Possible white spots

litolitolo · Jun 18, 2024

Hi everyone, I just bought two days ago a white powder blue tang, on the first day the fish was fine second day started to rub itself against the sand/rocks.
It is a pretty new set up, I have two clowns and the tang.
I have not quarantined the fish as I just come from freshwater and never had issues with fishes.
I went to the LFS and they told me to bath the fish in freshwater, which I did the fish seems to be better stopped completely rubbing against stuff.
However I just saw these white spots on the fins/body of the fish.
Don’t know much what to do would anybody be able to help me?

Appreciate your patience and time.

Jekyl · Jun 18, 2024

Hi and welcome to R2R. Sorry this is happening to you. Unfortunately these fish are prone to having ich. Something to watch for is if the number and placement changes. This would point to ich for sure.

Here is some information that will help you out.

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2021 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

Current Quarantine Protocol

2023 Quarantine Procedures Jay Hemdal David Scarborough Protozoans (Cryptocaryon/ich, Amyloodinium/velvet) and Metazoan trematodes/flukes are by far the most common parasites found on newly acquired fish. A carefully managed quarantine process can effectively eliminate these parasites before...

www.reef2reef.com

45 Day Fallow periods

I've been doing some research into the "76 day fallow period". I never heard of that prior to coming to Reef2Reef this past summer. I had always used 32 days as the maximum time for a tomont to remain viable under tropical conditions, and then I would round up to 45 days to help ensure that...

www.reef2reef.com

Jekyl · Jun 18, 2024

Can you also please provide a 30 second video with white lighting? Linking to YouTube works the best. Need to try and see the respiration rate of the fish.

vetteguy53081 · Jun 18, 2024

litolitolo said:
Hi everyone, I just bought two days ago a white powder blue tang, on the first day the fish was fine second day started to rub itself against the sand/rocks.
It is a pretty new set up, I have two clowns and the tang.
I have not quarantined the fish as I just come from freshwater and never had issues with fishes.
I went to the LFS and they told me to bath the fish in freshwater, which I did the fish seems to be better stopped completely rubbing against stuff.
However I just saw these white spots on the fins/body of the fish.
Don’t know much what to do would anybody be able to help me?

Appreciate your patience and time.

These are what powder blues are susceptible to known as mucus cones. Often it starts as a skin irritation and progresses and often mixed in with ich. Interesting is often other fish show no signs but have been exposed, Ideal is to treat all occupants but you can keep an eye on others for any outbreak. You will have to pull all eventually should they show signs so you have a choice to make. Typical treatment is use of either coppersafe or Copper Power at therapeutic level 2.25-2.5 For a FULL 30 days (do not interrupt this 30 day period) monitored by a reliable Copper Test kit such as Hanna Brand- No API brand. Also monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit and add aeration during treatment using an air stone.
The display tank will have to be kept fishless (FALLOW) for 6-8 weeks to assure the existing parasites go through their life cycle without a host fish and die off and with occupants exposed, they too should go into quarantine
A quarantine tank can be as simple as a tank from a second hand store or a starter kit from Walmart which most of the needed essentials.

Jay Hemdal · Jun 19, 2024

This could be ich, or it could be mucus plugs. One way to try and tell them apart (and I can't tell from the photo, as they overlap) but spots on just the body can be mucus plugs, while spots on both the clear fins AND the body is more likely ich. Also, ich spots tend to come and go and change location every couple of days, while mucus plugs stay around for a few days or longer. One issue is that a common cause for mucus plugs IS ich.

Finally, powder blues so commonly contract ich, that I reel all of them need to be fully quarantined before adding them to the tank.

litolitolo · Jun 19, 2024

Jekyl said:
Hi and welcome to R2R. Sorry this is happening to you. Unfortunately these fish are prone to having ich. Something to watch for is if the number and placement changes. This would point to ich for sure.

Here is some information that will help you out.

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2021 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

Current Quarantine Protocol

2023 Quarantine Procedures Jay Hemdal David Scarborough Protozoans (Cryptocaryon/ich, Amyloodinium/velvet) and Metazoan trematodes/flukes are by far the most common parasites found on newly acquired fish. A carefully managed quarantine process can effectively eliminate these parasites before...

www.reef2reef.com

45 Day Fallow periods

I've been doing some research into the "76 day fallow period". I never heard of that prior to coming to Reef2Reef this past summer. I had always used 32 days as the maximum time for a tomont to remain viable under tropical conditions, and then I would round up to 45 days to help ensure that...

www.reef2reef.com

Thanks I will have a look!!

litolitolo · Jun 19, 2024

Jekyl said:
Can you also please provide a 30 second video with white lighting? Linking to YouTube works the best. Need to try and see the respiration rate of the fish.

I try my best to keep up with the speed

litolitolo · Jun 19, 2024

So I wake up today and went straight to see the tank, no signs of white spots so I guess it’s inch right?

litolitolo · Jun 19, 2024

Jay Hemdal said:
This could be ich, or it could be mucus plugs. One way to try and tell them apart (and I can't tell from the photo, as they overlap) but spots on just the body can be mucus plugs, while spots on both the clear fins AND the body is more likely ich. Also, ich spots tend to come and go and change location every couple of days, while mucus plugs stay around for a few days or longer. One issue is that a common cause for mucus plugs IS ich.

Finally, powder blues so commonly contract ich, that I reel all of them need to be fully quarantined before adding them to the tank.

Hey, thanks for the advice I guess is Ich as today got
Much better