So - is this ich - and if so....

[Wjcastiglione]

So - notice his top fin - and the spots on him... pretty positive he has ich - just got him from the LFS on friday...

 

I've already got him QTed. What do you think the LFS will do? think they'll take him back?

 

what's the best treatment and for how long?

 

I have him in a 5gallon with a heater and an airstone right now. bare bottom.

 

 

[Benny314]

Hard to say from those pictures, looks like his dorsal fin has been nicked and he as a few white dots on his body.

Did they have trouble catching him at the LFS?

White spot is a parasitic infection, normally happens when a fish has been stressed or has a low immune system following poor treatment/long transport.

Do you know how long the LFS had him in stock.

With regard to taking him back the shop will probably claim it's your tank parameters or your handling/acclimatisation routine that have caused the fish stress and not be interested.

There are medications for white spot and I believe garlic supplementation in the fishes diet helps. But meds normally aren't coral or invert safe so don't treat your display.

Ideally every new fish/invert addition should be put in a quarantine tank for 6 weeks for observation before being introduced to your main DT anyway. But I personally have no space or facility to do that so just have to be careful with where I buy stock and make sure what I'm buying looks healthy and has no signs of miss treatment and hope for the best.

[Wjcastiglione]

Hard to say from those pictures, looks like his dorsal fin has been nicked and he as a few white dots on his body.

Did they have trouble catching him at the LFS?

White spot is a parasitic infection, normally happens when a fish has been stressed or has a low immune system following poor treatment/long transport.

Do you know how long the LFS had him in stock.

With regard to taking him back the shop will probably claim it's your tank parameters or your handling/acclimatisation routine that have caused the fish stress and not be interested.

There are medications for white spot and I believe garlic supplementation in the fishes diet helps. But meds normally aren't coral or invert safe so don't treat your display.

 

Ideally every new fish/invert addition should be put in a quarantine tank for 6 weeks for observation before being introduced to your main DT anyway. But I personally have no space or facility to do that so just have to be careful with where I buy stock and make sure what I'm buying looks healthy and has no signs of miss treatment and hope for the best.

 

yeahhh - I drip acclimated him when I got him for 45-60 minutes.. he seemed not stressed or anything...

 

I currently have him QTed by himself in my ATO tank ( just filled it with SW I had on hand ) ... going to figure out what to do with him tomorrow...

 

and I've never really done much with this LFS.. and now I see why.. I hope they take him back - that would make me like doing business there - the owners nice - she may - but I'm doubting it.

 

heres my own fault - after she bagged him, I asked her how long she's had him - she told me 3 days... anddddd that's why he has ich, ladies and gentleman... when they caught him they didn't have much of an issue - they keep them in small tanks there.

 

What's the ich survival rate? fairly good?

[Benny314]

If caught early and treated its pretty survivable. Watch your other tank inhabitants as those white spots are the hard cases the parasite grows over it to protect its self while its developing. They drop off the fish and release spores into the water column that then infect other fish and the cycle continues.

 

People say raising the tank temp will make the spores drop quicker (speeds up the life cycle) so if your running UV they'll be killed by it. Also any treatments can only kill the spores, while they're on the fish encased in their protective covers there's not much you can do.

 

If you do get it in your display, quarantine the fish in a separate tank as you have with the suspect and leave the tank fishless at least 12 weeks. This is the general thinking on life cycle of the spores. After 12 weeks with no host they die and you will not get reinfection.

 

For the fishes sake it might be worth you keeping and treating him as it will only stress him more returning him to the shop and if the shop was willing to sell a fish 3 days after arrival they probably don't have any quarantine procedure of their own and the fish will have little hope of survival.

My normal shop for marine fish (when I'm not buying off local reefers closing tanks down) won't sell new arrivals for at least a week (that's tropical and marine) and normally make sure the fish is feeding too before releasing it for sale.