I bought a blue tang last month... looked healthy in the LFS's tank, and was eating. I placed him in a QT tank, and after a day or two of mostly hiding, he was eating well (I fed him frozen mysis, flake, and nori). This was the first time I've QT'd a fish... the various articles I found on the topic varied widely on how long of a QT was necessary... some as short as 10 days (liveaquaria.com), and others suggested 2, 3, or 4 weeks.
I should have stuck with the higher number.
After 3 weeks and 2 days of closely monitoring him several times a day and seeing no signs of disease, I figured it was safe to move him to the main tank. That was this past Tuesday (December 4th).
He's been eating very well, happily swimming around the tank. But today, I suddenly see white spots on him...
Eeeeek! Does this look like ich?
So now, of course, I'm in somewhat of a panic. Aside from kicking myself for not keeping him in QT for just a little longer, I'm trying to figure out what my next step should be. As of now, I'm not seeing any obvious white spots on the other fish (yellow tang, coral beauty, two false perculas, and a firefish). Given that, I wonder if it would be worth the trouble of trying to just catch the blue tang and put him back into QT, since maybe the ich has only infected this fish and has not reached the reproduction stage yet. This would involve removing most of the LR (I tried for a few hours tonight to catch him... he stays in the rock whenever the nets are in the water), so perhaps if I'm going to go through all that trouble, I should pull all the fish. Problem is, my wife and I are expecting, and I'm worried that if the baby comes soon after all the fish are moved, I won't be able to keep up with the water changes to head off the ammonia spike, hence the idea of just moving the blue tang and monitoring the other fish.
Anyway, I'm a little suspicious of the timing... no signs of ich on the blue tang for 3 weeks, and suddenly when I move him to the main tank, he gets it within a few days. That has me wondering if perhaps my main tank has had ich for some time, but the other fish are able to fight it off for the most part. Is an ongoing "minor" ich infestation like this even possible, or if the tank has it, would all the fish regularly have many noticeable white spots?
I do see one or two tiny white spots on the coral beauty every now and then... they look different than the above picture (smaller, less "pimple-like" in appearance), and I always figured these were just bits of sand that had stuck to him, since it never progressed beyond that.
One idea I had was to remove the snails, crabs, and shrimp, and some of the LR, and do hyposalinity in the main tank.
Any suggestions?
--Michael
I should have stuck with the higher number.
After 3 weeks and 2 days of closely monitoring him several times a day and seeing no signs of disease, I figured it was safe to move him to the main tank. That was this past Tuesday (December 4th).
He's been eating very well, happily swimming around the tank. But today, I suddenly see white spots on him...
Eeeeek! Does this look like ich?
So now, of course, I'm in somewhat of a panic. Aside from kicking myself for not keeping him in QT for just a little longer, I'm trying to figure out what my next step should be. As of now, I'm not seeing any obvious white spots on the other fish (yellow tang, coral beauty, two false perculas, and a firefish). Given that, I wonder if it would be worth the trouble of trying to just catch the blue tang and put him back into QT, since maybe the ich has only infected this fish and has not reached the reproduction stage yet. This would involve removing most of the LR (I tried for a few hours tonight to catch him... he stays in the rock whenever the nets are in the water), so perhaps if I'm going to go through all that trouble, I should pull all the fish. Problem is, my wife and I are expecting, and I'm worried that if the baby comes soon after all the fish are moved, I won't be able to keep up with the water changes to head off the ammonia spike, hence the idea of just moving the blue tang and monitoring the other fish.
Anyway, I'm a little suspicious of the timing... no signs of ich on the blue tang for 3 weeks, and suddenly when I move him to the main tank, he gets it within a few days. That has me wondering if perhaps my main tank has had ich for some time, but the other fish are able to fight it off for the most part. Is an ongoing "minor" ich infestation like this even possible, or if the tank has it, would all the fish regularly have many noticeable white spots?
I do see one or two tiny white spots on the coral beauty every now and then... they look different than the above picture (smaller, less "pimple-like" in appearance), and I always figured these were just bits of sand that had stuck to him, since it never progressed beyond that.
One idea I had was to remove the snails, crabs, and shrimp, and some of the LR, and do hyposalinity in the main tank.
Any suggestions?
--Michael