Possible Ich

[rajuncajun]

I noticed the other day that my blue azure damsel (only fish in the tank) was roughed up a bit. then today i noticed some small white dots above his head. however he still eats like crazy and swims around normal. i do not notice him scratching on any rocks. he sleeps inside a hole in one of the pices of live rock at night and i just added some hermit crabs so could this be part of the problem. i was heading to the LFS today to get a yellow watchman but if this is ich i dont want the yellow watchman to get it as well. sorry i cant get pictures i dont have a digital at college with me but any help would be appreciated.

[crvz]

hard to say without any pictures, but I'd monitor it for a couple weeks before adding anything else to the tank.

[rajuncajun]

fed him some brine shrimp soaked in garlic. ate it like crazy. Noticed one of the hermits sitting in front of the damsels hole he sleeps in at night. do you think a scarlet or jade hermit would grab at him and cause any noticiable markings.

[jenglish]

well, I wouldn't think a hermit could get to a damsel but you can never say for sure what a crab WON'T do. A hermit kind of sees everything as a potential food source. I suppose maybe if he caught the damsel sleeping

[Loverotties]

Don't add anything till the ich is gone because they will get it also.I'd feed it the food and add the Garlic.since it's a damsel (very hardy) and I bet you don't have a qt tank.I'd lower the temp and salinity to kill the ich if it's a Reef tank or FOWLR.

[rajuncajun]

yeh its a reef. well kinda. only one green starburst in there right now my temp is around 76-77. what should i lower it to. also correct on the qt tank. pretty limited on space

[crvz]

I wouldnt do any in-tank salinity or tank temperature changes, it should only be done in a hospital setup. Watch the fish for a week or two, and report back. If things don't progress, I wouldnt worry about it.

[rajuncajun]

after going to the LFS today i saw two clowns that had ich. now i do not think that my blue azure (hudini) has ich, if he does its in early stages and hopefully the garlic will help. moved the rockscape around to so if it was the crabs hopefully they will leave him alone now. the lady at the LFS said that they do that in her tanks some time. but i will keep on eye on hudini and kepp ya'll posted. once i get a digital camera i will to a tank thread but until they hope everyone elses tank stays good. thanks for all the advice.

[rajuncajun]

well hudini is still being fed the brine shrimp soaked in garlic and seems to be doing fine. no more white spots on him and he is acting normal. funny how all the snails jump out of the sand when they smell the garlic. thanks for you help. also have not added anything to the tank. gonna hold off for a while. also got some tiny aiptaisa so gona get that under control before anything.