Clown with progressively worsening white spots

[Subarody]

I have 2 clowns a lawnmower blenny, wheelers goby and pistol shrimp in my 29 gallon. Clowns were the first fish added and have been in for about a year and a half. I noticed a white spot on the larger clowns upper body about a month - month and half ago and thought nothing of it as I never saw it scratching etc. These last 2 weeks the white spots have spread dramatically. Visible along the top just below the fin as well as in front of the pectoral fin. Also see spots around the mouth. The smaller clown is also showing some white spots. I thought it could be flukes so I treated the tank with prazi pro and after 4 days the clown seems worse. Both fish are eating and behaving normally. No signs of spots on the other 2 fish. Am I dealing with Ich? All fish were treated with prazipro in a QT tank before entering the display but both the blenny and goby were only quarantined for about 12-14 days.

I’ve been battling Dino’s and from early December I dramatically increased the nitrates and phosphates up from 0 to about 15 nitrates and 0.1 phosphates. Other than that the tank has been stable. Specific gravity 1.025. Temp 78-79. Feed frozen mysis, flake and some pellets.

I had torn down my QT and cleaned it after a loss of a 6 line wrasse following prazipro treatment. QT is currently 6 days into cycling using an aqua clear 30 and included media (minus the carbon) I’m using seachem stability to jumpstart the cycle and have some Microbacter 7 on hand.

I have cupramine, paracleanse, rally ruby reef and Maracyn 2 on hand. No easy access to other meds living in Canada.

many suggestions as to what this is and how to proceed would be very much appreciated.

 

[fishguy242]

@MnFish1 @Tamberav @threebuoys @nereefpat

 

[Sharkbait19]

Could you get a pic on whites?
Hard to make out. Are the spots on the bases of the fins and gills?

 

[Subarody]

Could you get a pic on whites?
Hard to make out. Are the spots on the bases of the fins and gills?

I’ll try get a pic when the whites are on today. The circled areas are what I’m talking about. The spot I first noticed was a whitish raised bump.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Based on location my first guess is that it is lymphocytosis. It’s too patterned to be ich (which does look similar, but it also will first appear on the fins). If lymphocytosis, there really isn’t a treatment, but it goes away over time with clean water and low stress. It typically presents itself due to some stressor.

 

[Lavey29]

Looks like brook to me which always seems to originate with clownfish in the tank. That's why they call it clownfish disease.

 

[MnFish1]

I do not think it's brook.
Have you added any other fish or corals to the tank recently?
Do the spots come and go - or are they always in the same place?

Lymphocystis usually starts on a fin -as @Sharkbait19 said. It is usually seen with poor water quality or poor diet. Its caused by a virus - and is contagious to other fish - by direct contact (which probably explains why the other clown has spots also. I wonder if you prompted it when you bumped up the nitrates.

I would make sure you're feeding well - and maintaining water quality. This does not sound like CI - and should not require treatment.

 

[Subarody]

No new fish or coral in the last 3 months. White spots started with one or two for probably a month and just lately took off in the last week but the other clown only has one or two spots right now. They’ve never gone away since I first saw them.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they were stressed from water quality changes. I made a point of getting the water “dirty” by adding nitrates and phosphates to the tank to combat Dino’s. That was over the month of December and into Early January. The Dino’s appear gone and have now been replaced by lots of lovely green algae. I can deal with that slowly to get parameters back in check and hopefully the water quality will stabilize again.

 

[Tamberav]

I can't see much from that pic... too blue.

There may be some tiny raised bumps that look like ich but really need a better image.

 

[Lavey29]

I do not think it's brook.
Have you added any other fish or corals to the tank recently?
Do the spots come and go - or are they always in the same place?

Lymphocystis usually starts on a fin -as @Sharkbait19 said. It is usually seen with poor water quality or poor diet. Its caused by a virus - and is contagious to other fish - by direct contact (which probably explains why the other clown has spots also. I wonder if you prompted it when you bumped up the nitrates.

I would make sure you're feeding well - and maintaining water quality. This does not sound like CI - and should not require treatment.

What leads me to believe it is, first it's a clownfish and second is the cloudiness development along the dorsal area. My clowns developed the same about 1.5 months after being in the tank.

 

[Subarody]

What leads me to believe it is, first it's a clownfish and second is the cloudiness development along the dorsal area. My clowns developed the same about 1.5 months after being in the tank.

Doesn’t Brook usually sweep through the tank or at least the affected fish in a few days or can in be in the tank for awhile without affecting fish?

 

[MnFish1]

What leads me to believe it is, first it's a clownfish and second is the cloudiness development along the dorsal area. My clowns developed the same about 1.5 months after being in the tank.

The problem is it doesn't look like brook - and the length of the symptoms doesn't really match brook. And most importantly - seems to look quite a bit like Lymphocystis.

Having said all that - better pictures under white light are essential.

 

[Lavey29]

Doesn’t Brook usually sweep through the tank or at least the affected fish in a few days or can in be in the tank for awhile without affecting fish?

In my experience it has a build up phase. My clown were showing spots and cloudiness for about a month. Being a new reefer, I did not know what it was because they were still eating and swimming fine and other fish had nothing. Then over a 48 hour period 5 fish succumbed quickly including the clowns.

 

[Lavey29]

The problem is it doesn't look like brook - and the length of the symptoms doesn't really match brook. And most importantly - seems to look quite a bit like Lymphocystis.

Having said all that - better pictures under white light are essential.

Hope for the best plan for the worse.

 

[Subarody]

In my experience it has a build up phase. My clown were showing spots and cloudiness for about a month. Being a new reefer, I did not know what it was because they were still eating and swimming fine and other fish had nothing. Then over a 48 hour period 5 fish succumbed quickly including the clowns.

Sorry that happened. Hopefully my case is something else. I should be able to get some proper pics in about 3 hours or so. Thanks for all the replies so far!

 

[Lavey29]

Sorry that happened. Hopefully my case is something else. I should be able to get some proper pics in about 3 hours or so. Thanks for all the replies so far!

I hope so to. I love clowns I think they are beautiful and the perfect reef fish but unfortunately I will never add one to my tank again. Good luck to you.

 

[Freenow54]

When you figure out what you need keep searching Amazon. I live in Canada as well, and found everything I need. However don't wait until you need it. Been having a discussion elsewhere, and apparently the same thing is raising its ugly head in the US. Meds disappearing off of shelves. Hopefully it is a State by State thing, and not Federal like ours

 

[MnFish1]

Hope for the best plan for the worse.

I think this is a good philosophy. I would not do a formaldehyde dip, though - nor treat for cryptocaryon - Again really nice to have more pictures

 

[Subarody]

Here a few more photos. 2nd photo is the smaller clown and has one raised white spot just above his right pectoral fin. The other two photos show the white spots concentrated on the the pectoral fins and just below the dorsal fin. It honestly looks better today than it did last night. Also the blue light almost enhances the visualization of the spots. In the last pic there are two brownish spots - one below the dorsal fin and one just behind the pectoral fin. These were raised white spots 5 days ago.

 

[Subarody]

Any thoughts on what it is or whether I should treat this?