black spots on clown fish?

[MattN]

i just noticed this morning while switching everything from my 20l to my 40 that my clown fish have got some black spots on them....i put some new coral in yesterday from my buddies tank cause it had a leak in it...i put a torch coral zoas and green star polyp didnt know if maybe there was a hitch hiker on them or not....he didnt have any fish in his tank at all....if u have any ideas what this could be pls let me know thanks

 

[Reefing Madness]

Black Spots, like as in peppered black spots??
Black Marine Ich

 

[MattN]

yea kinda how did i get it....i dont have any other fish and all i added was some coral

 

[Reefing Madness]

Eggs on the Coral. And I don't think fish ever rid themselves of it. Stress em out enough and they show it.

 

[MattN]

if it is black ick my cleaner fish should clean it off of them right

 

[Reefing Madness]

Well, kinda, they will pick at it yes. Can't really cure it though. Same with a Cleaner Shrimp, they'll give it a good run. As long as the fish are healthy, not stressed out, and are still eating, I'd not worry about it, unless you plan on moving the tank around more.

 

[MattN]

i ment cleaner shrimp lol i not planing on moving them anymore and they dont seem to be bothered by it and still eating like pigs just didnt know what the spots were

 

[Tahoe61]

Could have been hypermelinization from the stings of an LPS coral, my guess the Torch coral.

 

[Captain Nemo]

Agreed. That's my thoughts....

 

[MattN]

i seen some ppl talking about that it could be stings but i have never seen them try to host anything...maybe they brushed up agianst it....they are still eating like pigs and it doesnt seem to be bothering them...i guess time will tell thanks for all the help

 

[glb]

My clownfish had the same spots when I had only zoas in the tank. They tried to host them. It caused no problem in my case. I think they were stings from the zoas.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Stings from Zoes?

 

[glb]

Yes. I posted picks on the forum and that was the consensus. The spots looked like freckles.

 

[glb]

The fishes tried to host them!

 

[MattN]

Thats what these look like freckles in um

 

[Tahoe61]

It is quite common for Clown fish to present with black spots (hypermelinization) after exposure to corals that the Clown does not normally reside in. To build up the mucous layer on the surface of the skin the Clown must repeatedly expose the surface to coral or anemone. Many times this is corals of the Euphyllia genus, Torch, Hammer and Frogspawn. It's easy to see why a Clown might try to take up residents as the corals looks like a Clowns natural host, but come with powerful sweeper tentacles.

 

[glb]

Mine didn't seem bothered in the least by it.

 

[MattN]

Yea they seem to be acting normal

 

[dannyd_]

Hypermelinization or disease? This was an overnight thing and nothing new has been introduced for months