white dots...and fish acting funny

[daze123]

ok well noticed some of the fish were getting white dots...hippo and a puffer, the rest just seem to be itchy...yellow tang looks pretty fine but tilts on its side for the chromis fish to peck at him...i assume its cleaning the tang....

but basicly fish are itchy water is fine i tested the water everything is good...and i did a 15 percent water change on the weekend..

dont really know what would be causing the white dots? overfeeding with brine and squid frozen foods?? no clue anything that could help fix this problem would be great

 

[APISTOBORELLI]

Sounds like ich. Have you added anyone recently? Did you QT?

 

[Tstone]

yeah it does sound like ich. There is a bunch of info if you do a search. Here is one thread of many

http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=39807&highlight=ich

 

[nichols]

Do a search here on Ich.

 

[smcnally]

What size tank and how are your parameters? What else do you have in there for fish/critters?

 

[daze123]

ok so i have all the info...should i give all the fish a fresh water bath in the same 10 gal tank i got not sure if it makes a difference if the water would have to be changed after each fish were to get a bath....

how long should i let them sit in the fresh water before i dump them back in the main tank the the praside green chemical??

 

[Chris L]

agreed. sounds like ich. i second steve, we need all your info. tank size, number of fish, parameters of your water, last fish added and when

 

[Chris L]

slow down. dont rush into anything yet. you may cause more damage that way

 

[APISTOBORELLI]

Where are you located? If you happen to be near me, I wouldn't mind coming over to take a look.

 

[smcnally]

agreed. sounds like ich. i second steve, we need all your info. tank size, number of fish, parameters of your water, last fish added and when

According to this thread http://bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=39540 he has a 55gal. That's part of the problem there...Hippo, Yellow Tang, and puffer in a 55 can absolutely stress the fish out which can make them more prone to getting ich.

 

[daze123]

ahh thanks im on mass/nh line

well its a 55gal

heres the water quality i didnt check the ph last time and i noticed its a little low at "7.7" nitrate level is at "0.3" amonia level is at "0"

last fish put in was... a green madrian...

i had a blue/green chromis wich wass the first fish to go all fish were healthy it formed a scar that later opened up and eventually died...and thats about the time i added the green madrian...madrian seems fine tangs...puffer damsels are either scratching on rocks or have white dots. first signs were with the damsles scratching on rocks then the hippo tank formed white dots and scratching now the yellow tang and puffer seemed to have caught it

 

[APISTOBORELLI]

Yeah, I hate to say it, but it sounds like maybe you jumped into this too fast. You might want to consider returning some fish and letting the tank cycle and settle down a bit. Especially if this is all only a week or two old.


On that note, if there's anything I can do to help, just ask. It's important not to get discouraged the first few months.

 

[daze123]

actually iv had the tank running for over a 1 and a half it was a 20 gal back then i just upgraded ... i threw in all my live rock in ...used same filters used all my old sand mixed with the new sand got lots of purple growth on the rocks... and i used about 5 gal of my old water when i started this tank about 2 mnths ago...so its not so new...just upgraded the tank

 

[daze123]

now that the amonia levels set in the vile for 20 mins it says its between 0.25 and 1.5 which isnt good either...prob gonna have to do a small water change tomarrow check the levels out again..

 

[daze123]

over a yr i ment to say maybe 2 yrs ? b4 i got a bigger tank and switched everything over

 

[APISTOBORELLI]

actually iv had the tank running for over a 1 and a half it was a 20 gal back then i just upgraded ... i threw in all my live rock in ...used same filters used all my old sand mixed with the new sand got lots of purple growth on the rocks... and i used about 5 gal of my old water when i started this tank about 2 mnths ago...so its not so new...just upgraded the tank

Even though it's part upgrade, going from 20 to 55 gallons only using 5 gallons from the old tank isn't really enough. I would have used it all. I would guess that it still is going through a cycle of sorts. The bioload from so many fish probably isn't helping. Can you set the 20 back up and use it as a QT tank? You could go hypo in the 20 and treat all the fish at once if you're real careful.

 

[smcnally]

Something is either dying in your tank, or your fish are too large/too many for the tank. The mandarin won't last long either especially if you son't have a sump or refugium for pods to grow out.

 

[daze123]

well thanks for the help...i guess maybe to much waste in the tank the puffer ate alot of my grass plants...and i guess that couldl b concidered as dieoff...i dropped in 30 gallons worth of green rather then a full 55 gal worth...2marrow ill head to the fishstore and pick up some water and do a water change and see where it goes from there

 

[Chris L]

I would think about maybe changing some of those fish in for smaller ones as well. they will continue to stress out and the ich will just keep coming back.

 

[daze123]

ok so this morning nothing really changed except it got to the madrain and the yellow tang its more noticable now....so i picked about 15 gal of water now...since the amonia an ph were off little im gonna do a water change.... should i stick with the medication also?.......and that fresh water bath ...how long should they sit in the fresh water for...b4 i swap them back into the main tank.....or do u think that would just cause more stress.