the simple addition of a 1 micron bag filter for a day or two.Yes i know white spot is smaller than 1 mic but it is very usefull in catching a huge majority.It doesn,t stress the fish, it relaxes them and if you wait to see what happens,than you've waited too long.:badgrin:

 

[Frankie]

.I,ve sucessfully treated[yes treated]white spot at least 50 times with a simple fresh water dip

There you go. It doesn't cure ich. The fish is still venerable to the parasite and contracts it upon re entry of the aquarium. So back to the dip again.
How can you say going from a salinity of 0.125 to 0 then back to 0.125 isn't stressful? Fish die from poor acclimation from 0.018 to 0.125 all the time. Dipping a fish in fresh water is not going to help cure ich.
I would hate for idgy to try this a loose his fish. He must care enough for it that he took the time to post a thread about it.

 

[BTTRFLYGRL]

idgy..I would not be concerned about one spot. Just keep an eye on your fish. In the mean time the best thing for you to do would be to read up on the subject..There are only 3 proven methods that cure ich and thats Copper, Hypo and the transfer method. You would know that by reading the link I posted earlier. Here's a couple more
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2003/mini1.htm

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

Enjoy!!

 

[idgy]

Thanks Bttrflygrl

 

[ecobalance]

Hence the key word

The whole idea of fresh water dip is to get it beforen it gets to the stage where it falls off the fish[that one day of observing] than there is none in the tank.I can see a documentation of my next case is in order,day by day with pictures,but like most people on web sites they bese their comments on either something they read[on a web site]or on a experance that someone told them about.The method you speak of is one that means you have already assumed that it has reached the incysting stage and is in the sand.By bringing up the salynity and temp you will certainly speed this process up,but it sure as hell isnt going to kill it.The key is to avoid the chemical based treatment all together.Ich will sucome to osmatic implosion long before the fish will.This is probably why its been used time and time again since they learned bacteria is a good thing,and sucessfull fish keeping began.Does that fish in my hair have in white spots on it?

 

[kba98]

I keep kent garlic extreme in my system and seems to work very well. IMO along with a UV sterilizer. I have used formalin in the past in a hospital tank only. fresh water dips are good too. matching the Ph and temp is very important keep them in for 10 minutes max.

 

[BTTRFLYGRL]

The whole idea of fresh water dip is to get it beforen it gets to the stage where it falls off the fish[that one day of observing] than there is none in the tank.I can see a documentation of my next case is in order,day by day with pictures,but like most people on web sites they bese their comments on either something they read[on a web site]or on a experance that someone told them about.The method you speak of is one that means you have already assumed that it has reached the incysting stage and is in the sand.By bringing up the salynity and temp you will certainly speed this process up,but it sure as hell isnt going to kill it.The key is to avoid the chemical based treatment all together.Ich will sucome to osmatic implosion long before the fish will.This is probably why its been used time and time again since they learned bacteria is a good thing,and sucessfull fish keeping began.Does that fish in my hair have in white spots on it?

WHAT?? Bringing UP the salinity(HYPERSALINITY) will NOT kill ich. HYPOSALINITY is bringing the SG down to 1.009 and keeping it there for 4 weeks..And yes, this does work . It is PROVEN. Ich has been researched and studied and its life cycle ,as well as its treatments, have been proven and documented.. Freshwater dips do not work, the ich is buried too deep in the fish. Freshwater dips are somewhat useful with Flukes, another very common parasite. Raising temps also does nothing. Temps high enough to kill ich, will also kill your fish.
Where do I get the info? Hmmmmm well, I have here my book written by Edward J. Noga. Know who he is??... I do read on the web, but I read the links posted written by Steven Pro, Terry B and Reef Frontiers very own Lee Birch. I want proven facts, not some hocus pocus reef safe bull or some one step dip method catching the ich when its falling from the fish??? I quarentine all my fish and IF they have ich I treat it with Hypo in the qt so that it NEVER becomes an issue in my displays
Dips don't work
Garlic doesn't work
so called 'reef safe' medicines don't work
Anyone with questions on ich should post in Lee's forum. He is our expert here..

 

[Frankie]

The whole idea of fresh water dip is to get it beforen it gets to the stage where it falls off the fish[that one day of observing] than there is none in the tank.I can see a documentation of my next case is in order,day by day with pictures,but like most people on web sites they bese their comments on either something they read[on a web site]or on a experance that someone told them about.The method you speak of is one that means you have already assumed that it has reached the incysting stage and is in the sand.By bringing up the salynity and temp you will certainly speed this process up,but it sure as hell isnt going to kill it.The key is to avoid the chemical based treatment all together.Ich will sucome to osmatic implosion long before the fish will.This is probably why its been used time and time again since they learned bacteria is a good thing,and sucessfull fish keeping began.Does that fish in my hair have in white spots on it?

Cool. Now i am starting to agree with you. Thanks for cleaning up your previous posts with how dipping works and that it won't cure it but eradicate the cyst on the fish in question.
I am in no way new to this hobby and most of my knowledge is based on what i knew before finding computers and the internet. Though salt water fish have only been in my life for 6 years now.
This is not to say that i agree with the dipping method though.
I stand by my thinking that it is easily cured with the right treatment and care if given. Without ever having to remove the animal from its environment in the first place.
The true key here is building up the over all health of the fish to fight off the parasite in the first place.
I am not sold on the thought that if you catch it early you can get it out of the tank before it gets into its cycle. If you have it, it most likely has been there already.
Thanks for Lee's thread BTTRFLYGRL. Thats good information