This post is long and may be confusing…I apologize ahead of time.
Background: I have just got into this hobby about 3.5 months ago and I am learning quickly. Tank has been up 3.5 months. Fish have been in for about 2 months now. Water parameters are good. I did start hitting the tank with chemicals about 7 days ago now (reef chemicals like iodine, kent nano reef A & B ,etc) but followed the directions exactly.
I am 80% certain that my clown fish has black spot disease (Black Ich). He matches pictures on the internet of it and I found him scratching (at least that is what I think he was doing)last night. Bad pictures of my fish can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/jfarabaugh/Fish# (if you use the magnify option you can see the black spots). They have doubled in number since I took these pictures about 36 hrs ago. I will try to get some good video of the spots on youtube later this afternoon and will update the links on this post Other then what I think was scratching (he was shaking very fast in the water last night 3x but not up against anything but he did the same thing once in the sand making a small hole all within a 5 minute window) he is acting completely normal. I am going to pull him out of my main tank (29 biocube ) and put him into QT for a copper treatment (can’t treat my main tank as I have corals and crabs). Getting him out should not be hard as he is very curious and will probably come up to check the net out. . I am 100 % open if anyone has any other ideas, suggestions, alternate diagnosis.
In the main tank I am going to hit it with a UV sterilizer and Ich attack http://www.novalek.com/kordon/ich_attack/index.htm . Yes I know that it these methods will not kill it completely but IMHO it is better than nothing at this point.
If it is black spot disease the clown fish is not my big problem….
I have a lawnmower blenny in my tank and he has no signs of the disease what so ever as of this morning. Getting him out of the tank will be next to impossible. Has anyone heard of blennys getting black spot disease? It is my understanding that black spot is not as aggressive and deadly as regular marine ich and it tends to attack tangs more than anything else.
To top this all off I leave for a 10 day business trip on Wednesday…talk about awesome timing.

Whoa, slow down.


It could just be stings from the clownfish hosting corals, which is very common. What corals are in the tank?

its not black ich....black spots appearing on clownfish is normal. DO NOT TREAT THIS FISH>

REPEAT: DO NOT remove this fish, put in quarantine, or treat...

you do not need to use a UV sterilizer or the Ich attack. pretend the spots do not exist and carry on....they will dissapear in a few months...more may appear but do nothing.

very common noob concern, btw....

Yes i am a noob
I greatly appreciate the quick response and it sounds like you are very knowledgeable within this hobby. My concern would be this though…..what is the difference between black spot disease and what my clown is showing now? I only ask because this hobby is very opinionated and most of the time people’s opinions are not 100 % correct. PLEASE don’t take what I am saying the wrong way as this is just a statement in general and in no way intended directly towards you.
The spots have doubled if not tripled in number in the past 36 hours and what was seen in the pictures but he is acting himself for the most part. I would just hate to be away for 10 days (yes someone is coming to check on the tank and do the basics) and have them suffering/dying.
I am very protective of my investment and my pets.
To answer the other post…..Corals are polyps and toadstool mushroom leather.

I have had this happen to 5 pairs of false percs that I have owned....(10 fish total) every pair developed the black spots, covering them to a alarming point to where I would be concerned if I didnt know better....tons of research pointed to the fact that this is normal and not to treat. there are literally dozens of posts online about this....

I care about the wellbeing of animals so much I hate to even kill a bug...I would never give advice to jepordize the health of your pet....ever. Animals entrust their entire lives to us, I never take this responsibility lightly...ever.

I am 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999% sure that what you have is not black ich....

as such, to pull him out of the tank and shock him and cause him undue stress is a large concern of mine as well...it makes me sad to even think about.

look, I'm so sure its not black ich, I'll paypal you the cost of a replacement perc....I'd rather do that than hear youve pulled out a fish and treated him in a tank for a disease he most certainly does not have.

to repeat, black spots on percs is normal....a dramatic increase in spots is normal. It will go away. Do not treat this fish.

Finally, I dont post when I dont know answers like some do on this site....I'm not on here posting to get my post count up like some wierdos do here....I lurk on this site daily since 2004....I have read more about this hobby than I would ever care to admit....I assure you I am correct in this case.

Wow!
I won’t pull him....didn’t want to unless it was highly recommended. I will keep an eye on him and post back if anything changes.
I really appreciate the help!

I know who to track down now in the future if I have an issue.

PM me anytime.

What am I? Chopped liver?

As promised a video of my clownfish with his spots. With the awesome video quality that is YouTube it is nowhere near as clear as the original. It helps it you view on full screw and at certain points you can see more spots then at other times. He is still acting normal and I hope burtbollinger doesn’t change his diagnosis after seeing it
In any case I want to try to document this is clearly as possible so others don’t freak out over what is possibly nothing to be worried about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPZqaKq38VM


Sorry Lalani, I had added a reply to you in one of my previous post

To answer the other post…..Corals are polyps and toadstool mushroom leather.

he's awesome, nice and fat. thats 100% normal spotting...not "black ich." will likely get even more spots over the next few weeks...it can get really crazy...very alarming to see to the untrained eye.....but within a few months, they will disappear.

EDIT, in my experience, clowns dont even need to be touching corals for this to happen. wierd, I know.

Suuuuure.


Great vid, that's totally normal to see on a clownfish.

Thanks to everyone for your help. I will try to get some more picutres later on to document this even more.
thanks again!

much clearer pictures uploaded
http://picasaweb.google.com/jfarabaugh/Fish#

a little late to this, but my clowns have this too.... It is just from hosting or touching other corals.

I'm glad I found this thread! My false percs one of them just got black spots. I'm glad it's nothing big.

Update

All but a few of the black spots are gone and my clown is doing just fine