The main reason I suspected velvet was because the rapid change (disappearance and appearance) of spots and because some were so faint and tiny but now learning that ich can possibly present that too that makes me feel a little better as far as velvet is concerned at least.
You would see other rapidly advancing symptoms to with velvet and death in less then 48 hours. You fish has new tank stress. He may have some ich in his system that his immune system fights off and now the stress brought it out, possibly. Or something else, either way load him up with immune building vitamins and it will most likely go away. Some theories say all our tanks have ich and if the inhabitants have a quality environment then their immune systems keep it in check. I had brook in my tank early on everything died except 2 fish. Never treated them, their immune system saved them and still swimming today. Look at PaulB tank. He intentionally puts ich fish in there to build all the fishes immune systems.
I agree that healthy fish can fight off ich and that it is in most tanks out there for sure. It was just my goal with this new tank to keep it out from the beginning. So if it does turn out to be ich or is ich then I'm torn on if I should do a fallow period to reset it since its still fairly early in the build. I only have 4 fish in there so far. But I know for a lot of people they just accept that ich is present and don't have problems for the most part also so. I'd just hate for something to happen down the road way more catastrophic as a result of me not taking action now if needed.
Well to be safe overall then fallow is best especially if intend to add tangs at some point. I'm still not convinced it was anything to be drastically concerned about but better safe then sorry if you have QT already set up.
Thank you! And yes I love the wealth of knowledge, experience, and help this community offers it's amazing.
I mentioned earlier that it can be sand otherwise lympho but suspect sand
Yea I'm going to continue to observe closely and see what happens (if anything). I thought Lympho was usually larger and more cauliflower like and stayed for long periods of time? Can it also appear to be smaller and more similar to ich and come and go? Thanks for your help!
Lympho can be larger dots, on fin edges or cauliflower like generally on large angels and certain butterfly fish
What about the aspect of coming and going more rapidly? I thought it stayed generally for longer periods of time once it appeared but I'm not sure.
Do you have corals and inverts in the display? If so the easiest solution may be to set up a 10g qt for them. Then drop salinity to 1.09 for a month or 3. Afterwards slowly increase salinity over a month. Then return inverts. This will kill off ich while not harming the inverts. No inverts, then just drop salinity.
That’s a tough question to answer. Certainly ich dies off with no host after 45 to 60 days, depending on water temperature. Ich can “simmer” in a tank with fish as a chronic low grade infection on fish for some time. It then either dies out or flares up. I don’t have a good handle on how long ich can simmer, but it is at least 6 months.
Okay that's interesting. I always assumed once ich gets in its always in. But based on that I can see how it might be possible for ich to "go away" in the DT after a period of time if no further outbreak occurs if accidentally initially introduced. And of course properly QTing any future fish. Even though that might be a less likely scenario. I assume that an outbreak is the more probable outcome of an ich introduction.
