Is this Ich on my clowns?

[jap1]

I bought a pair of percula clowns on Friday and since Saturday morning they have had a bunch of white spots all over them. Saturday afternoon they kind of went away, but then by Sunday morning they were back again. Now they are once again not as prevalent, but this seems to be a cycle. I'm really worried that they have ich. Here are some pictures that give an idea of what it looks like. They are kind of blurry so it is hard to see the spots very well. Also on the back of the tank I have similar looking spots. There are even spots on my margerita snail. Is this part of the Ich cycle? I have been checking these fish out for about a month now at the LFS and they seemed healthy there and looked perfect. They are still acting healthy and are eating just fine. I did however see the female rub herself on the sand as if she was itching. She just did this once though. Do you all think this is really Ich or just a sign of stress? I'd hate to go through all the measures of quarantining and medicating if I don't have to. They are the only fish I have so I don't think they could have gotten it from my tank, but I don't know. Any help would be appreciated.

The Tank
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/flutterby_404/tankpic.jpg

The Female
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/flutterby_404/cac086ee.jpg

Different Angle
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/flutterby_404/872594b9.jpg

The back wall w/ spots
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/flutterby_404/ad54d9eb.jpg

[Ross]

Spots on the back are tiny featherdusters, spots on the fish look like ich or maybe beginning stages of velvet.

[jap1]

Man, that's what I thought, but didn't really want to hear!!

What should I do?

[GaryP]

The spots on the back could also be snail eggs.

[Ross]

If that was mine, i would feed them mysis soaked in garlic for a few days, and see if that clears it up. If not, clowns do well in copper, and hyposalinity is an option also.

[GaryP]

Copper and hyposalinity should onbe used in a quarantine/hospital tank. Not in your display tank.

Ich and similar diseases are usually the result of some sort of stress such as high temp. Take a look at your system and see if anything there is the cause. Temperature, water quality, food, aggression by other fish, etc.

[jap1]

Well, I am pleased to say that they seem to be doing much better. The female has almost completely cleared up and the little male has half the spots he did on Sunday. I have been feeding them shrimp (the kind that come in frozen cubes) soaked in garlic, metronidazole, and Focus. The medicated shrimp once in the morning and once at night. Throughout the day I feed them non-medicated bits of shrimp that have been soaked in the garlic. They seem to love the shrimp this way and they are seemingly getting rid of the ich. Gary, thanks for referring me to Richard. Hopefully they will get rid of it completely. One things for sure, I don't think I'm getting another fish for a few months, and when I do I'll have a QT ready to prepare it.

[GaryP]

Gary, thanks for referring me to Richard.

Your welcome, that's why we are here.

Just a note about FW dips. Richard discussed this at the meeting at CB. I'm trying to quote him here and I may mess it up. If so, my apologies to Richard. Anyway, he said that the Ich parasites are buried to deeply into the fish's tissue to be effected by FW. The dip mainly just further stresses an already stressed fish. FW dips do work on external parasites such as flukes.

[jap1]

Richard told me that a couple of weeks in a hyposaline evironment works really well. Seems like that would be better than stressing them out.

[GaryP]

He's talking about quarantining in hypo, not a dip in FW.