[mlawson231]

70 gallon reef tank a little over a year old.

Contains: 1 yellow tang, 1 Juvi Emporer Angel, 1 Starry Blenny, 1 blue neon Goby, 3 blue Chromis, 2 peppermint shimp, hermit crabs, snails, and hitchhiker brittle stars and feather dusters.

Corals include: Green toadstool leather, Xenia, white toadstool leather, Ricordia and other mushrooms, and a few zoanthids.

I cleaned the walls of the tank with a scraper last night because they had built up some coralline algae after my other scrub tool broke. The tank looked pretty murky but cleaned back up within the hour.

Water quality all tests good, except Calcium was down to 380 and Mg was down to 1140. I brought Mg up to 1200 and Calcium up to 420 last night using Seachem Fusion 1 and IONS magnesium. That was the most I thought I should raise anything in one night.

This morning when I woke up I noticed a white pimple (salt grain) on the side of my yellow tang. It was only introduced a couple weeks ago and I didn't put it in a QT. My first thought was, "great, now I have ich because I am an impatient idiot without a QT." On the same side it also had 4 little pimple like bumps with no white spots on them. It was acting a little aggressive last night, but was calmed down this morning so I thought maybe it was a little stressed with the dirty water last night.

I don't have a QT set up, but I have tanks available to use, so I started putting stuff together to build the QT. I ran out to get a hang on filter for the QT, and when I came back home just a few hours later the white spot was gone and all of the symptoms had disappeared! No bumps, nothing...

So I am stumped. Is it possible that the fish showed ich symptoms and lost them same day? Or am I jumping the gun by thinking it was ich? I don't want ich in my system, but if it was something else I don't want to stress the fish and go through the trouble of 8 weeks in a QT.

Any ideas are much appreciated.

This is my first post BTW. I have survived by researching these forums and love the advice you all give, but this problem seems to be something no one else has posted about. The crazy 5 hour ich infestation.

 

[ChiWing]

Welcome to TRT!

Part of the ich cycle is where the parasite drops from the fish. I suppose it's possible that you saw it right before it dropped, but you probably would've noticed it before then - I'm not up on my ich time lines, but I believe it takes a few days for it to get to the point where it's ready to drop off.

My clown goby has scared me before by getting sand stuck to him (he lounges in a toadstool that sometimes gets sand on it when I do water changes). Although that wouldn't explain the pimple like bumps you described...

In any case, short of quarantining all of your fish and running your tank empty for a couple months, there's not much to be done about it now. If it was ich, then it's already in your tank. Ich is in a lot of tanks though. If you're fish are healthy, well fed and, most importantly, not stressed then you shouldn't have an issue. I'd just keep an eye on things. Wishing you the best!

 

[Marine Monkey]

It was probably something stuck on him. Even if you have no sign of ick for years and nothing new is added for years ick can still pop up if there is a stressed fish. Tangs in general seem to be ick magnets.

One another note you have 2 fish that wont be happy campers for long in your tank first the emperor angel it gets quite large and will need a 220 or so gallon tank and even small needs a large tank. And your yellow tang will need 100 plus. Both these fish will want to be the dominant fish and or be stressed at not having enough space. Ich then could be a problem.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+18+411&pcatid=411
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+43+392&pcatid=392

 

[mlawson231]

Thanks for the input. So ich can remain in a tank without showing any signs for long periods of time if the fish are healthy? That really stinks. I am thinking about doing a quarantine just in case to make sure it is out of my system.

The tang and emperor are both still small and young. I have been looking for a larger tank to upgrade to, but the whole process of switching over has me worried. I don't want to stress out the fish or kill coral when switching tanks. Has anyone here ever switched to a larger reef tank successfully without stressing everything out? How should I go about it?

 

[ChiWing]

People upgrade tanks all the time. It's the nature of the hobby - very addictive.

If you plan on keeping the angel you should definitely upgrade - very soon and very large. Tank size recommendations are there for more than just the size of the fish. Size, aggressiveness, how territorial they are, how much they forage, how far they swim, etc are all factored in. Even babies have these needs and can get mean and territorial. And also stressed. By keeping inappropriate fish in your tank you risk stressing all the residents, which opens them to infection and disease.