Identifying Ich?

[electricbluelizzy]

I think my rabbitfish could possibly have ich, but I've never seen it before so I'm not really sure....

I have seen a couple of white spots over the past month or so, but the fish is fat as can be, active, and seems pretty healthy. However, he is pretty shy and skittish, although he seems to be working out of that.

He doesn't scratch on anything, gasp for air, or act sick. But I'm pretty new to saltwater fish so I could definitely miss the warning signs if they aren't pretty blatant.

The one thing that seems a little odd is that his eyes aren't very shiny. I can't remember if they were before or not. Anyway, so how do you know when to go all out netting the fish and getting him into QT? BTW, he was in QT for a few weeks prior to this and looked OK to me, so save the QT lecture I'm on board with that already. The spots showed up after QT but as I said, I'm pretty low on the learning curve so I could have missed them or something.

Please advise... I feel sure I can catch the fish if given enough time, although it won't be easy at all. Thanks, elizabeth

[Randall_James]

Ich will appear as tiny white spots that will appear for about 3 days and then fall off. If the fish is showing no distress, I would not get too excited about it as it could just be substrate or something else.

I would just keep an eye on him for flashing, loss of appetite or starts shrinking in size.

Are there other fish in the tank? How long have you had this fish?

[electricbluelizzy]

I have had the fish for about 2 1/2 months, he is the only fish in the tank. He has been flashing a lot lately

[Liquid Hobby]

what is flashing?

[Blazer88]

Scratching on rocks if I remember right.

[electricbluelizzy]

x

[Randall_James]

I would think at 2 1/2 months Ich would have presented sooner but perhaps not. If the fish is flashing (yes rubbing against rocks or bottom), then I would guess that there is something going on.

I would move to qt and decide on a course of action. Either way, the tank needs to remain fallow for around 8 weeks to allow the parasite to die off.

There are a number of methods for treating the fish for Ich and you will hear everything from garlic to hot sauce (there are no magic cures so save your money)...

Hypo-salinity, copper and water-change methods are the only "confirmed" methods to kill this stuff off.

The upside is you only have 1 fish in the tank. There are a lot of people that learn the hard way about qt practices after losing a tank full of fish.

Here is my Collection of links on Ich and qt (http://myreeflinks.com/directory/524.html)