Treating Ich in display tank before adding corals

[ncfalco]

I recently added my first inhabitants to my display tank, 2 Red Sea clownfish and a turbo snail. They are all seemingly healthy, except that the larger female clownfish has a suspected ich white spot on her skin directly next to her eye.

Since I have not added any corals to the tank yet, should I proceed by removing the snail and treating the ich in the display tank? Or is it best to just practice proper maintenance and water quality to have the fish fight off the infection naturally?

 

[MnFish1]

I recently added my first inhabitants to my display tank, 2 Red Sea clownfish and a turbo snail. They are all seemingly healthy, except that the larger female clownfish has a suspected ich white spot on her skin directly next to her eye.

Since I have not added any corals to the tank yet, should I proceed by removing the snail and treating the ich in the display tank? Or is it best to just practice proper maintenance and water quality to have the fish fight off the infection naturally?

If there is rock in the tank - it will adsorb copper - and you may have elevated levels for some time. More importantly - can you give some more information - because it may not be ICH at all. Did you QT the fish - can you share a pictrure under white light?

The best practice would have been to treat the fish in a QT tank before adding it to the display tank. Ich is usually multiple spots - that come and go - as compared to 1 spot. Sometimes the spot is merely a grain of sand, or a viral infection. And - PS you would need to remove the snail.

Lastly - copper dosing in a tank with rock sand, etc - is extremely fraught with difficulty

 

[Darstar301]

If you have a QT tank, pull all the fish and treat. If not you may want to try Polylabs Medic since Copper will make the tank not so coral-safe.

 

[MnFish1]

PS - the most important part of my post - Make sure it's ich first - before doing anything. Always try to QT new fish - or buy from a QT source. As to poly labs medic - it has some good and some not so good reviews.

 

[ncfalco]

Here are the best pictures that I could take. Unfortunately the light makes the camera go much bluer than it really is. You can see the the white spot right up next to the fishes left eye. At first I thought it might be flukes, but it doesn't seem to be long and protruding very much far off the fishes skin.

 

[MnFish1]

Do you mean the white blotch on the forehead? Sorry - I can't see what exactly you mean - can you post an arrow directly to your area of concern?

 

[ncfalco]

Yes in hindsight I should have quarantined the fish, but unfortunately I need to deal with my current situation. I'm just wondering if treating for ich in a display tank would cause adverse effects on the tank later down the line when I do decide to add corals. Would it be potentially a better idea to treat with something like PraziPro and rule out flukes first?

 

[ncfalco]

@MnFish1 Yes the white blotch on it's forehead right next to its eye. It's difficult to get a very clear photo of it, the little guys don't stay still for long.

 

[ncfalco]

@MnFish1 Here is a video that I just took with the tank light turned off. I think it's a little easier to see what I mean. My concern is the white dot budding up against the larger clownfish's left eye. There is only one spot like this on the fish, so it's possible that this is something besides ich.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@MnFish1 Here is a video that I just took with the tank light turned off. I think it's a little easier to see what I mean. My concern is the white dot budding up against the larger clownfish's left eye. There is only one spot like this on the fish, so it's possible that this is something besides ich.

That spot above the left eye isn't ich or flukes, it is too large and white. Flukes can rarely be seen with the naked eye and ich trophonts are smaller, salt grained size. Now, that does NOT mean that these fish don't have either of those issues, they could, but just that this spot isn't a sign of them. From what I can see in the video, these clowns look good.

Jay

 

[ncfalco]

Thanks so much @Jay Hemdal! That's a real relief. I purchased the pair of clownfish from my LFS and where they were happily paired up on an anemone. Perhaps this is just a burn mark from the anemone, or some inflamed tissue? I'll just let them be and practice good tank maintenance. This was a good learning lesson nonetheless that I really should have a small quarantine tank setup. Once something gets into the system, it seems that it's nearly impossible to eliminate without negatively impacting some other part of the biome.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks so much @Jay Hemdal! That's a real relief. I purchased the pair of clownfish from my LFS and where they were happily paired up on an anemone. Perhaps this is just a burn mark from the anemone, or some inflamed tissue? I'll just let them be and practice good tank maintenance. This was a good learning lesson nonetheless that I really should have a small quarantine tank setup. Once something gets into the system, it seems that it's nearly impossible to eliminate without negatively impacting some other part of the biome.

Yes, a physical injury of some sort would be my best guess. Just watch the fish very closely over the next few weeks - lack of appetite, rapid breathing, torn fins, stringy feces and changes in swimming behavior are all warning signs.

Jay

 

[MnFish1]

Thanks @Jay Hemdal - I was wondering if this was similar to the similar blotches seen on designer clowns?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks @Jay Hemdal - I was wondering if this was similar to the similar blotches seen on designer clowns?

Could be, since we don’t know the cause of that (grin).

What bugs me about those lesions is they only show up on the white portion of clowns - no doubt they are also found beneath their other colored skin, but we just can’t see it.

Jay

 

[ncfalco]

Just wanted to post back with an update. The clownfish still has the white mark on her eye but it appears to be benign. I’m not sure if it is the result of injury or not, but the mark has remained the same size and the fish appears very healthy.