Possible Ich - I'm not sure.

[wackeeash]

Hi, Yesterday I noticed a change in the behavior of my Magnificent Foxface. It began hiding and not coming out and eating. I used a flash light to look into the cave he was hiding in and I noticed that he seemed discolored. I have since removed him from the aquarium, gave him a freshwater bath and placed him into a quarantine tank. But I wanted confirmation before any further treatments.

There is a bit of a back story that should be included. A week ago I lost two fish over night. A Naso Tang and Powder Blue Tang. The day/night before their death they were both actively swimming around, eating normally and looked normal. I noticed nothing that would indicate any problems with the aquarium or fish. That morning after finding both fish dead I immediately tested my paramaters and the only thing that was out of sorts was a peak in my nitrates to 12. Since after a few water changes my nitrates are back to normal at 4 ( well what is normally the range of my aquarium).

My tank is a 120 gallon mixed reef. Salinity 1.021, Ph 8.05, Temp 77.2, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 4

I'm also attaching some photos I was able to take when I placed him into the QT tank.

[scuzy]

Any new addition recently? Looks like velvet cause ich won't cause s drastic change like that.

[wackeeash]

I added the two tangs and the foxface at the same time. Approximately a month ago.

[scuzy]

Should of quarantine them prior to introduction. If the spots fuzzy hazy looking it's velvet. If it's solid white dots usually ich. Can't stress quarantine new fish before introduction to prevent issues like this where you are reacting to the the problem.

[wackeeash]

Yes, QT tank would have been the best answer and I regret not having one before. But moving forward, I plan on moving the rest of my fish to the QT tank for treatment, since this is a highly infectious disease, and treating all of my fish. I only have 3 Blue/Green Chromis and 1 Anthias left.

My next question is this. If I keep my display tank fishless how long would it take before the velvet is completely gone from my display. Realizing that the average life cycle of this disease is approximately 30 days from the reading I've done. But the reading does mention that the tomonts are photosynthetic but I can't find a time frame for their life cycle after that. If I keep the tank fishless and just run my LEDs actinic and as low as I can with the corals does anyone have a best guess on how long to wait before adding the fish back after treatment. Assuming that any survive. Or before I can add any new fish in the future.

[scuzy]

I believe flow period for velvet is 6 weeks.

[wackeeash]

OK thanks, I'll probably give it a bit longer. Guess I can just focus on my corals for the mean time.