What's on my trigger?

[jason604]

So I've got my trigger for about 2 weeks now and today was the first day he actually came out n chill around tank all day. Normally he just hides under a rock. I notice something near his tail. It doesn't look like ick it's too big n not fully white. Is this bad? I did not quarantine him but I did. Inspect him when I bought it and he did not have anything on him before. He still eats like a pig and looks super happy. My hippo tang that I bought same day as him did get ick the day that I swap tanks(must have stressed him) but it went away the very next day and he's super happy n eats tons. Should I be worried about my trigger or is it just a scrape on the rocks? He's my fav fish!

[gregzz4]

Could it be missing scales from a battle or rock collision ? Or does it protrude ?

[jason604]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

Could it be missing scales from a battle or rock collision ? Or does it protrude ?

It's slightly protruding. Can it be just swollen from crashing into rocks?

[gregzz4]

Near as I can tell in the pic it looks like damage and missing scales/skin. If I'm right the pattern doesn't look like a disease, but don't quote me

Whether I'm right or not, keep your water quality up (water changes enough to make a difference - 25 to 50% at a time) and feed well. No ammonia or nitrites and low nitrates

If it's a healthy fish it'll heal on it's own given a clean environment and lots of nutrients

[jason604]

My water is not good right now. Since I did my tank swap I forgot to put my Gfo and carbon reactor! Checked phosphates yesterday and it was at 0.19. Almost all my sps turned brown or bleached. Doing a 25% water change Tmr.

[gregzz4]

Carbon will make a difference, but I can't see PO4 affecting water quality for fishes. Either way, don't overdo these right now as you'll more than likely cause your corals more stress, so take it slow

Check your ammo, nitrites and nitrates and base your WCs on those #s

[rishu_pepper]

From what I've read, ich doesn't go away unless you act upon it (TTM, copper, CP, hypo) so that means ich is in your system by now, judging from what you said about the hippo tang. Just because no fish shows symptoms doesn't mean it's not there.

Hopefully your fishes will be fine, but IMHO it's something to be taken care of.

[rishu_pepper]

Even if the ich is not visible at the moment (no white spots or rapid breathing), the ich is already in the system, unfortunately, which means all current livestock (and future) and live rocks in the tank can and are carrying it. The only sure fire way to get rid of it is to leave tank fallow for 72 days, while treating the fishes with TTM, copper, CP, or hypo.

I'm about to set up my new tank and this is what I'm gonna do. Furthermore, consider QT so future additions won't get it.

[jason604]

That's too much work n trouble. Just gonna keep feeding n keep them happy. Fishing each out now n isolating system will stress n make things worse imo.

[untamed]

I don't think ich has anything to do with how your triggerfish looks. They don't tend to be the first fish to show problems with ich. My guess is that is an injury, which will be gone soon enough. I agree with your strategy of feeding and general healthy practices.