Ich or Amyloodinium?

[thegreatpablo]

Based on what I've been reading, I'm now concerned that I may have a problem with Amyloodinium in my tank. I lost a blue tang last night/this morning to what I thought was ich. The white spots were covering the fish rather densely. The tang was a little skiddish at first, but I didn't see any signs of disease even the morning of the death. Last night, when I got home, he was covered in white spots and although he was able to swim, he was laying on the bottom of the tank, breathing very heavily and spasmatically and his pectoral fins were twitching. He died shortly after that.

I'm confused as to whether or not ich could have caused this.

Either way, will a freshwater dip that has been treated with copper help either condition without hurting the inverts in my tank? I'm concerned that a freshwater dip would not expose the parasite to the copper long enough to be lethal, but I'm not sure how long it takes to be effective.

Thanks.

 

[roadblock]

First off, when you say blue tang, I assume you mean the hippo tang (paracanthurus hepatus). These fish are ich magnets. I lost one to ich. All surgeonfish for that matter are very prone to catching ich. A freshwater dip will do nothing for ich, and as for adding copper to a frsh water dip, you are wasting time. copper needs to be maintained at a certain level for an extended period of time to be effective, at least two weeks. A short freshwater dip is not long enough for the copper to have any effect. Secondly, when ich is on the fish it is not susceptible to any treatment. Only during the free-swimming stage of the life cycle of ich is it vulnerable.

Velvet(amyloodinium), on the other hand can be treated with a freshwater dip, however the jury is still out on whether it kills all the parasites or just a few of them. As a matter of fact, that's a good way to tell if it is ich or velvet. if it is velvet and you give the fish a freshwater dip you can actually see the parasites come off in the water. they resemble a clear tear-shaped blob about the size of a pin head. if you dip the fish and see nothing then it is ich. Besides, ich and velvet look very different. ich looks like grains of salt all over the fish, whereas velvet is hard to see, resembling grayish patches on the fish.

If you have a quarantine tank set-up you can go go ahead and treat that tank with copper, unless you have inverts in that tank as well. Do not treat your main tank with copper. remember, that copper has to be maintained at a certain level to be effective so you must monitor it with a test kit. Too much copper is no good for the fish, too little is ineffective. if you have no decor in your quarantine tank, that will make maintaining a copper level easier. If you have decor and a calcareous substrate such as crushed coral or sand, it will absorb the copper making harder to maintain the proper levels. the're are reef safe meds available that don't contain copper if that is a concern for you, but they may not be as effective. also a good uv sterilizer will help to control these problems as well.

Also bear in mind that fish are more susceptible to ich and the like when they are stressed. When a fish is stressed their immune system is depressed.
So maintaining good water quality and a stress free environment is essential in dealing with these problems.

 

[thegreatpablo]

Thank you VERY much for the detailed response. I really appreciate it.

I have ordered a reef safe medication that is supposed to be good (not sure) and I am going ot treat my main tank with that for now and keep an eye on my fish. I won't be adding any additional livestock into my main tank for 4-6 weeks most likely. IN that time, I will be purchasing a quarantine tank. I'm assuming a 20g with heater, powerhead, and a piece of PVC pipe, or half a milk jug would suffice? If this is all I have in there, I'll have to keep a close watch on ammonia levels, but I've read that this should do.

The blue tang was in fact a hippo tang, and I'm sad I lost him, but I learned a valuable lesson about patience.

Thanks again.