Ocellaris with black / dark blotches on lower part of the body

detran

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Greetings,

I never actually took it upon myself to join up until now, although I have been reading and following many of threads that are posted here at R2R. I can honestly say one of the most complete forums I've followed, that is a good work by the administrators and the community as a whole. :)

Well, I've been in the hobby for quite some time (on and off for 20+years, this is my 10th year in a row with reefs), and from time to time I've faced some dificulties as most, although I've been able to cope and find solutions to most of the issues I've come accrossed (many times with the help of R2R posts and such). As I mentioned, my reef tank is about 7 years, although I lost most of my corals and fishes to a defaulty water pump back in 2016, the reef has come back from then and haven't rushed things up.

The male of my ocellaris couple is showing some dark brown / black blotches in the lower part of his body going from the middle back to almost his tail, and I'm not certain of what it is. They have a symbiotic relationship with some sort of olive/brown Palythoas which have stablished for over 2 years. I've seen the female and male with stung marks before but they are always dark dots and not blotches.

I havent checked my params, this week, but I keep them at ~400Ca, 1300+Mg, 7.7+Kh, will check my phosphates as I did have a power outage today that lasted 5hrs (kept an air pump running the whole time), Nitrates <10ppm. I will check them tomorrow again to see if anything is off, even with the power outage I doubt it as all the corals and inverts are doing fine.

I do keep softies like zoas, pallys and mush, LPS Trumpets, Frog and hammers, and SPS a few Acros , monties chalices and such. Aside from the ocellaris, I also have a Cleaner Wrasse and a Mandarin fish on that system, as well as a Cleaner shrimp, few hermits and snails. The mandarin, wrasse and cleaner shrimp were added a few months ago and they are all eating and acting normal. My last addition was a frog that i got from a friend yesterday, he's reef is over 6 years old with a pair of ocellaris that have almost 10 years (from a previous reef) and I only dipped it in Revive and Lugol. It's doing fine right now. All my fish seem to be acting normal, I did notice the wrasse a bit awkward, however eating regularlly, but I will need to confirm it tomorrow.

I'm attaching a few pics of my ocellaris, I'd appreciate if anyone could share some info if you have come accross something like this before. I will pull the ocellaris out if it gets worse, but right now I'm only observing as he is eating and swimming well. Thanks before hand, any help will be appreciate it. Cheers from Brazil btw.

Ed

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tnw50cal

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I don't have a answer but would like to hear if someone does. A google search says it's from them getting stung by corals and the spots go away. Mine have the black spots as well.
 
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detran

detran

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I thought so myself, but I've never seen them with these many spots in the same area. They are usually isolated dark dots from one another, this looks like something covered the skin in some parts. I've also read that they could be related to aging spots/marks, this ocelaris is about 8 to 9 years old. Thanks.

Ed
 

tnw50cal

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Mine were born this year. That is a dino bloom--I'm nearing the end of it though because I'm winning it isn't. Was feeding day for the coral.
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detran

detran

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I'm sorry, are you talking about the slime on the substrate? I know dino's can get in the skin and gills of fish, however I think I would have an outbreak for that to happen wouldn't I? Substrate seems only a bit dirty but no slime. I did have a power outage yersterday, I added a Biodigest bacteria and stop ammo vial yesterday after the power came back on. The skimmer started to foam like crazy afterwards so I left it running without the collector top. The fish seems swimming normally, although I've noticed he opens his mouth from time to time widely. I'm attaching a new set of pictures from today. Thanks for the help and follow through.

Cheers,

Ed

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detran

detran

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Mine have those spots, has had them for about 2 years now.
Hello, thanks for your answer, this might seem like I'm bombing you with questions, I just want to know anything I can about it.
How old is your ocellaris?
Has it spread from when it started?
Is it on both sides, and which parts of the body?
Do you know if it is related to anything parasitic, fungal or bacterial?
Have you tried any treatment?
Is it just esthetic or are there any other complications, such as difficulty swiming, eating acting abnormal, is it contagious?

Thanks once again, and sorry for all the questions.

Cheers,

Ed
 

tnw50cal

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I don't in anyway think that the black spots are from a Dino bloom or any disease( I got my first Ocellaris 51 years ago and no he's not in the pictures). My present chain of thought about the spots is genetics. There was just a thread on here where a guy wanted to know how to grade and price his baby ocellaris clowns. Some babies looked just like a standard ocellaris, others looked like a designer ocellaris with some being fancier than others. All the babies were from 1 pair. I'm wondering if every ocellaris these days has some mixed up genetics. The one I had 51 years ago was not captive breed and never had any black spots. Back then it was thought that the sex of a ocellaris could be told by the center stripe-If it projected more forward in the center it was a male. As for the pink skunk if it had a orange line at the edge of the bottom fin it was a male. How wrong they were.
To some it all up the black spots are not at all a disease that has to be treated.
 
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detran

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Greetings,

Thanks for your answer, I know there are quite a few new looking captive bred ocellaris, however this is a common one, and has been for 8 to 9 years at the very least, completelly orange with only the regular white stripes, so I'm skeptical to think this could be related to genetics, prolly something to do with age or anything else.

