Help with treating my Lemon Butterfly fish for ich

I bought a 2 inch long lemon butterfly fish last friday this morning after doing a water change i noticed it had white spots on its fins and tail, it still eats like a pig but i am pretty sure this is the beging of ich, could it have been the water change that caused it, or did it have it all ready? Also i need help with ideas to treat it, its in a 75 gallon reef and i can't catch it in a net to put it into isolation. So any ideas should i just go down to my local fish store and by a cleaner shrimp

 

If its eating, that's very good! Keep him eating! Get some selcon and garlic to soak his food in to keep him eating and healthy!

He already had ich, but something stressed him out or weakened his immune system!

You can either take out your rockwork to catch him, or youtube "fish trap" and try that! But if he's eating, I would leave him be for now! MINIMIZE STRESS!

Cleaner shrimp do nothing for ich! They can't get to where it lives on the fish!

Personally, I would go get the garlic extract and selcon and keep the fish eating that! I would also get some medication as well, and get your self a hospital tank set up if you can!

This details the above better! Make sure you read vinny's simple ways to avoid ich link!

http://www.3reef.com/forums/diseases/ich-101-noob-noob-128391.html
Good luck! Minimize Stress and keep him eating!

 

+1 if you just added him and you dont have an overstocked tank chances are he was just a little stressed from his new home. as mentioned as long as he eats thats a good thing, i would not bother with catching him QTing him and all that stuff but that just me. keep an eye on him, make sure no one is bullying him and he should recover on his own.

 

i tried feeding it this morning and it seems to have stopped eating, any help

 

IMHO

Take him out, and any others with any spots. Hospital Tank them with Copper Treatments. QT is for when you get the fish from the LFS, etc. Can be the same tank however.

Get a strong UV filter for the DT, with a flow slow enough to kill some things, but enough flow to turn the tank over at least twice per hour.

Good luck.

PS- I usually buy fish when they've been in the lfs for at lest 2-3 weeks. Reputable stors have the date the fish gort to the store on the sale sticker- usually hand written. Then I quarantine with either copper, of PrisiPro, of both for at least 10 days to 2 weeks.(This is NOT the standard QT intervals, I usually cut it short a bit)

This has kept my tank Ich/Fluke free for months now.

My 3 cents

 

Unless you plan on removing all your fish catching infected ones will be a waste of time. I would try some Garlic soaked foods or Selcon and see if you can't get it eating again.

 

thanks for the advice i got it to start eating again with some coctail shrimp pieces, and it seems to start having a recovery

 

Just make sure the shrimp is uncooked.