Is this ich?

[kappa]

damn, I think my clown got ick. On my clowns right pectorial fin is a small amount of what looks to be white jelly. Kinda looks like rose anenome poop stuck on the fin. I might have to do a hopital tank thing. My Blenny is also in the same tank as the Clown, and he seems to be doing fine. I don't know how the clown caught the disease.

 

The white specs has been on the right fin for about 3 days now. I will be reading on ich deasease posted on this fourum to see if it is ich on my clown.

 

 

Currently I am not sure what to do, If this is some kind of illness, somebody please tell me how to treat it. The fish looks very healthy, and swims about. I will do my water cheacks today, and post it up.

[pyrrhus]

bad pic, cant tell if it is ich or not, however if it hasnt spread in 3 days i would think that it isnt. could be lymphocystitis

[Tempest]

Ich/Crypto parasites (when on fish) are typically about the size of a grain of salt. They are not fuzzy. Fuzzy sounds like a fungus or possibly amyloodinium. Each get different types of treatment. It's also possible that something just stuck to the slime on its fin. See if it stays there, spreads or multiplies. A better macro shot of the area in question would be helpful. A good sight for basic disease diagnosis and treatment can be found here:

 

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-j...shdiseases.html

[kappa]

I wish I could take a better shot of the white slime on the fins on the clown but it took me 30 minutes just to take that one shot. I guess my camera isn't good enough for macro shot.

 

The disease does not seem to be spreading.

 

water quality:

 

amoania 0

 

nitrate 0 possibly 10

 

nitrite 0

 

pH 8.0 (stuck at 8.0, using Kent marine pH buffer dKH)

 

Tank age

 

33 days

 

Thank you for posting the disease web page. I saw the ich photo on the Chaetodon, my clown definitely does not have ich(thank god), must be something else because it is not grain(sand?) size.

[reefmaster]

its cotton wool desease im sure!!

 

treat your fish with some anti bacterial med it will do it.

its often mistaken for a fungus but its a bacteria not a fungus so go to your lfs and ask for some anti bacterial med.

 

its in the blood so if your fish fight ur blenny might have it too so watch out tho cya good luck!

[kappa]

whoa! cotton wool? how did you know for sure? please tell me quick, so i can drive over to my lfs and get the med immediately.

 

I will research cotton wool immediately.

 

Thank you!

 

update:

 

i found the treatment for cotton wool here

 

I just hope I can rid of this disease.

 

I will first water change, and gravel clean. Then remove carbon bag as suggested py the website.

 

I think the Blenny caused it the disease by nipping at the clowns fins! grrrr...

 

Well i finished replacing a gallon of water im off in a hurry to the LFS to get the medication!!! IM OFF! BYE!

 

Thank you reefmaster!

[Tempest]

Columnaris is a FRESHWATER disease. I'm not sure if it has a saltwater counterpart. Do a search to find out.

[kappa]

yeah, the lfs said it is some kind of fungal disease.

 

The medication i bought is Neomycin, it cures all kinds of diseases.

 

I got a clean buket, added the maxi-jet 600 to it to aerate it, and also a ebo jagger 50w to heat the water up to 79F.

 

I added the medication to the water.

 

The medication comes in capsules for 10 gallons of treatment per capsule. I had to open the capsule and dump in just a little.

 

Since there is no filtration, I will do a gallon of water change to my 2.5 gallon hopital tank for my 1 inch clown every day.

 

Wich me luck guys, i hope all goes well, my clown is still alive today, from the bucket hospital i setup yesturday.

[pyrrhus]

more than likely you are dealing with lymphocystitis. there is no treatment other than improving water quality. doing the constant water changes will help. BTW fungal infections are EXTREMELY rare in SW fish.

[kappa]

I don't know, but the the guy at the LFS told me that he got 11 years of experience, all I can say is, I probably didn't do a good job of discribing to anybody what this disease really look like. It is small, about 1 mm in size. It is stuck on the small pectoral fin edge below the clown. It appears to be slimy. It is not spreading to any other part. It has been 5 days from when it appeared. The fin that that is infected is still able to move. Clowns swimming ability is not impaired. clowns ability to breath is normal. CLown does not rub against rocks. Clown eats. There is not really anything else I can say about it. I just hope that the medication will help.

[Sushi]

what type of sand ru using? this might be silly but when my brackish figure 8 puffers sleep at night, they get knocked out on the sand bed (white florida fine grain sand) and when they wake up, they usually have a trail of sand dangling off their belly. it looks EXACTLY like the pic u posted except it's WHITE. after swimming around a bit, the sand falls off and the fish is back to normal... when i see the sand on their belly it's definitely not slimey, it just looks like dangling sand. i duno if this is your case or not but just providing an observation

[kappa]

well it is very difficult to tell what kind of disease that my fish may have. It may be that a piece of poop from the rose anenome had attached itself to the clown's fin, but I doubt that. I have no idea waht it is still, but atleas I am trying to treat it. I just don't want my clown to suffer should it get worst.

 

I hope it my clown's fin heals soon, he has been in the hopital bucket for 3 days now.

[pyrrhus]

i doubt that any "treatment" you are giving the fish will work. it is most likely lymphocystitis, this has no treatment. just put the fish back in the tank and do regular water changes. dont take my word for it do a search on lymphocystitis on google or at www.saltwaterfish.com you will see the light. i cannot stress enough that the "treatment" you are using is probably going to cause more issues than anything else.

