Spots appearing and disappearing within hours!

[Zentof]

I can't figure out if my fish have ich, another disease or nothing at all. Background: My 4 lyretail anthias and 1 regal angel went into my QT tank. The regal ate from day one, none of the Anthias did. We finally figured out with a buddy that bought the same fish, that Chlorioquine Phosphate makes ALL our Anthias stop eating within hours of adding it(added Prazipro to mine later as well). So I had to remove them EARLY to my DT..risky but 10 days of not eating was scaring me.

Everything was fine and they recovered their appetite 2 days in DT. No spots or signs of disease at all for a week except for the male anthias refusing to eat until the end of the week. Now half of my fish display white spots only on their fins....BUT ONLY FOR HOURS AT A TIME! I look at one fish and think OH NO, its ich on its fin, then 2 hours later..its gone. Then another anthias has it on a tail spot or fin. etc.
My regal angel is visiting the cleaner shrimp often and also showed 4 spots on its tail only...which then disappeared 3 hours later! Still visits cleaner shrimp though.

Is this possible?? Can ich spots come and go within hours constantly or should I expect a ramping up over days and slow dissipation? Is this just sticky sand and co-incidence with the cleaner shrimp?

[jbvdhp]

It's possible. One morning while in CP, my sohal looked like it was rolled in salt. Literally. Covered in spots. When I come home from work, it was SPOTLESS. Although it was 8 hrs, who knows when they jumped off? I went to bed the night before and he had a few, and in the AM it was covered, by sometime in the day gone!

[Zentof]

Don't know if this is something else we're not aware of though as this isn't the usual life cycle of ich that I've had or read about in the past. ie. not all white spots=ich. Point in case, I had a fish or two I swore was ich spots but they were big and turned out to be that fish Virus instead (similar to our common cold/flu).

Any ich experts out there confirm how long the visible spots can come and go? Are the fish being 'reinfected' every day over and over?

[Mishri]

normal ich life cycle at that stage is 3-7 days.

I believe velvet may be your answer... with ich it usually looks basically like sand on it, but with velvet there is discoloration. (a film)

[Zentof]

Heres a pic of one anthias...fin was completely clear of spots 2 hours later.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag51/labernethy1/Fish/WP_006222_zpszvumiu3v.jpg (http://s1298.photobucket.com/user/labernethy1/media/Fish/WP_006222_zpszvumiu3v.jpg.html)
and the male: http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag51/labernethy1/Fish/WP_006232_zpssuh7ukqu.jpg (http://s1298.photobucket.com/user/labernethy1/media/Fish/WP_006232_zpssuh7ukqu.jpg.html)

[Zentof]

Heres the spots on the Regal Angels tail..once again..gone an hour or so after photo taken.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag51/labernethy1/WP_006253_zpscxzetwlx.jpg (http://s1298.photobucket.com/user/labernethy1/media/WP_006253_zpscxzetwlx.jpg.html)
Same spots gone an hour later http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag51/labernethy1/WP_006276_zpsm26vyyeg.jpg (http://s1298.photobucket.com/user/labernethy1/media/WP_006276_zpsm26vyyeg.jpg.html)

[Dmorty217]

normal ich life cycle at that stage is 3-7 days.

I believe velvet may be your answer... with ich it usually looks basically like sand on it, but with velvet there is discoloration. (a film)

If it is velvet you need to act and fast otherwise all of your fish will die within a few days at most. Also the DT will need to sit fishless for 6 weeks to kill the velvet life cycle off

[Aquattro]

I don't think it's velvet based on the time exhibited and the pics I saw. I also don't think it's ich. I would leave it, watch and see and if it gets worse, deal with it then. At this point, Internet conjecture isn't the best approach. You've had them several weeks, and they're fine other than a couple weird bumps coming and going. Wait until it turns into something concrete or goes away.

Or, come borrow my microscope, catch a fish and do a skin scraping. (don't recommend this approach just yet :)

[Zentof]

Thanks everyone, and thanks Aquattro, that's the local opinion here too. I really appreciate everyones time, opinions and advice.

[Dmorty217]

I don't think it's velvet based on the time exhibited and the pics I saw. I also don't think it's ich. I would leave it, watch and see and if it gets worse, deal with it then. At this point, Internet conjecture isn't the best approach. You've had them several weeks, and they're fine other than a couple weird bumps coming and going. Wait until it turns into something concrete or goes away.

Or, come borrow my microscope, catch a fish and do a skin scraping. (don't recommend this approach just yet :)

Never saw any pics, that would of helped and there wasn't a time frame mentioned other than the Anthias didn't eat for 10 days in QT

[Aquattro]

Never saw any pics, that would of helped and there wasn't a time frame mentioned other than the Anthias didn't eat for 10 days in QT

Ya, posted elsewhere (FB). Agreed, would have helped this thread

[Dmorty217]

Facebook you say?? Whats that?:lmao:

[Zentof]

So thought I'd post an update incase anyone else has similar problems. A marine biologist studied the photos and story and concluded that it is most likely a case of the virus Lymphosystis judged by the fuzzy, cauliflower appearance of the markings.
Having had a fish with this affliction in the past, it would make sense. For those unfamiliar with this, it is the common cold/flu equivalent in humans. Bad news is its virtually untreatable like humans. Good news is, 99% of the time it does nothing and goes away. Hope this helps others and hope he's right. :)

[jbvdhp]

Why would lympho go after a few hours? I've seen it stick to fish for a couple of weeks. That's odd.

I thought I had problems with my lyretails too: their pec fins and anal fins and such, they looked like what your anthias had. Then I realized it's from them perching in the sand and on rocks and their fins were getting scratched up. Could that be an explanation for you too?

[andy01748]

I had a similar issue with a bicolor angel, and never did seem to get a consensus opinion on the cause:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2411232

I did initiate TTM, and the symptoms went away, and have never reappeared. Of course, the TTM may have nothing to do with the symptoms disappearing, and they may have disappeared on their own. The explanation of it being due to virus Lymphosystis seems to be just as reasonable as the symptoms being caused by a parasitic infection.

[ThRoewer]

From the pictures it looks like ich too me, likely a mild case at this point.

The female Anthias looks like having Lymphocystis but it wouldn't appear suddenly and go away within hours.
Lymphocystis is promoted by bad water quality and usually slow growing. It also won't go a way within hours but rather take days if not weeks to clear up completely.

If the spots are only appearing for a few hours and then go away without leaving a lesion it could be just dirt, slime or air bubbles that stick to the fish's slime coat.

[andy01748]

From the pictures it looks like ich too me, likely a mild case at this point.


If the spots are only appearing for a few hours and then go away without leaving a lesion it could be just dirt, slime or air bubbles that stick to the fish's slime coat.


Having also undergone a full ich outbreak, I am confident in my past observations, as I also assume the OP is for this thread. The spots were not dirt, slime, or air bubbles. They looked identical to ich symptoms, except they faded away after a few hours.