Ich Velvet or simply fighting sound?

Fellersjohn6 · Apr 18, 2020

Hi, I have these two mai tai clownfish and what is going on is that my tank passed through a wipe out of ich/velvet (I’m not sure to be honest) and all my fish end up dying so I just left the tank empty for 7 weeks the fallow period and just two weeks ago I bought these two clownfish (they where from the same tank and were hosting together at the store) I quarantined them for two weeks and just three days ago put them together in my display tank, so since the second day the bigger fish show this spot on one side only and since that didnt get worse or better, I got so upset thinking that the ich/velvet was back but they don’t show any more symptoms of it (how the ones before that died did), so they are doing what I think maybe fighting each other (but I already read about that when they are getting along they will do some behavior of fighting), so the question is what is really that spot on my fish? Ich/velvet? They are fighting and I need separate them? The larger one attacks the smaller and leaves him stuck in the corner frequently. Maybe he has another kind of infection? What makes me think that it’s not ich/velvet is that didn’t get any worse for 3 days it’s just this one small spot that maintains there and they don’t have another symptoms, please help me!
(The anemone was eating that’s why was closed).

Uncle99 · Apr 19, 2020

I don’t think your fish has ick or velvet if you only see 1 dot and no other (odd) behavior.
If they eat, breath and act normal, then there’s no parasite.
The area you circle looks like a “fight” mark, some amount of aggression is normal when a new environment is introduced. As long as the aggression is not 100% of the time, then just keep an eye. If one always pounces on the other, all the time, with no breaks of peace in between, then you can pull the aggressor out for 48 hours of separation, then reintroduce. You can do this several times. If one never gives up and is relentless in hassling the other, then one goes back, and opt for one that is much smaller, say 1/2”.

Scape · Apr 19, 2020

So firstly check the behaviour of your fish..if they're acting normal like clowns do swimming around eating normally not swimming against the current near powerheads or scratching around on rock/sand etc they might be ok..might..it sounds like you fallowed your tank but 7 weeks ime is not enough you need to fallow for at least 10-12 weeks to let the parasite completely finish its lifecycle...there is a plethora of invalaubale information on this forum about ich/velvet/parasites/quarantine so you wont be short on info and answers from way more experienced and respected reefers then me..also you need to quarantine for longer 30 days Minimum on all new fish some do longer to be on the safe side, observe the fish for the first few weeks and then treat accordingly.

Fellersjohn6 · Apr 19, 2020

Uncle99 said:
I don’t think your fish has ick or velvet if you only see 1 dot and no other (odd) behavior.
If they eat, breath and act normal, then there’s no parasite.
The area you circle looks like a “fight” mark, some amount of aggression is normal when a new environment is introduced. As long as the aggression is not 100% of the time, then just keep an eye. If one always pounces on the other, all the time, with no breaks of peace in between, then you can pull the aggressor out for 48 hours of separation, then reintroduce. You can do this several times. If one never gives up and is relentless in hassling the other, then one goes back, and opt for one that is much smaller, say 1/2”.

Thanks so much for the advice so the bigger one seen above is the bully definitely not ich or velvet but fight wounds as you suggested- last night I saw them get into it and following that he has another bite wound and the little one is missing a bottom fin- they have been separated- any advice to offer on next steps, the aggressor has been very aggressive even with himself slamming into glass sometimes.. thanks in advance