[kappa]

okay I will put the fich back in the tank tommorow, I was just afraid that it could have been contagious, and spread to my Blenny.

 

Thanks for the info, I will research lymphocystitis now.

 

Update:

 

Great If the disease is Lympho, then the disease can spread in my Nano CUbe if I place the clows back in the cube.

 

from http://www.versaquatics.com/saltwater_dise...se%20charts.htm

 

"Caused by the virus Lymphocystis, this disease is fairly easily identified by the warts/lumps that spread over the body. The virus enters through lesions, and is passed on from disintegrating old tissue. Oftentimes the affected fish's own immune system will allow the fish to recover from this ailment. However, this may take several months. Treatment should include quarantine."

 

 

 

I will do another water change in my Nano cube.

[pyrrhus]

do the research before you put the fish back in teh tank. and in the future remember that the LFS will always have a "surefire cure" for anything that a fish may have its just a sale to them.

[kappa]

other then what I can see on my clowns fin, There is no other symptom, possibly due to early inffection.

 

If it is cauliflower disease like you say it is, then it should go away on it's own, but if it is not.......I don't know what it is.

 

I agree with you about the LFS trying to sell me anything.

 

"Lymphocystis is not fatal and it is debatable whether it is highly contagious. While not fatal, fish may die due to untreated secondary bacterial infections."

 

cited from http://www.aquariumconnection.com/saltsol/...sease_desc.html

 

I belive the transfer of the clown form the store to home, aggresive chase from the Blenny, and biten by the Blenny.

 

Thank you for your help, I will be transfering my clown back to the Nano cube in a day or two just to be safe.

[kappa]

Today I did almost 3 and a half gallon water change to my 12 gallon nano cube. Then I transfered the clown back to the nano cube. Testing the water from the hospital bucket, amoania level was 0.8, I don't know how my clown survived it. Indeed that level of amonia reading was shocking, even after I did 1 gallon water change to a 2 gallon everyday. The hospital bucket was a bad idea, but it was something I just had to try and learn from. I think a hospital tank setup would be much more proper with lower risks of fish fatality.

 

 

Today I put my clown in a cup for viewing him up close. I can see now that the white nodule has become two nodules of the exact same size, and is next to the other nodule. I conclude that this disease or rather a virus is indeed Lymphocystis, and can not be treated. The cause was probably due to stress bringing the clown home, and the Blenny stressing him even more, leaving the clown vulnerable to the virus.

 

For this reason I had made an effort to change as much water I could to make the nano cube water higher in quality.

 

pyrrhus do you have a hospital tank?

[pyrrhus]

of course. i always have a place ready for sick fish or corals, never done a water change on it for nearly 4 months and it runs off of a powerhead with a sponge filter. heaters help with temp stability but i dont usually use one.

[kappa]

what is in your hospital tank with the powerhead and sponge filter? Any live sand and live rocks?

 

update:

 

I bought a visio 5.5 rantangle tank for usse as a hospital tank.

 

At this moment, there is only 9lbs of live sand in there, and a Maxi-jet 600.

[pyrrhus]

until i sold him the other day i kept a sixline wrasse that was just too spunky for my reef. i do have a few pounds of live sand, not really sure how much since i work at a LFS and get it for free, maybe half an inchs worth in a 10g. no live rock since i like to use copper meds for parasites and it will kill many of teh beneficial organisms on teh rock. in your case some good cured live rock wouldnt be a bad idea since you wont be medicating. i do have some "grotto rock or lace rock" in the tank for aesthetics and a place for fish to hide. according to most sources all you really need for a QT is a sponge filter(air or powerhead driven) a heater, and some pvc tubes for fish to hide in. keep an eye on water parameters and do water changes if water quality starts to slide.

[kappa]

Yeah, thankks for the advice. Using bacterial removing medication brings me to wonder about their use. What kind of bacteria does the medication eliminate? Wouldn't the medication just detroy the benificial bacteria in the ls and lr?

[pyrrhus]

antibacterial is antibacterial. they are pretty much indiscriminate in what kinds of bacteria they destroy. thats why antibiotics wreak havoc on your guts when you take them for an infection.

[kappa]

yep

[kappa]

I think my clown is finally dying. All he does all day is sit on the sand, and appears to have breathing problems. I can see that the virus somehow spreaded to another part of his fin, another small noudle can be seen near the body, but still on the ventral fin.

 

I test the water for the qt, and all is good, but I am not sure, so I did not put the clown in the qt. I hope he can live through this virus infection.

 

update: clown has died, and I have buried him outside of my house.

 

Note to others: Becareful not to stress your clown fish on the trip home by making sure your fish is inside a non-see-thru plastic bag, and take 3 hours to acclimate the fish to the your tank water by adding a little water your tank water to the water that the lfs has your fish in.

[pyrrhus]

sorry to hear about the clown. this is however a valuable lesson, one. always acclimate your fish i recommend about an hour. two. do you own research on any disease a fish may have-DO NOT RELY ON THE LFS FOR DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT. three. be extremely cautious when using any medication. four. ALWAYS QUARANTINE NEW FISH, preferably in an appropriate hospital tank with filtration and temp control.