Spots on clownfish’s head?? What do I do?

[Michigan Reefer]

Nearly a week in the tank now and have noticed white/reddish spots on the forehead and body on each clownfish in the last 3 days. This tank is cycled with dr tims kit and has been running for 4 weeks now. Ammonia is zero and nitrates 65-75ppm. I’ve added more first defense, the stress relief product for dr tims.

Any advice? I did a 10% water change today. Nothing else in the tank.

Salinity 35ppt
Temp 77.8F

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It’s tough to ID issues on white clowns. Have you seen any fighting or posturing between them? Any flashing or scratching seen?

Your nitrates are oddly high for a one month old tank, but that isn’t the cause of this.

Jay

 

[Michigan Reefer]

I agree the nitrates are very high, and I haven't had any algae growth on the rocks with the lights on for the week.

Fish are acting fine with each other and swim around for food then back to there spots. They only eat a pellet or two each day. It's getting worse each day 1 with the female, and now the male has it on his body. I'm considering a large water change. It's only a 14 gallon nano. I don't want to disrupt this early cycling process however.

 

[Jekyl]

I agree the nitrates are very high, and I haven't had any algae growth on the rocks with the lights on for the week.

Fish are acting fine with each other and swim around for food then back to there spots. They only eat a pellet or two each day. It's getting worse each day 1 with the female, and now the male has it on his body. I'm considering a large water change. It's only a 14 gallon nano. I don't want to disrupt this early cycling process however.

You're not going to hurt anything from a water change. Can you please try a few more white light photos and a 20 second video?

 

[Sharkbait19]

It’s tough to ID issues on white clowns. Have you seen any fighting or posturing between them? Any flashing or scratching seen?

Your nitrates are oddly high for a one month old tank, but that isn’t the cause of this.

Jay

Does this look like the clown bruising issue to you?

 

[Michigan Reefer]

Here’s a the video. Hope it works.

 

[Michigan Reefer]

Does this look like the clown bruising issue to you?

It does look like some of the photos from the bruising pictures I saw on Jays thread. What’s the solution?

 

[Sharkbait19]

It does look like some of the photos from the bruising pictures I saw on Jays thread. What’s the solution?

To my knowledge, no solution has been identified to that problem. It can show up as a sign of other issues, but not much is known about the bruising itself.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It does look like some of the photos from the bruising pictures I saw on Jays thread. What’s the solution?

Ugh, those pictures do look like the clownfish bruising issue. I don’t know of anyone who has identified a treatment for this.

 

[Michigan Reefer]

Thanks everybody. Maybe i'll contact saltwateraquarium.com or ORA. That is where I purchased these premium snowflake clowns.

 

[Michigan Reefer]

It does look like bruising after seeing more pictures on threads. Someone mentioned a fresh water dip which helped some.

What exactly is this process? Just literally dip them in fresh RO water and for how long? I guess the idea is kill off bacteria on the body?

 

[Sharkbait19]

This seems to be more of an internal issue, so I’m not sure how much a fw dip would do.
Basically you just put them into temperature matched fw for 5 minutes. You can use tap water for it, as it is is typically better matched to seawater than RO.

 

[Michigan Reefer]

This seems to be more of an internal issue, so I’m not sure how much a fw dip would do.
Basically you just put them into temperature matched fw for 5 minutes. You can use tap water for it, as it is is typically better matched to seawater than RO.

Whoa 5 minutes in tap water? ok I'll see how the next couple days go and will try it if the spots continue to get worse. Would adding a UV-sterilizer help?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Whoa 5 minutes in tap water? ok I'll see how the next couple days go and will try it if the spots continue to get worse. Would adding a UV-sterilizer help?

Not really, that’s more of a technique used in ich management. Copper is all you will need.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Whoa 5 minutes in tap water? ok I'll see how the next couple days go and will try it if the spots continue to get worse. Would adding a UV-sterilizer help?

I found the original thread for this "syndrome".

Clownfish bruising/lesion?

All, Over the past two years or so, I've come across dozens of cases on the fish disease forum here of an issue with clownfish that we have not been able to identify. I've never seen it on any clownfish I've had myself, but the issue seems most common on designer clowns, which I don't work...

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