Clown fish w/ white spots

cthegame

cthegame

Reef enthusiast
I was checking my fish and noticed nothing wrong with my two Ocellaris Clown Fish. Literally 3 hours later I look again and I see a few white spots on them. So I figure I better act now while it just happened. However, I don’t have a quarantine tank (not yet…) and I just don’t know what to do.

I immediately took them out of the main tank (which wasn’t easy but finally managed to catch them) and put them in fresh water for about 8 mins. After I took them out, I put them in a separate bucket with new saltwater (low gravity). I checked on them about an hour later and noticed most white spots were gone (there wasn’t many in the first place since I believe I caught them pretty early) but some are still there. I connected my skimmer to the bucket for water movement and some degree of filtration until I figure something out.

I cant afford to go out and buy a quarantine tank with all the right equipment at the moment. I don’t want these little guys to die. They seem ok so far but I don’t know…I don’t have any experience with treating this and don’t know if I should buy any medication.

By the way, I have only another yellow tang and 1 damsel fish. Both are ok. I know its best to remove all the fish but my tank is 80 gallons and its just impossible to catch them. Also, I noticed that when the clowns were still in the main tank (with the spots), the yellow tang was being extremely aggressive towards them. He was never this aggressive before. The clowns were not being bothered before the spots…any connection?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.
 
Sounds like the onset of ick. Which could of been cause by stress from the tang. Keep a close eye of them because them little guys can die in 24 hours. I know because it happen to me. Who was put in the tang first? They sell ick med but a lot of people just do water changes and low selinity. Keep a close eye on the other fish.
 
Sounds weird.

You can continue to use the bucket as a quarantine tank for them. Make sure that you have a little heater and a little water movement.

If it is ich, you will have to treat with copper. I have no doubt that if you return them to the main tank, the ich will just reappear. And it will probably spread to your other fish too. Do not treat anything in the main tank with copper, or else everything in your tank will be contaminated with it and you won't be able to keep inverts.

Ich is (supposedly) always present in all of our systems, but outbreaks occur when the animals are stressed. Try and pinpoint the cause of the stress for the clowns and remove that trigger. Was the tang bullying them before they got sick? Have your temperatures and salinity stayed stable and correct? What are your water parameters at? Have you added anything new to the tank lately, or changed your routine?
 
yes biff is right ick is always in the tank. ick has a cycle first just a few white spot then many in time with temp around 82 will speed cycle up will mature on host for 3 to five days then fall off hatching many many eggs this is when the ick is killed (will not die when on host)if not killed now outbreak will get worse and then lot of white spots so begin treat with copper fish should be quarantined for at least 10 days 14 better to be sure that you have stopped the cycle
 
Bifferwine said:
Whoa holy punctuation Batman!!! ;)
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Remind you of somebody you know or knew?I give you a hint,the first letter is ''J'' and the last is ''N''.

I can't count how many times I had clowns get ick.All of those times it went away on there own.All I did was made sure they were given a healthy diet and all parameters were normal.
 
keep the clowns in a bucket and put the damselfish in another and the tang in another for 2 months,with a heater at 80 degrees farenhite,some kind of filteration,coper,formula 1 marine pellets and your fish dhould be as good as new .ask your LFS if they have any styrofoam boxes then you could keep the tang and damsel in one and the two clowns in the other.also you might want to have a floresnt light over them
 
Bifferwine said:
Sounds weird.

You can continue to use the bucket as a quarantine tank for them. Make sure that you have a little heater and a little water movement.

If it is ich, you will have to treat with copper. I have no doubt that if you return them to the main tank, the ich will just reappear. And it will probably spread to your other fish too. Do not treat anything in the main tank with copper, or else everything in your tank will be contaminated with it and you won't be able to keep inverts.

Ich is (supposedly) always present in all of our systems, but outbreaks occur when the animals are stressed. Try and pinpoint the cause of the stress for the clowns and remove that trigger. Was the tang bullying them before they got sick? Have your temperatures and salinity stayed stable and correct? What are your water parameters at? Have you added anything new to the tank lately, or changed your routine?
Click to expand...

