ICH or not ? very strange

adrianleewelch · 12-16-2003, 05:47 AM

a few days ago I added some hermits to my tank, and called a buddy to tell him, he said he had either ICH or velvet and got it from a clown from Petco, I knew right away Id have probs cause my hermits came from petco's clown tank. anyway soon thereafter all of my fish were covered in little "dots" look like small grains of white sand or sugar, well by mid afternoon it had all dissappeared and I thought that was part of the life cycle of ICH and that it would return in a few days after the reproductive period in my sand, well the next night it returned between midnight and six am., but once again it completely dissappeared by mid day, this cycle has been repeated 4 times now, the only trace it leaves are some miniscule dark spots where it was on my Naso, Is it either burrowing in where I cant see it, or dropping off due to either strong lighting or warmer water during the day ? the fish seem completely unaffected so far, my only option is a 20 gallon QT, but I feel it would be too small for the naso, yellow tang, 3 clowns and a flame angel, especially for a month. Does this sound like typical ICH behavior ?? Is it a different parasite altogether ??

tims · 12-16-2003, 06:24 AM

sounds like something else to me.
i have battled ich before and once it is attached to the fish..it does not let go.....

stupid question.... you do not have any micro bubbles in tothe tank that could be sticking to the fish?

adrianleewelch · 12-16-2003, 06:29 AM

I do get some bubbles from the sump, but they never stuck to em before, and they leave those dark spots on the naso where they were, and the cleaner shrimp used to jump on and off of the fish, now it seems they arent even slightly interested, bummer

Geoff · 12-16-2003, 09:52 AM

if the fish are eating fine and otherwise seem unaffected i would just wait and see. it is strange that the cleaner would not be wanting to eat them off the tang though. a lot of these cases you end up stressing the fish more by taking them out than the problem you are trying to cure.

i am also not a disease person.

G~

Prismaco · 12-16-2003, 11:24 AM

1 word.....PETCO.....enough said....when I went there to get some dog food I stroled throught the <>< area and over heard one of the people talking about his salt water tank. Guess he took some water in to get tested. Anyways, to make a long story short he didnt have enough salt in his tank so the person said..."just drop a couple spoon fulls of salt into your tank and it will fix it...." no mixing nothing, and I am thinking in my head, " what a total dumb *ss..." anyways, I would stay away from Petco..support your LFS!!!....

-Paul

512148048 · 12-16-2003, 12:22 PM

wow yeah petco same here the last of the hope for the fish at my petco left and went to my LFS. if u do have micro bubbles in the tank then they might be stressed a little and not makeing ther slime coat so the bubbles stickto them.

A1C scooter · 12-16-2003, 12:23 PM

I got a clown form petco he was fine for 2 or 3 day then he got some small dot on him that look like sand.I took it to LFS I was told it was a parasitic disease and to use Dip-A-Way for 7 days. I did the fish is fine and it never came back.

Prismaco · 12-16-2003, 02:15 PM

A1C scooter - Travis Air Force base in Sacramento ?

-Paul

A1C scooter · 12-16-2003, 02:22 PM

It is about half hour from Sacramento CA.

adrianleewelch · 12-16-2003, 08:52 PM

well I knew better than to go there, I have a good LFS but I was wanting to build up the cleaner crew and they never got in any snails or hermits for 3-4 weeks, so I opted for petco, stoopid on my part, so I go up there just to tell them they have a bad tank or 20 (prolly all on 1 sump) and they got defensive, started saying "well you knew there was no warranty, sounds like your fish were stressed already, probably poor water, why dont you let us check it, and we can sell you a QT tank" can you believe that ??

XburningempiresX · 12-17-2003, 01:12 PM

i had the same problem my Foxface gets lil spots (they are white, look like pimples) but then they go away for a few days then come back. I did not get it at Petco, but i did get 3 other fish (one i got right when their shipment came in before it could go into their tanks) from them and a few hermit crabs. The trouble is also that Petco and many of the LFS all get their fish from the same wholeseller(s). As bad as i know Petco is... not a single SW fish i bought there has died or had any problems.