Help...Possible Clownfish Ich

[Deepseafisher]

What exactly does Ich look like? I understand that there is a marine form of ich, and I'm concerned that the clownfish I bought the other day may have contracted it at some point down the road. I was looking at him this morning, and noticed a single white spot, about the size of a grain of sand or something. I've heard that ick is a bunch of spots, but don't know if it starts that way, or what the deal is. The reason it is of such importance to me is this...in 10 days I'm leaving for a month, and my tank will be in the hands of my younger brother. He won't be able to do anything for the fish if it turns out to be ich...

And such is my dilemma...

Does ich start as one spot? Or does it normally start as a bunch? Is there anything I can do to treat it early, hopefully preventing a real outbreak later? I don't know...I'm considering a freshwater dip...but don't know if this will help.

I'll try to post some pics of the fish (and the rest of the tank, for that matter...I've been meaning to get around to doing that...) when I get home from school 8 or 9 hours from now...

Any suggestions as to what it might be? I'm praying for some injury its had along the way.

Oh, by the way...the fish hasn't been acting at all differently from the other clown I have in the tank...no rubbing on the rock, nothing of the sort...

Water perameters are decent, Ammo, nitrites at 0 (or at least thereabouts) and nitrate running near 20...

I keep the temperature right around 79 (F) (obviously, lol).

Thanks for the help.

By the way, I cross-posted this from Emergency, if it looks familiar.

Time is of the essence at this point. Whatever treatment gets done has to be done in the next week and 2 days...that number shrinks daily.

[oscar2001]

Possibly its just one spot you may not need to resort to meds.
Like freshwater ich raise the temp a few degrees and try lowering the salinity(something like 1.015), also freshwater dips.
If you gotta resort to meds then something like Acriflavine.
Like freshwater ich you cant kill the ich untill it falls off the fish

[junior]

Ich is always in your water just like in freshwater, the treatments said above will do the trick. Personally I think you need to look into what caused this, get your water tested and make sure everything is perfect, if its not an advanced case it sould go away all by itself, if the problem is fixed. Ich only appears if the fish are stressed for some reason.

[Deepseafisher]

Okay, thats good news then. The fish is new (from Petco), and that may be the source of my troubles. Thanks for the advice. The one spot has gone away...Heres hoping to it not coming back.

I'll be sure to raise the water temp a few degrees...hope it all turns out okay.

Thanks for the quick advice.

[Craig]

i had the same problem with a golden severum (i realise it isnt marine:p ) but yeah, once their in the new tank without the stress stimuli (she was in a tank full of parrot cichlids, shes now in with a loving male green in a 55 lol, its like blind date):D

either way the white spot has cleared up almost instantly.

GHood luck mate
Craig

[junior]

oops sorry forgot to say DON'T raise the temp, it will just stress them more, this isn't anything like freshwater ich, its a different disease, it is affected a lot like freshwater ich but must be dealt with quickly, because it can kill a fish very quickly.
From my best guess(since I worked at petco) I would say yes that is your source, we kept our tanks at a very low salinity because most fish have no problem living at those levels and most diseases can't handle it. Also most of those tanks are HEAVILY medicated to keep disease under control. While working there I tryed to change somethings to allow for a better water system but because of PETCO regulations everything has to follow code or you loose your raises and maybe fired.

thanks
JR

[Deepseafisher]

Well, the Spot is gone...and hasn't come back. So far, I've done nothing to the tank, except raise the temp a degree (an even 80 seems better to me anyway). I don't know if it was something else, or if it will be back. I just freaked out because I'm leaving so soon.

If it turns out to be ick, and comes back while I'm gone, what do I instruct my brother to do for the fish? Is there anything he could do? Remember that he has NO experience with fishkeeping at all.

[Deepseafisher]

Its back. I was looking at the fish this morning, and there were 4 or 5 distinct spots. I am in the middle of a freshwater dip right now, and I'll let y'all know how it turns out.

Treating the tank with Ich meds will kill off the inverts on my Live Rock, won't it? If so, thats not an option. I put too much into that LR to flush it over a single clownfish...

Suggestions are appreciated. I'll post back this afternoon with how the freshwater dip went.