The clowns were not being bothered by anyone before. Within that small timeframe I noticed the tang really acting up on them…The tang was introduced to the aquarium first but honestly, the clowns were much more aggressive before. Suddenly everything changed…very weird.

So about actual medication, what brand do you guys recommend? I don’t know who I can trust in the aquarium stores…one wrong advice and my tank could become a disaster. So I would prefer not to use any medication but if I must, what is recommended? Also, if the clowns last for a few days and the spots are gone (without any medication), can I assume that they have gotten better and are on their way to full recovery?

When should I put them back in the main tank?
 
no keep em all in the QT for 2 months and i belive that i use formulin .3 it worked for me once and didnt work for me what ever you do copper kills inverts so dont put it in your main tank.also do you have a uv?
 
hibye said:
keep the clowns in a bucket and put the damselfish in another and the tang in another for 2 months,with a heater at 80 degrees farenhite,some kind of filteration,coper,formula 1 marine pellets and your fish dhould be as good as new .ask your LFS if they have any styrofoam boxes then you could keep the tang and damsel in one and the two clowns in the other.also you might want to have a floresnt light over them
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I tried but I cant catch the tang or the damsel. The clowns were much more friendly and easier to catch. The other two I cant. But luckily the tang and damsel are ok. though I wish I could catch the damsel and return it to a LFS. But I cant. So they will have to stay in the main tank.
 
there is also the two net method I have seen used in the LFS

Use a big net that goes most of the way across the tank and a little one to try and chase the fish into the big one.

Brian
 
bjohanson1234 said:
there is also the two net method I have seen used in the LFS

Use a big net that goes most of the way across the tank and a little one to try and chase the fish into the big one.

Brian
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Been there and done that. No luck. Its a large tank with too many places to hide. The tang as the biggest fish manages to disappear somewhere and not to be found until i leave him alone... Only way i see this happening is by removing all the rocks which i really dont want to do. It took me a whole day of setting them up until i got the perfect design. If i remove the rocks, i will never get this design back...:(

Ultimately if i have to, i will but until then, i'm hoping there are better ways to treat this. but at least both the infected fish are out.
 
For the fish that are in your main tank still and do not yet show symptoms of ich, buy some garlic extract. I know that SeaChem and Kent Marine both make garlic extract for fish. Start soaking their food in garlic at every meal. This will boost their immune systems and their appetite so hopefully they do not end up with ich like the clowns.
 
If you dont want to treat the fish with copper,then your best bet is hyposalinity.But to do that,you have got to have a refractometer.

As for the treatment,SLOWLY drop the salinity in the bucket(qt) to around 1.009 or so.Leave them there for one to 2 weeks,then SLOWLY bring the salinity back up to match your main tank.

The idea is that the ick parasite is an invert,therefore cant deal with the low salinity.
Of course that does nothing for the eggs that are in your tank.
Which ever way you decide to go,Good luck with it.
 
C -

How big were the spots, and where were they located?

I'm just asking b/c it could be something other than ick, and didn't doesn't get knocked off (or so I've heard).

Do some googling to see if you can find pictures of what your clown's spots look like, and let us know.

Also, I would plan on treating for 4 weeks in order to fully break the lifecycle of ich. If not, plan on treating over and over and over.
 
mann1139 said:
C -

How big were the spots, and where were they located?

I'm just asking b/c it could be something other than ick, and didn't doesn't get knocked off (or so I've heard).

Do some googling to see if you can find pictures of what your clown's spots look like, and let us know.

Also, I would plan on treating for 4 weeks in order to fully break the lifecycle of ich. If not, plan on treating over and over and over.
Click to expand...

I cant find any detailed info on google…the spots were on their fins, body, head. But they are all gone now. I went and bought a 10 gallon tank and put them in there. They seem pretty happy right now.

But I thought ich is always present in the tank. If that is the case, whats the point of the 4 week cycle if any stressed fish will be come susceptible to it. So I assume that making sure the fish aren’t stressed to be the best treatment. Is that true?
 
Yep. If you minimize aggression between fish in the tank, keep the salinity and temps stable, keep the water parameters good, you will have a much less likely chance of ever seeing ich. Ich is always present in the tank, but the point of quarantining and treating them is so that they don't get overrun with it all at once.
 

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