Ick after QT

Well I think I am now fully initiated into the SW obsession.

I QT ed my sailfin tang for 16 days fully looking him over - Put him into the DT on Jan 2nd.
When I got home yesterday i noticed little white spots on fins and body counted around a dozen.

woke up this morning and the spots doubled.

He is eating and swimming around fine - no scratching I can see.

Prams
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
less then 2 ppm nitrogen
ph 8.1

So from all the reading I have done so far this is what I am thinking.
1. just let it run it's coarse and cross my fingers (using garlic)
2. add a cleaner shrimp and cross my fingers
3. fresh water dip
4. Make my QT a hospital tank and go with a copper med
5. bang my head against the wall till I pass out

 

Is this sailfin in your 75 gallon?

If so, that's too small of a tank for that fish IMO. Tangs are ICH magnets and the stress of the QT and the undersized DT can induce the ICH that is already present to manifest into a full lifecycle - breeding and multiplying in the flesh and gills of your sailfin tang.

I would recommend finding a larger tank for the sailfin. You can try bolstering it's feeding schedule and varying with added greens/vitamins.

For the long term tho - a 75 gallon tank is too small for a sailfin. You would want at least 150+ gallons for a sailfin IMO.

 

As long as he's eating, he should be fine. I wouldn't suggest a quarantine or a dip given the situation. If he was severely infested and not eating, then the latter would be advisable.

 

Thanks Ocean - I am building a 120 with sump so I do plan on moving him once it's done. The Tang is still small so I have time to set up my new 120 by the summer.
I also knew when I got him that they are ick magnets that is the main reason for QT and close observation.

So would adding a cleaner shrimp help in any way?

 

Yea on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being almost white with ick) he is at about a 3ish on the ick scale.

Have you seen ick just disappear or is this going to recur over again?

 

Oh btw - the fire clown,cardinal and lawnmower show no signs of ick

 

Adding a cleaner shrimp will help with bad infestations. They will not RID the tank, but they will certainly not hurt the fish!!!

Heavy feeding, good water quality maintenance and vitamins are probably your best friend.

 

All other advice being said, I'd go back to the beginning and leave the fish in the QT longer before placing in DT. Minimum 4 weeks, others say 6 weeks.

I've heard mixed things about cleaner shrimps actually helping.

 

Wrong. I'm shocked I have to say this every time an ich thread comes up, but there is no way for a cleaner shrimp, wrasse, or goby to eat ich. Ich is not as it appears. The white spots you see is not the ich itself, but a cyst formed above it. Cleaner species can only get things that are attached to the fish, not burrowed under the skin, except for the ones that cheat and grab flesh (some wrasses do this). But that'll be more damaging than a bit of ich.

Just put your hand in the tank with a cleaner shrimp, and see how it cleans for yourself, if you don't believe me. After, watch a fish with ich go to a cleaner goby or cleaner shrimp cleaning station (friend's tank, LFS, wherever), and watch it not grab anything off of the fish at all.

It won't hurt, but I can guarantee it won't help either. Literally, 100%.

 

Well Raven I think I got your message loud and clear

I have read that they don't cure ick 100% I was just thinking the parasite - but makes sense that they don't break the skin to get at a parasite