Does ich stay on a fish this long?

[internexus]

I picked up a clown on the 25th and there is a small white bump in the white portion of him. It's now day 11 and that bump is still there, I didn't think that ich stayed on a fish that long. Is it possible this could just be a skin deformality or something? I really can't get a picture of it as it blends in so well and is really hard to see to the eye.

[Sk8r]

It's probably ich, but if there's nothing else, he seems to be fighting it off. If he's in your display tank, you now have ich in your tank, and I'll advise feeding garlic [formula 1 pellet with garlic] to your population at least once a week and not getting any other new fish but gobies: they're resistent to it: for about 6 months. If you don't see it on anybody else, you can relax a bit.

[internexus]

Hmm I had no clue that gobies were immune to that. This is in a quarantine tank btw ;) I just had never heard of ICH staying on a fish for so long before falling off and starting the cycle of multiplying.

[dbuesking]

I had a rusty angel that had ick from stress. Had 3 dots on his tail for 2 weeks and then 1by1 yhey fell off. I hope I never see them again.

[internexus]

Thanks, that gives me some days to really keep a better look at them.

[TOURKID]

I had my male clown develop a pimple on his side. litterally a little white bump. (hes red so it was easy to see)

I got advise from fish doc and treated him with (wait, looking thru my old threads) ok. I fresh water dipped him and the dot stayed. so i treated him with internal parasite meds (de worming meds) and it went away. heres the thread. The pics are gone but the infos good.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=878882

[Sk8r]

So glad to hear it's in qt. Keep observing him another five days. It could be what tourkid says. It could be ich. Just remember not to combine meds or treatments. One at a time.

Re gobies: gobies, blennies, dragonets, and dartfish are all ich-resistent...not immune, but they rarely get it, usually don't die of it unless the water quality is shot. It's one reason they're my favorite fish: far less disease on these types. I haven't lost a fish to ich in decades...because, for the main part, these are the fish I keep.

[internexus]

Thanks for the link, based off your description of what you dealt with I can conclude that this is different. It is certainly under the fish's skin, if I had to compare it in size to anything I would say .03" completely circular in shape.

[internexus]

The only thing I am doing with them is hypo salinity, no outside chemicals are being introduced into the water. I feed garlic/ginger mixed flake periodically to the pair.

[Sk8r]

Hypo is, however, a treatment: if you have to go to a chemical treatment, I'd slowly bring them up to tank norm, so they have gotten through that problem, then procede with meds.

Others may argue that fish 'don't mind' lowered salinity. IMHO, anything less than optimum makes their kidneys work harder, and so do meds. I'd avoid both at the same time.

Don't forget, if you medicate, remove any carbon from the filtration stream. It will remove meds.

[Paul B]

I really doubt it is ich. I would not worry about it.

[internexus]

Paul, would you assume that this is possibly just a natural defect in the fish's body?

[TOURKID]

doesent sound like ich to me either. but, id like to restress the fact that no meds should be used during hypo.

[Paul B]

I really can't say without seeing it but ich is a very tiny paracite about athe size of a grain of salt or smaller and there are usually more than one. Fish get all sorts of "bumps". It could be a paracite, busted scale, infection or a few other things. They usually heal on their own. If a fish has ich it will almost always scratch on the rocks or shake it's head very fast from side to side because if you see ich on the skin it means that there are many more paracites hiding in the gills. Any ich paracites you may see on the sides of a fish don't really harm the fish, it is the paracites on the gills that kill the fish. They don't even kill the fish by sucking it's blood but because of there shear numbers block the transmission of oxygen.
Paul

[cloak]

Maybe lympho.