Clownfish have white fluffy spots

[ELM]

Hi all,
I'm new to this hobby, so advice very welcome, but please go easy -- I'm sure I've made lots of mistakes, trying to get up the learning curve quickly.

I recently got a few clownfish (normal orange, black saddleback, an ice cap, and another white) in my 60g reef tank. (Also have hawkfish, flame angel, hippo tang, velvet damsel, lots of invertebrates and coral). Dipped them when I got them. Seemed happy and healthy for a few weeks. A couple of the orange developed white spots which quickly turned to what looks like white cottony areas. I just noticed that the black ones now have it, and I can even see it on the white ones. I've treated with Rally and Kick Ich for about 10 days with no improvement in the spots. They seem to be eating well, no labored breathing, not hiding (more than usual), not flashing/scraping, not hanging out at the power heads. They do seem sluggish. None of the other fish seem affected, just the clowns. I'm ready to tear the tank apart to catch them and QT them, but I really need some advice!

Can I get some help identifying what they have so I know what direction to go in to treat them?? I was thinking Brooklynella, Velvet, or Ich, but the treatment for each seems really different. Any and all advice/links very welcome.

Thanks very much!
-E

(Help IDing the fluffy algae in the last pic would be great as well!)

 

[Dj City]

Looks like velvet to me. I could be wrong though.
I'm sure other people will come in.

 

[BostonReefer300]

I’m no expert but that could be a fungal infection. However, I think that usually happens as a one-off if a fish gets injured and then fungus takes hold in the wound. This happened to one of my yellow coris and I cured him by doing a methylene blue dip followed by paraguard treatment in QT for a week. It’s also possible that whatever is on your power heads rubbed off on the clowns and it’s not an infection at all. If I had only seen the black clown pic, I’d be tempted to say ich. Curious what others think

 

[ELM]

I’m no expert but that could be a fungal infection. However, I think that usually happens as a one-off if a fish gets injured and then fungus takes hold in the wound. This happened to one of my yellow coris and I cured him by doing a methylene blue dip followed by paraguard treatment in QT for a week. It’s also possible that whatever is on your power heads rubbed off on the clowns and it’s not an infection at all. If I had only seen the black clown pic, I’d be tempted to say ich. Curious what others think

Thanks for your thoughts! The growth on the powerheads (and virtually everywhere in the tank, actually) took off when I turned the skimmer off when I started treating with Rally and Kick Ich. Woke up one morning to a tank full of it.

I forgot to mention that the one clown I did manage to catch and put in a QT tank appears to be clean after about 3 days.

 

[ELM]

Looks like velvet to me. I could be wrong though.
I'm sure other people will come in.

Thanks. I keep going round and round. I hope this looks/sounds familiar to others.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I see a variety of possible issues. The saddleback clown is getting picked on by something, you should try to figure out who and separate them.
Some of the white lesions look like Brooklynella, but I can’t confirm that as you say the fish are still feeding, and Brook would cause them to stop. I also see some spots that I can’t rule out as being marine ich.
I think you need to move all of the fish to a stable quarantine tank (no ammonia) and treat with coppersafe and then with prazipro.
Jay

 

[ELM]

I see a variety of possible issues. The saddleback clown is getting picked on by something, you should try to figure out who and separate them.
Some of the white lesions look like Brooklynella, but I can’t confirm that as you say the fish are still feeding, and Brook would cause them to stop. I also see some spots that I can’t rule out as being marine ich.
I think you need to move all of the fish to a stable quarantine tank (no ammonia) and treat with coppersafe and then with prazipro.
Jay

Thanks very much! I hadn't noticed how beat up that saddleback looked until I saw my own photos, lol.

How long after treating with coppersafe should I wait before using the prazipro?

I forgot to mention that I also have an antenna goby with a pistol shrimp sidekick. Should I move the goby to QT and leave the shrimp in the DT??

Thank you again!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks very much! I hadn't noticed how beat up that saddleback looked until I saw my own photos, lol.

How long after treating with coppersafe should I wait before using the prazipro?

I forgot to mention that I also have an antenna goby with a pistol shrimp sidekick. Should I move the goby to QT and leave the shrimp in the DT??

Thank you again!

Ah, yeah, best to leave the shrimp behind. They aren't going to be happy about it, but leaving them together in either the display or the QT won't work out I'm afraid.

My typical coppersafe treatment is 30 days. If, during that time, the fish have symptoms that could be flukes, you could do a 5 minute FW dip to buy some time. Some people dose Coppersafe and Praszipro at the same time, but I've not done that myself, so I'm hesitant to suggest it.

Jay

 

[ELM]

Ah, yeah, best to leave the shrimp behind. They aren't going to be happy about it, but leaving them together in either the display or the QT won't work out I'm afraid.

My typical coppersafe treatment is 30 days. If, during that time, the fish have symptoms that could be flukes, you could do a 5 minute FW dip to buy some time. Some people dose Coppersafe and Praszipro at the same time, but I've not done that myself, so I'm hesitant to suggest it.

Jay

Thanks Jay! I really appreciate your advice! I lost a few clowns in the move to the QT tank, but they probably would have succumbed anyway. My partner questions whether the fish that show no signs of illness should have been moved out of the DT, but I think it makes sense to really clean up the DT and make a fresh start. Corals and inverts are still happy and healthy.

Thanks again,
-E