Cheers,

Ed
 
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Just a quick update, just got this from WWM. It could be Hyper-Melanization as Will stated (coral stings), although I've never seen a pattern such as the one in my Ocellaris. Cheers.

Ed

Hello Will, thanks for your response.

I'll answer your questions directly on the body of the email. Cheers.

Ed

On Wed, Nov 20, 2019 at 5:31 PM WetWebMedia Crew <[email protected]> wrote:
-------- Original Message --------
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2019 11:25 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Ocellaris with black / dark patches

Greetings Will,
Sorry about that, I've resized them and resending them now, hope they are
small enough now. Thanks.
<They are fine now, thanks.>
I take the chance to thank WWM for all their knowledge sharing and advice,
it sure has help many aquarist around the globe:
<Thanks for your kind words Ed>
Well, I've been in the hobby for quite some time and eventhough I've seen a
lot I came across something I'm uncertain about.
<Let’s see>
The male in my ocellaris pair is showing some dark brown / black patches in
the lower part of his body going from the middle back to its tail, and
uncertain to what it is.
<Do these patches appeared suddenly?>
<<Yes they seem to have appeared suddenly>>
My pair have hosted some sort of olive/brown Palythoas for over 2 years. I've seen the female and male with stung marks before but they are always dark dots and not blotches.
<Maybe it was stung by another coral>
<<It could've been the new frog>>
I havent checked my params, this week, but I keep them at ~400Ca, 1300+Mg,
7.7+Kh, will check my phosphates as I did have a power outage today that
lasted 5hrs (kept an air pump running the whole time), Nitrates <10ppm.
I will check them tomorrow again to see if anything is off, even with the
power outage I doubt it as all the corals and inverts are doing fine.
<How about the other readings...ammonia, nitrites, ph, specific gravity, temperature?>
<<Haven't check ammonia, nitrite or ph for a while. SG is 1.025. I did have a power outage that lasted for 5 hrs and I placed an airpump through the whole time, temperature dropped to 24.6 but I keep it from 24.5 to 25.7 also used a biodigest vial and stop amo vial after the power outage>>
I do keep softies like zoas, pallys and mush, LPS Trumpets, Frog and
hammers, and SPS a few Acros , monties chalices and such.
<These can irritate the clown’s skin specially in small / crowded quarters; what is the size of your system?>
<<Is well over a 75g + 30 gal sump plus the frog is almost a foot to the left and half a a foot to the top away from where they stay in their pallys (It does have 1 green pally that reacently got mixed with the olive ones)>>
Aside from the ocellaris, I also have a Cleaner Wrasse and a Mandarin fish on that system, as well as a Cleaner shrimp, few hermits and snails.
The mandarin, wrasse and cleaner shrimp were added a few months ago and they are all eating and acting normal. My last addition was a frog that i got from a friend
yesterday, he's reef is over 6 years old with a pair of ocellaris that have
almost 10 years (from a previous reef) and I only dipped it in Revive and
Lugol. It's doing fine right now. All my fish seem to be acting normal, I
did notice the wrasse a bit awkward, however eating regularlly, but I will
need to confirm it. The female is showing a some dark patches but much less
than the male.
<I suspect the recently added Euphyllia may have to do with this>
<<Could be, but if it is far away should I worry about it going closer to the frog?>>

I'm attaching a few pics of my ocellaris, I'd appreciate if you could
share some info, or if you have come accross something like this before. I
will pull the ocellaris out the tank it gets worse, but right now I'm only
observing as he is eating and swimming well, although he does seem to be
swiming in the current and opening up his mouth widely from time to time,
I know this symptons resemble velvet, and I do have a Hospital Tank with
copper for about a month (covered with plastic to prevent aerosol
transmition) next to it and a QT tank on one side but I doubt it is velvet
or it would have already taken on the fish very fast and the patches doesnt
resemble velvet. One Idea that has come to my mind is predatory dinos after
the power outage. Thanks before hand, any help will be appreciate it.
<This appears to be "Hyper- Melanization" which is caused by stinging organisms like the ones you have, I’d see if the blotches disseminate to the rest of the clown’s body or if they fade away over the course of a few days, if not, you’ll need to remove the offending life form, this can be difficult to identify as it may be stinging the clownfish at night if/when the fish swims nearby and touches it... again, I suspect of the Frogspawn.>
<<Very well, I'll keep an eye for any changes, the patches seemed to be not spreading so that is good, and the clownfish is acting normal. Thanks again for your help Will>>


Cheers from Brazil btw.
Ed
<Cheers. Wil.>
 

danieyella

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My clowns are at least 12 years old (I took over the tank from a friend who had them 10 years, I've had them two) they completely ignore my anemone and were living in my torch coral for awhile - I'd see these marks on both of them during that time frame. In the last 4 months my zoa garden has become their new nest of choice and the marks were all healed up and gone. Last week my female took back to the torch and her belly is covered in black blotching. I'm inclined to believe it's a result of coral stings because my torch certainly doesn't want her there.
 

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