Sick Fish!

[rocketeer]

Help! One of my bannerfish is turning black in his head area and is getting an open sore I think. It just started today. He has some white stuff that could be ich. Can ich turn your fish black?

My regal tang is usually the one that gets ich but he is fine. The other bannerfish looks fine too for now.

Water chemistry is pretty good except that pH has been a little low, around 8 to 8.2. I've been adding buffer for a few months now trying to bring it up. Calcium is also a little low at 350 but I don't think the fish cares much.

I have a 10 gal running that I can QT him in. No inverts. But I'm affraid the small space might be too stressful for him. He's small, about 3 inches long.

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~rocketeer/Temp/SickBanner.JPG

Jack

[Richard]

Are his eyes cloudy or is that just from the flash?

[Reef69]

sorry to hear that your fish is sick, the only 2 things that kill ich are copper and hyposalinity, the size of the QT wont matter since he wont be there for a long period of time, maybe 2-3 weeks. ich on tangs can turn black, known as black ich..but since its not a tang i dont know if it applies, try hyposalinity..1.014, thats how low i go..alot of the parasites will fall off and die, hope this helps..

[OldSalty]

your ph IS NOT low, it's rite in the ball park. don't mess with it.

[RobertG]

Yeah, don think PH has anything to do with it. Mine stays at about 8.24 Hope the fish can be saved. Good Luck! How long have you had this fish?

[rocketeer]

His eyes don't seem cloudy to me. I've had these two bannerfish since February. They were small when I got them, maybe 1.5 inches.

I had a big bout with ich during April and May. During that my regal tang had it worse and the bannerfish never showed it much. I fed a lot of garlic during that time. I think the introduction of a second skunk shrimp (still there) tipped the scales in my favor. I haven't had much trouble since.

Can I use a fresh water dip while moving him to quarantine? Will that cause a lot of the cysts to fall off?

Jack

[rocketeer]

Oh yeah, I forgot a big symptom. The white cysts, they look kind of like salt. The cysts are not black, just the skin.