is this ich?

[robertsk]

today i noticed 4 white dots on my yellow tang(picture in the attachment), is this ich? clown and dottyback seems to have 0 white dots.

tang is on his day 8 no sign of stress, eating like a pig
water parameters ar ok

tank is 90g with 160lbs sand and 100lbs live rock

please help, dont want to loose him.

[scooter31707]

Can't really tell. How is the fishing acting (i.e. scratching/flashing, breathing heavily). Did you quarantine the fish? If it is ich, you have to take all your out and treat for via TTM and leave your DT fishless for 72 days to rid the ich in the DT.

[Dmorty217]

Looks like ich to me. You could do TTM like mentioned above or cupramine or CP in a QT tank. The other fish have it too even though you don't see it on them and will have to be treated along with the tang otherwise you won't ever rid the DT of it

[robertsk]

Acting a little bit crazy, but eating a lot. I could see some scraching against the glass but not the rocks, and constantly swimming to cleanershrimp.
Well im planning to transfer them to qt, problem is that there is no cupramine in my country, only found seachem metroplex which i will buy tomorrow and hope it would work.

[robertsk]

Leds turned off and turned my flashlight on, and could not tell that those are white dots, breathing is normal.

[Bruce51]

looks like ich to me...I would remove fish to a qt tank and do ttm, then leave DT fallow for min of 72 days

[Sapelo]

It's really worth considering the tank transfer method to eliminate ich, far easier and more reliable than copper imo.

[Deinonych]

It's really worth considering the tank transfer method to eliminate ich, far easier and more reliable than copper imo.

+1, and metroplex will not be effective against ich.

[robertsk]

decided to qt them, just rearranged all the rocks to catch those little swimmers, pictochromis was a pia to catch. Let them in and they seem fine after 2h, doesnt seem to be stressed.

And lfs had copper treatment, got few doses for free.
a question there: he told me to put only two doses to get 0.3 copper will it be sufficient treatment?

And qt: 30g salinity, 1.018, temp 27C, hob filter, some pipes, air filter and a heater, is that sufficient equipment for qt?

[Deinonych]

decided to qt them, just rearranged all the rocks to catch those little swimmers, pictochromis was a pia to catch. Let them in and they seem fine after 2h, doesnt seem to be stressed.

And lfs had copper treatment, got few doses for free.
a question there: he told me to put only two doses to get 0.3 copper will it be sufficient treatment?

And qt: 30g salinity, 1.018, temp 27C, hob filter, some pipes, air filter and a heater, is that sufficient equipment for qt?

For the copper, it depends on which product. If it's Cupramine, therapeutic dosage is between 0.35-0.5 mg/L. Not sure about other brands. Either way, you need to test daily to make sure the levels don't drop below therapeutic dosage (preferably at the end of the day before lights out).

The QT equipment you listed is fine. Any particular reason you are running at 1.018 SG?

[robertsk]

For the copper, it depends on which product. If it's Cupramine, therapeutic dosage is between 0.35-0.5 mg/L. Not sure about other brands. Either way, you need to test daily to make sure the levels don't drop below therapeutic dosage (preferably at the end of the day before lights out).

The QT equipment you listed is fine. Any particular reason you are running at 1.018 SG?


read that lower salinity would be better for treatment of copper, well i dont know the brand, but would that be sufficient to dose 2 days to 0.3 copper and then let the copper fade away in wt? (thats what lfs advised me to do).

also a question, what about water changes? also lfs told that no wc for a month while treating the fish.

[Deinonych]

read that lower salinity would be better for treatment of copper, well i dont know the brand, but would that be sufficient to dose 2 days to 0.3 copper and then let the copper fade away in wt? (thats what lfs advised me to do).

also a question, what about water changes? also lfs told that no wc for a month while treating the fish.

I've never seen any citations that state copper is more effective at lower salinity. While it is a good idea to ramp up the dosage slowly, you really need to identify the type of copper medication, as they have different therapeutic dosages. You need to maintain the therapeutic level for 30 days, hence the need for daily testing.

Frankly, I'm not a fan of copper for ich treatment. It's hard on the fish and has a narrow range of effectiveness. Plus, it targets the most highly variable stage of the ich life cycle, so there's a lot of room for error. As mentioned above, tank transfer method (TTM) is a much more effective treatment for ich, and it doesn't expose the fish to toxic compounds.

[ThRoewer]

Copper is just bad for fish.
For cleaning fish of ich I prefer hyposalinity (many fish in a HT) or TTM (few or small fish and ich prophylaxis).
Both methods can clean fish of ich within a week and treatment is done after 2 weeks (3 if counting in hyposalinity ramp-up) if started in an infection free HT.