Small white spots that don't go away

[Philwd]

My new carpenters flasher wrasse has been in QT now for 9 weeks. The reason is I saw a white spot on his right pec fin the first week. I've been treating in Copper Safe. The spot has not fallen off nor gotten any worse. My LFS suggested lymphocytis but it is not cottony just a salt like spot. The fish is active and eating very well.

I have Noga's book and I've been through it twice but can't find anything else that fits the description other than ich or amyloo. But either of those should have spread or fallen off by now. I've tried to get a pic but that fin just moves too fast.

I lost most of my tank to ich once and don't want to introduce anything. Any thoughts on what this could be?

[White Tiger]

Your fish's disease is puzzling! You might not be dealing with ick. Ick appears as white dots that fall off of the fish once every few days.

What you should do is take your fish back to the LFS and ask them if they offer a skin scraping tests. This test can determine what the white dot is and how to treat it!

[Philwd]

Yeah my thoughts exactly. With ich's lifecycle, even allowing for outliers, all spots should have all fallen off by now. My LFS does not do scrapings. I have a chance at a Declevis butterfly but to get him I would need to clear out the QT. Thus my dilemma. I haven't tried formalin dip. I may do that and see if anything drops off.

[White Tiger]

Since nothing has happened with the white spot, I am assumimg that the white spot is a natural feature of this particular fish. Infact, some niger triggers are known to have white spots while other nigers do not show white spots on their bodies.

[BTTRFLYGRL]

Just one white spot on his fin? I wouldn't be concerned as long as this fish is behaving normal and eating well....Lymphocystis is not cottony, it will appear as a white spot at first..If it grows larger it will look like cauliflour.

[Philwd]

I spent a lot of time this morning watching the wrasse and saw something I had not noticed before. The spot has elongated into a very short line down a vein(?) in his fin. The line is about 1/2 mm. Is this symtomatic of lymphocytis? Is lympho contagious?

[Capt. Nemo]

If what your fish has is lymphocytis, it could have been caused by the Copper Safe treatment. I've heard that copper can decrease the immune system of a fish and thereby making it susceptible to a virus such as lymphocytis. If you havent already I would stop the copper treatment. There is no known cure for this virus. This is a stress related virus and you will have to boost the fish's immune system by providing optimal water quality and nutrition.