ugh...ich treatment and lifeylce---ready to give up on this fish

[Labsalesguy]

Well, bought a small hippo tang 6 or 7 weeks ago did too short quarantine, placed in tank mid feb. Every thing fine until I placed hand in tank to scrub algae. tiny white dots pointing to ich. pulled him out with 2 hours, immediately setup quarantine-again - 4 weeks on copper , and not quite hypo, but low salinity 1.019 (i use a Milwaukee). dots cleared up within 2 days of this cycle and treatment- vacuumed bottom of QT along with water changes every few days..PITA but i care

Fast forward to today: tang happy in tank, everyone happy---place hand in tank to move two frags- instant white spots on hippo....UGH. Pulled tang out again within 2 hours- back in quarantine... So this whole time the tankmates haven't shown signs (royal gramma and beautiful pair of clowns).

MY THEORY: I would like to think the TROPHONTS didnt dis-attatch from hippo and become TOMOTS then THERONTS for re-infection.

PLAN
So i am going SIX weeks with the hippo in QT, with copper, hypo salinity and monitoring DT. If after six weeks, the THERONTS haven't infected my other fish, and the theronts die within 24-48 hrs w/o a fish host---did i let the cycle go thru in the DT???

if the other fish show signs, i will place all fish in a treatment tank- and tank goes fishless / fallow for 6-8 weeks. period. So much time, so much preparation, ready to give up on fish.

 

[MuralReef]

My blue has like 4-5 white spots that always seem to be there. They seem more prominent when he is stressed like when I add a new fish. I gave up worrying about it so long as he is active and eating.

 

[FinsUp]

My blue has like 4-5 white spots that always seem to be there. They seem more prominent when he is stressed like when I add a new fish. I gave up worrying about it so long as he is active and eating.

+1

Some tangs are just more responsive to stressors (apparently yours is terrified of your hands). I'd try letting him just calm down (and perhaps you, too) after you're done working in the tank, rather than yanking him out to QT every time. I've also known sand particles to stick to fish on occasion, doing their best ich impersonation.

 

[jahmic]

Chances are ich is in your DT...if a fish has an infection in that tank, safe to assume ich is in there. Whether or not fish show signs in there is pretty much irrelevant since they can carry the parasite in their gills but never show any physical signs. If the fish are healthy enough, they can live with it.

I'd also recommend letting the fish remain happy and healthy in the DT unless you're ready to pull all the fish and go fallow.

Also, how instantaneous are the white spots? I'd also make sure it's not just sand particles...I've never seen ich just immediately appear at the point of stressing the fish...it takes some time for the parasite to encapsulate just prior to falling off the fish.

 

[Labsalesguy]

The spots just suddenly appear- instantly. Well, here we are 8 hours later - ZERO spots- nothing.--I think you guys might be right on sand spots.

 

[SynDen]

Ya I wouldnt stress about, just keep him well fed, add in some garlic or selecon and he should be fine