white spots on clownfish

[GEAS]

I'm a newbie on nano although I have years of experience with freshwater. My clownfish has white spots all over and I know it is infected with something... just don't know what it is. It's like ITCH on freshwater but I can't give them methyline blue because it might kill them... You guys are veterans with nano. I would like to know the name of the disease so I could 'research' more about it and what medications should I give my fishes?

 

I only got 2 plate corals, 2 anemone and 4 little clownfishes on a 15g. Don't you think I am overcrowding them? Honestly, I think there still alot of space left for more but since I am a newbie, I'd like to know the views of maestros before I add more...

 

Thanks in advance!

[neumahrs]

just describing it as dots doesn't help too much...It could be several things..Most likely though it is a case of ich. Ich isn't a real big deal so don't worry about it. If you had some cleaner shrimp they can remove and eat most of the ich parasites off the fish. Garlic supplements to their food can help. Also a recent product has come out that is completely reef safe and will remove parasites, but haven't had any actual experience with it. I also think melafix should help the ich problem.

 

Your tank is way over crowded. in fact more than 2 clowns is pushing it. Remember the fish will grow...give them the space. You have anemones. how long have you had them and how much light do you have over the tank?

[NaNO ReeFiN]

What you're describing sounds like ich.. I personally would remove two of the clowns as four definitely is way to many.

[GEAS]

It looks like ICH all right... My fw fishes had them once and I gave them Methyline Blue... do you guys think it's OK if I give them some? BTW, two of them already died and I guess if I dont get rid of those parasites the other two might also die. I also dont have any shrimps. Can't find any petshop that sells them... Actually, there are only half a dozen saltwater petshops here in Manila.

 

And neumahrs, I have my anemone (white with blue tips - dont know the name) for more than a month now. It looks like they are 'easier' to keep. I don't have actinic. I only use one 20w florescent and one 10w tfc-blue. I turn them on from 5:00PM (as soon as it starts to get dark) and turn them off at around 9:00AM. I also have just one small pump 10g/min and I used my fw sponge filter.

 

Petstores here tells me that you can't successfully keep them on a 20g. Guess they haven't heard of nanos yet.

 

Thanks for replying!

[NaNO ReeFiN]

Why would you turn on your lights at night and off in the morning? Fish need downtime to rest you know... They're all probably all stressed out because you're giving them light 24/7! Try turning them on in the morning and off at night. Please..

[GEAS]

My room is not that well lit and my corals and anemone seems to wither when I turn off the lights. I was afaid that they might die if I didn't give them enough light for the symbiotic algae to photosynthesize enough sugar for them. Why do they wither anyways? Is it because they too are sleeping?

 

Another thing, I also sleep with the lights on.

 

Guess, I have to separate the fishes from the corals so I could give them different doses of lighting... hmm... do you think it's a good idea? I guess my anemones are still alive because of of the 24/7 lighting scheme. I've read on one site that they don't usually last that long on captivity... Another interesting note too is that the my anemone spreads it's 'tentacles' when I turn on the lights and it curls up like a ball when its dark. Guess it's also sleeping

 

Thanks again!

[tinyreef]

if you can't get a cleaner shrimp try a cleaner goby (neon). very good and hardy with little bioload and very effective.

 

you may want to raise the temp. to about 80~82F. tangster on about.com's saltwater forum just noted recently taht he prefers to accelerate the ich thru its life cycle (keeping fish stress to a minimum). iho the secondary infections are the killers rather than the ich itself. he's got over 30 yrs. in marine aquariums so he may have a clue.

 

another option can be hyper/hyposalinity. you find more written info on hyposalinity (low) but anecdotally i've found hypersalinity to be just as effective.

 

whichever option you select you should do it gradually to limit stressing the fish as that will kill them for sure. other than the goby option, i would lean to the temp. option as you have other inverts in the tank that may not take too well to salinity issues.

[reefskunk]

and yes, the corals do "sleep" while dave Espi and other core members do not.

[Keiko]

SW Ich is different from FW Ich. I've been through the majority of the treatments out there that are "reef-safe" and IMO they do not work.

 

Adding another fish would only add to the stress on your system (and existing clowns).

 

IME, hyposalinity in a quarantine tank is the best bet. Adding garlic extract also seems to do wonders for their immune systems.

 

Best of Luck~

[chvynva916]

I (my two sebaes) recently recovered from a bout with sw ich, as well as some sort of skin fungus. I turned the temp in the tank to 84 for a few days and the clowns quickly recovered. Remember, if the conditions in your tank are good the fishs' immune systems can sometimes solve the problem better than you can.

If you still fear ich, fish-vet makes a product called no-ich that is completely reef safe. You can buy it at www.petsolutions.com. Good luck!

[zumzumn]

Put your fish that has ich in a hospital tank with the gravity to .018 , make sure the temp is at about 78 and leave the lights out. the gravity set low is perfectly fine for fish only tanks, but with inverts you will have a problem. take care of the fishies naturally. hope this helps you out!