new Hawaiian black trigger with white spots

planetgirth · #1 04/12/2007, 07:17 PM

Yesterday I got a beautiful new Hawaiian black trigger. It has been eating well and getting along with other tankmates fine. Today I noticed some small white spots all over his body. Does anyone know what this could be? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Jesse-KT · #2 04/12/2007, 07:43 PM

Most likely ich. If you have it in a reef or a tank with any live rock, you will have to take it out and put it in a hospital tank as reef-safe medications for ich don't do the job. Treat the hospital tank with copper or you can use hyposalinity, both are well-documented. I believe there is a long story with tons of information on ich in the diseases forum. Make sure you put new fish in a hospital tank before you put them in the display tank to keep any diseases or parasites to a minimum. Good luck!

planetgirth · #3 04/12/2007, 08:06 PM

It is in a fish only tank. I thought that triggers were very tough against ich.

Jerry W · #4 04/13/2007, 02:28 AM

Triggers are just as susceptible to this parasite as most other fish. What other fish are in the tank? All have been exposed and should be treated. Hyposalinity is the preferred method of treatment among most hobbyists. You can't have live rock or inverts in the system during the process. Do you have a quarantine tank?

LisaD · #5 04/13/2007, 10:15 AM

Just be sure it is not velvet disease, amyloodinium. That can also be treated with copper, but it kills fish fast, much faster than ich.

Jesse-KT · #6 04/13/2007, 10:53 AM

Quote:

That can also be treated with copper, but it kills fish fast, much faster than ich.

Not true. I've had copper run through systems for months battling ich and even after ich and it's the ich that kills them, never the copper. Using the right amounts of copper will not kill your fish.

ann83 · #7 04/13/2007, 11:23 AM

I think she meant that amyloodinium (marine velvet) kills fish much faster than ich.

planetgirth · #8 04/13/2007, 11:50 AM

I think that im screwed. I have 5 tangs. that hawaiian black, a niger, a lion, and a 2 foot zebra moray. i dont have a QT, and i have a ton of live rock in the tank. What will the hyposalinity do to the live rock? Or what else can i try?

HELP

ann83 · #9 04/13/2007, 12:17 PM

What size is the trigger? It isn't too hard to set up an emergency QT. It won't be cycled, so you'll have to do regular water changes to keep the ammonia down, but that is needed for most treatments anyway. If you can't afford a reasonably sized tank, you can use a large bucket or rubbermaid container that is large enough for the fish.

johno4 · #10 04/13/2007, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by planetgirth
I think that im screwed. I have 5 tangs. that hawaiian black, a niger, a lion, and a 2 foot zebra moray. i dont have a QT, and i have a ton of live rock in the tank. What will the hyposalinity do to the live rock? Or what else can i try?

HELP

Hypo will kill whatever inverts are living in the liverock. If you dont have a qt tank and there are no other inverts in the main display you could to hypo in there. It could/will to damage to your biological filtration so you would have to keep an eye on ammonia and whatnot. If there are inverts in your tank you should get a qt tank setup asap.

I just lost half my fish to ick, I didnt have a large enough qt tank for my fish and I have a lot of inverts so I couldnt do hypo in the main tank. The remaining fish are in qt with hypo and the main display will remain empty for at least one month.

good luck

ralphie16 · #11 04/13/2007, 12:43 PM

You have run out of many options. Here is the last one you have last that is easiest and most efficient. I will briefly summarize why you are performing each part.

I recommend you keep all the fish in the main display tank.
Remove 1/2 of your live rock. Buy a rubbermaid Brute 44 gallon container available at home depot for $40. Put half of your liverock in there and fill it up with saltwater from your display. Replace water in display with new fresh saltwater.

Put a heater in this container and leave it for 60 days, peforming water changes every other week.

Keep everything normal in your tank for the next week or two. Remove live rock piece by piece day by day and put it in the container. You want to do this slowly because you need your biological filter to remain intact. Make sure you have some other form of bio filter going, like a power filter with sponge. Bacteria will transfer to this slowly while you remove live rock.

Two things will happen. All the algae on this live rock will die off, and the ich present on it will also die. This has two benefits. Your tank will look nicer with nuisance algae gone. Your fish will be happy because ich is gone.

After 60 days, you can put the live rock back to the display tank.

While all this is going on your wondering why are you doing this? Well because once your live rock is removed, you will slowly lower the salinity in your tank to the recommended hypo treatment salinity. You cant do this with live rock in the tank because all the good stuff on it will die off and you left with expensive base rock.

So you keep the fish in the hypo treatment for a few weeks, slowly increase the salinity back to normal levels, and then put back your live rock.

No more ich. Live rock stays intact. Fish happy.

I wrote it out so it seems a little complicated but it is really the best option you have and not that hard to do!

Good luck.

Jesse-KT · #12 04/13/2007, 01:32 PM

Quote:

I think she meant that amyloodinium (marine velvet) kills fish much faster than ich.

Oh, thanks for clearing that up.

planetgirth · #13 04/15/2007, 02:46 PM

Thanks for all the info. The signs of the ich have all gone away. Anyway i have been talking to some people who have pretty much said that ich is in every saltwater body of water. Every tank and the oceans. I think that it was just a flare up from getting settled into a new enviroment. I have been told that uv sanitizers kill the larvae stages of the parasites.

let me know if this doesn't sound right.
Thanks

ralphie16 · #14 04/16/2007, 10:28 AM

planetgirth, your friend is completly wrong.

ich does not go away on its own. you have to actively get rid of it. you will see in a few days or weeks it will come back again.

not every tank has it. if you quarantine like your supposed to, you will never get ich in your tank. many people on this board have been keeping fish for DECADES with no ich. you have to get rid of it while its in QT.

snapper1 · #15 04/16/2007, 07:34 PM

Ich parasites leave the Fish and go on to there next stage in the Sand they will come back and there will be more.I had a outbrake that claimed a Two niger Triggers and a Grouper .I have a Fowler Tank I cross contaminated two other Tanks.I used three 4 ounce bottle of copper power and it did not kill my Live Rock I maintained copper in three Tanks at .4 about 5 weeks and it killed all ich.I have not had any ich in several months and all Fish are heathy copper has fallen to .15 and.20 in all Tanks.If you have inverts like snails and crabs and Anemenos.Any copper will be lethal to them in minute amounts.I hope the best for you pal I have had my Battles with evil ich.

No Worries1979 · #16 04/17/2007, 05:13 PM

Just hold him outside of the tank for a few seconds over a bucket and pour distilled H2O (same temp.) on him from head to tail. I myself am against chemicals and if its immune system can't take care of it, it might not have made it anyway.

In my experiences I noticed ich on my tang but it eventually went away after a couple of weeks. My picasso had ich pretty bad when I first got him, but I did the above treatment and he bounced back and is healthy as a horse. The ich may still be in my tank but I haven't seen a breakout in at least 18 months.