Percula clown has black spots and ragged fins

[jeddy]

Being fairly new (tank 4 months) I was hoping someone could help me diagnose this. My percula has many small black spots on the orange portions of it's body only. None on the white stripes and none on the translucent portions of the fins or tail. The spots look almost like a rash. Doesn't look like any ich I've seen. The clown is eating and acting normally, isn't scratching on the live rock. I have a 90 gallon reef (0 ammonia, nitrites, nitrates,alk 8dkh, calc 430, ph 8 to 8.4). None of the other fish have any black spots or frayed fins.

He has no anemonie and so has tried to bond with my first my elagance and now my flower pot. Is he getting stung? Anybody have diagnosis/advice?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[naesco]

Did you recently add the clown?
What other fish do you have and have recently added?

 

[jeddy]

Clown has been there about two months. Have added a small purple tang and a royal gramma since. two yellow tail damsels, a three stripe damsel, and a lawnmower blenny preceded him. Fish all seem to have there territories and there aren't any fights.

 

[Anonymous]

That tang may be the key. Tangs can sometimes get/carry what is called Black Spot disease. It appears that clowns are also able to catch this disease(I'm sure that other fish can get it too,but it is commonly seen on these two fishes in particular). Your clown sounds like it has Black Spot disease. You may want to get a closer look at that tang to see if he has it.

A freshwater dip usually rids them of this pest.

GL

Dan

 

[jeddy]

Thanks Dan.

Anybody know of any sites with pictures of black spot disease? I'd like to see if it looks the same as what my clown has.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[reefhope]

Sounds like you might also be describing Marine Velvet...I read about this in "The New Saltwater Aquarium". If I remember correctly clownfish are susceptible to this disease.

Do research this as I can remember this book describing it as a very fatal disease although I do not recall what it said about this disease being contageous to other inhabitants. Good luck.

 

[todd22]

My two little ocellaris clowns have a very similar problem. I too have seen Ich and it does not look the same as this. Ich is more like tiny black beads, my fish have tiny black patches. I am not sure if this could be an earlier stage of Ich or what. Please anyone with experience help me out, and jeddy let me know the results of your problem.

 

[Rich-n-poor]

sounds like black spot to me also I was just at the LFS and they have a treatment for this but I dont know if its reef safe it contained...picric acid as the main ingrediant but that spelling is from memory hope this helps ive never had it in any of my clowns

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economy discussion

 

[Rich-n-poor]

did some research since there seems to be alot of discussion on ich here is a website that has been helpful to me and discribes the various types of ick and black spot disease just click on fish diseases when you get there

about.com

HTH

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Powerlet

 

[Goldmoon]

Here is a page on black spot disease:
http://www.vin.com/PetCare/Articles/Fish/PCF00508.htm

Does it look like that?

If not you can do your own diagnostic here with the help of this webpage.. I would have tried it but since I do not have all the answers about your fish it would be best for you to do it.
http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aquasite.com%2Fknowledge%2Fdisease%2Fdisease.shtml

Works great for usual diseases.. not sure about that one though

 

[todd22]

It looks similar to the spots on the above fish but not quite as dark. Terry, are you sure you know what Ich looks like? Because i lost a yellow tang to Ich and the tiny dots were definitely black, and they were definitely Ich.

 

[Terry B]

TMC,
Lets put it this way, I get paid to know what I am talking about when it comes to ich and other fish diseases. Black spot is not actually ich. It is a worm-like parasite. It is commonly called black ich, but the treatment is totally different. Common ich is Cryptocaryon irritans and it is definately white. Amyloodinum or velvet can appear to be white but is actually more of a beige and the spots are much smaller and harder to see.
Terry B

 

[todd22]

terry,

I have never seen white Ich, but I have seen what is refered to as black Ich and It looks like tiny black beads. WHat my fish have now is more like blotches. Not sure what it is but I think I found out what caused It so maybe you can help me out. Today I found one of my fish dead and a rank smell coming from my sump. AT first I thought It was the fish smelling but I removed him and still smelled the terrible odor. Finally I found the source of all my problems. I recently put in some caulerpa which apparently was rotting. So I removed the caulerpa cleaned my skimmer and put It on overdrive. I am hoping this will stop any further problems, but please let me know of any course I could take to help my little clowns.

Thx

 

[Terry B]

Ich and velvet are not black. Some clowns get some black on them as they mature. If it looks like pepper on the fish then it is probably black spot. The most effective treatment is a series of formalin dips. Other things that sometimes works is FW dips or a couple of weeks in hyposalinity.
Terry B