Early sign of whitespots/ich outbreak?

weekf · 11/16/2006, 08:59 PM

Occassionally I will have this spots on my fishes and they seems to heal iteself is this normal?

Say one day I will have one white dot on my flame angel and the rest seems fine. Then the next day I can see the flame angel is alright and the bannerfish has got a dot. Again the next day I would see the bannerfish is fine then the flame angel has got another white dot at a different place from the other time. I mean is this normal? They are all eating and swimming well no problem. Water parameters seem alright to me but with nitrate at 10 and phosphate at 0.5 pH8.0, no ammonia and nitrite.

This is an on and off thing is that normal? Or is it an early sign of whitespot outbreak? Sometimes you see it on their body and sometimes not, and if it does it will appear at different area everytime. And I also can't tell if it is sand or particles or something. Sometimes I see it in the morning then it will be gone in the evening, could it be sand because they like to swim between the rocks especially the flame angel. No problem on other fish. And I thought flame angel should be pretty hardy to get whitespot?

ACBlinky · 11/16/2006, 09:41 PM

Ich is a parasite that goes through phases - it lives on the fish, drops off, multiplies, swims in the water looking for a new host, then attaches to the fish again. If you're seeing spots appear and disappear overnight it doesn't sound like ich, but you never know. Are any of the fish breathing hard or 'flashing' (scratching/rubbing on sand/rocks)? Try Googling ich, and reading the articles in the disease forum, to see if that's what you're dealing with.
Oh... and IME angels are one of the first to be affected. When my old tank broke out with ich, it was only the dwarf angels that were affected - the hawkfish, dottyback and damsels looked just fine.

11/16/2006, 08:59 PM	#1
weekf Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 29	Early sign of whitespots/ich outbreak? Occassionally I will have this spots on my fishes and they seems to heal iteself is this normal? Say one day I will have one white dot on my flame angel and the rest seems fine. Then the next day I can see the flame angel is alright and the bannerfish has got a dot. Again the next day I would see the bannerfish is fine then the flame angel has got another white dot at a different place from the other time. I mean is this normal? They are all eating and swimming well no problem. Water parameters seem alright to me but with nitrate at 10 and phosphate at 0.5 pH8.0, no ammonia and nitrite. This is an on and off thing is that normal? Or is it an early sign of whitespot outbreak? Sometimes you see it on their body and sometimes not, and if it does it will appear at different area everytime. And I also can't tell if it is sand or particles or something. Sometimes I see it in the morning then it will be gone in the evening, could it be sand because they like to swim between the rocks especially the flame angel. No problem on other fish. And I thought flame angel should be pretty hardy to get whitespot?

11/16/2006, 09:41 PM	#2
ACBlinky Premium Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Peterborough, ON, Canada Posts: 4,940 Blog Entries: 20	Ich is a parasite that goes through phases - it lives on the fish, drops off, multiplies, swims in the water looking for a new host, then attaches to the fish again. If you're seeing spots appear and disappear overnight it doesn't sound like ich, but you never know. Are any of the fish breathing hard or 'flashing' (scratching/rubbing on sand/rocks)? Try Googling ich, and reading the articles in the disease forum, to see if that's what you're dealing with. Oh... and IME angels are one of the first to be affected. When my old tank broke out with ich, it was only the dwarf angels that were affected - the hawkfish, dottyback and damsels looked just fine. __________________ "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea." - Isak Dinesen Current Tank Info: BB 150g RR w/ acrylic sump; mostly softies. LEDs, carbon & GFO reactor, Remora skimmer, 4 x Koralia pumps, 100lbs rock. Ocellaris pair, 6-line wrasse, rabbitfish, yellow tang, blue tang, kole tang, YWG, azure damsel, green clown goby.