What are the chances

[Xtreme1024]

Unfortunatley I noticed that my royal grama, skunk clown and blue hippo all have some white spots on their fins. The Royal Grama is the only who seems to be occasionaly scraching on the sand, the other fish seem fine. There are all swimming and eating fine, along with everyone in the tank getting along. Could this be ich or something else, if so how do I treat being that I can't catch them.

[DaveK]

Originally Posted by Xtreme1024

... Could this be ich ...

Most likely it is ich.

Bottom line, you catch them and treat in a quarantine tank. Yes, you may have to remove almost all the live rock to do it.

At the risk of repeating myself, borrowing from a previous post of mine -

In my opinion, there is no reef safe medication. No matter what is printed on the bottle, no matter what the LFS says, never ever medicate a reef system period.

Always remove the livestock in question and treat in a quarantine tank. The reef you save may be your own.

[lcstorc]

Originally Posted by DaveK

Most likely it is ich.

Bottom line, you catch them and treat in a quarantine tank. Yes, you may have to remove almost all the live rock to do it.

At the risk of repeating myself, borrowing from a previous post of mine -

In my opinion, there is no reef safe medication. No matter what is printed on the bottle, no matter what the LFS says, never ever medicate a reef system period.

Always remove the livestock in question and treat in a quarantine tank. The reef you save may be your own.

There is no better way to say it. Do an image search for marine or saltwater ich just to be sure what you are dealing with but if it is the fish need to be treated in a qt tank with either hyposalinity or copper while leaving the display fish free for 6-8 weeks.
It is honesly the only way to rid your reef of the parasite.
Now there are ways to boost the immune system of the fish (garlic and some others) that can increase the possibility of the fish living through the infestation and even developing and immunity but the parasite will always be there waiting for a stressed fish and then strike again.