14 gallon tank ich

Question
Hello, i saw 3 white spots on my six line wrasse's tail. is there any way i won't have to quarantine my fish of empty my tank. also in my tank besides fish i have a fan worm chocolate chip sea star and decorator crab. thanks

Answer
Hi, Don't treat the tank with anything.

If you treat the tank, it's going to ruin it forever as a reef.

You can lower salinity to 1.021.  See if that helps.

If it's Ich and he's got spots on his tail, he may perish whether you treat or not.

If this were my tank, I'd feel bad for my fish, but I'd not treat the tank.  If he's easy to remove, you can hospitalize him in another tank and then treat him using a product for Ich, and meantime, leave the other tank empty for a month.  Any remaining Ich will die off while you treat your wrasse separately.  Long as there is nothing for them to munch on, they can't survive.

If you leave him in there and he dies, you should still leave the tank empty for a month.  The second you put new fish in, if you don't, the ich will attack.

It survives very well.  It's an extremely invasive parasite.

It will go through spurts if you continue keeping it in there, hiding in the rocks, not infecting fishes for months.  Soon as it decides, it will attack out of nowhere.  So, for this reason, I ask you to consider the empty tank method. :)

Happy fish-keeping and I will cross fingers for your little wrasse.