Brook, Ich, Marine Velvet? What? Help! PICS

[lkoechle]

So these guys were removed to QT 3 weeks ago for Ich treatment. They weren't really affected, never showed any signs except for a couple of spots on my clown fish. I was treating with Paraguard. And everyone has been fine, visually and behaviorally. Yesterday, I noticed my tang had white scuff marks but I wasn't too concerned because I couldn't see any spots. Well, then he started laying on his side and all this other stuff that looked suspiciously like how my last tang died except this tang was never in my display. He went right into medicated QT with the rest of them (the tank I got him from looked like it had ich so everyone went into the same qt), never touched my display. So same symptoms, different tank but all on about a two to three week timeline.

 

Then I noticed my rabbitfish was in her fright colors (she regularly goes into fright colors during the day, I don't know why, she's a just a weirdo) and I was able to see she was covered in spots. She is normally very light yellow and blue so seeing spots is impossible. Really feeling like a failure right now, but I know this is something almost all hobbyists go through at least once.

 

So, I don't have photos of the tang, he's skittish, and I tried to get the best photos I could of everyone else. The clowns like to hangout low in the tank. I have no idea if the diamond goby has spots for the same reason I had no idea the rabbit had spots, they're too white.

 

What is this? Is it ich? The spots seem big... Or is it something else? I'm starting cupramine tomorrow after the last dose of Paraguard has dissipated.

 

Rabbitfish

20150515_110353 by lkoechle, on Flickr

 

20150515_110343 by lkoechle, on Flickr

 

20150515_104125 by lkoechle, on Flickr

 

Spots/discoloration on the small Davinci clown

20150515_110328 by lkoechle, on Flickr

[markalot]

Have you made sure the params in the QT tank are good, no ammonia spikes, etc?

[jedimasterben]

Well, there is a reason that copper sulfate and chloroquine phosphate are used by large institutions and public aquariums to treat ich and NOT Paraguard or any other 'ich' medications, unfortunately.

[lkoechle]

Its tentatively looking like a massive nitrite spike even though tentative ammonia results are zero. I have done an emergency prime dosing and put purigen in plus am getting water ready for changes.

[lkoechle]

Moved everyone to a new tank. They already look better. Faulty test kits seem to be the cuplrit. My main test kit is bad I guess and the tang, who did not make it, was the canary. He might have saved everybody. Very very very disappointing day. One of those days where if it wasn't for the money i have investex, definitely would quit the hobby because I clearly suck at it.

[ml86743]

Don't get discouraged! Keep on keepin on! It takes time to get a reef tank right!

[lkoechle]

Everyone is looking better. We are what an hour two hours in? I am debating on pulling down the 55 QT (fish are in a 10 gallon atm) and putting up the 20 long instead. There would be a 3 inch loss on width and a 6 inch loss in height but only a half inch loss in length. Might be a little cramped for my rabbitfish, but I feel like I can keep a better handle on a smaller tank and do daily 20% water changes for the remaining 3 weeks of qt and prevent this from happening again. I was doing water changes once a week, clearly not enough. My main concern is maintaining the proper dose of cupramine in the systen with all those water changes.

 

Thoughts?

[wrassegauche17]

google reefdup aquatics and check out their procedures for sick corals and fish. you can email them and they will answer you back in a timely manner, very friendly and informative people goodluck!