What Illness Does My Fish Have?

[frederickthefish]

My tank has torch corals, a bubble tip anemone, an alveopora, a leather, and a green star polyp for corals. For fish prior to this incident I have one clownfish. I also have some hermit crabs, snails, and a shrimp.

I ordered a Valentini puffer and another clownfish on Live Aquaria. Puffer arrived with some white spotting as well as lighter pigmentation on his back and within 24 hours he was laying on sand bed and died. I don’t necessarily feel like the white spots were ich because I don’t feel like they look like the salt grain pictures I see online. A few days later, now I’m seeing some white spots on my new clown fish as well on his face and by his fin. I noticed this yesterday, and he is still swimming good and interested in eating as of today. I started dosing with Polyp Labs medic reef safe in case it’s Ich, but I’m worried that it’s something else that I am not treating.

I don’t have a quarantine tank.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Welcome to Reef2Reef and sorry for your trouble!

I'd suggest at a minimum posting the info suggested in the quote below, and if possible reading through the link below that (particularly the "Aquarium Parameters," "Water quality," and "In-depth Information" sections) to figure out what info you can share here with the #fishmedic to get the best diagnosis and treatment advice possible:

Please provide as much of the following as you are able:

• Brief description of the issue you are observing and answers to the following questions:
  • How long have you had the fish with the condition?
  • Did you quarantine with medication when you first acquired the fish? (If Yes, which medication?)
• Current water quality measurements
• Clear photos of the issue taken using WHITE light and/or a short video of any behaviors (post in your response or on YouTube).

If you can help us by providing as much of the above info as possible, it will make diagnosing and providing recommendations for treatment MUCH easier! The Fish Medic team will get back to you as quickly as possible. In the meantime, other members of our community may also share their experience with similar situations and advice that they may have regarding your situation.

You may also feel free to provide a more detailed description of the condition if you wish to share more info than the above list.

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

www.reef2reef.com

Also, for future reference (don't use it this time) with these sorts of issues, posting in the forum linked below can get you help faster:

Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis

A forum for discussing treatment and diagnosing saltwater reef fish.

www.reef2reef.com

I started dosing with Polyp Labs medic reef safe in case it’s Ich, but I’m worried that it’s something else that I am not treating.

Also, to address the quote above specifically:

if you want to treat ich effectively, you need either copper medication (chelated copper like Coppersafe or Copper Power at 2.25-2.5ppm for 30 days after the last ich trophonts disappear is recommended) or hyposalinity (drop your salinity to 1.009 and keep the tank at that salinity for 30 days after the last signs/symptoms of the disease disappear), neither of which are reef-safe. There is no effective, reef-safe treatment for ich at the moment (at least not one that I've heard of).

The Polyp Lab medic is a peroxide salt. That compound may have some benefit in treating ich, but they throttle back on the dose to make it "reef safe" and that also makes it "ich safe". I'm not suggesting it be dosed higher, just that there is a history of this product not working well against parasites.

6) Try a proprietary "reef safe" marine ich medication. These rarely cure ich infections on their own, but some may have benefit when combined with other management methods. Avoid the herbal remedies, focus on those that contain peroxide salts. There is, however, some evidence that using peroxides with UV does not work, as the UV can break down the peroxides.

 

[MnFish1]

Welcome to Reef2Reef and sorry for your trouble!

I'd suggest at a minimum posting the info suggested in the quote below, and if possible reading through the link below that (particularly the "Aquarium Parameters," "Water quality," and "In-depth Information" sections) to figure out what info you can share here with the #fishmedic to get the best diagnosis and treatment advice possible:

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

www.reef2reef.com

Also, for future reference (don't use it this time) with these sorts of issues, posting in the forum linked below can get you help faster:

Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis

A forum for discussing treatment and diagnosing saltwater reef fish.

www.reef2reef.com

Also, to address the quote above specifically:

Agree with your comments. Sorry about your puffer. To the op - at this point, my recommendation is to treat with copper and prazipro per protocol. leaving your display tank fallow for 6-8 weeks. Some people also remove their inverts from the display tank - and treat that but that has its own set of problems. I know you said you don't have a QT tank - but given your invertebrates, I don't see another way to do it - since more fish are now showing symptoms. Pictures under bright lights would be really helpful to make sure we know what is going on in your tank