black spots on clowns

[lletellier]

I was looking at my clowns today and one of them has several black dots on him. Is he ok? if not what should I do?

[Connor]

id be concerned, that happened to one of my fish and it died not to long after. I never did find out what it was but ill be keeping posted to this thread to figure out why.

 

 

 

I hope your fish are ok,

 

Connor

[lletellier]

id be concerned, that happened to one of my fish and it died not to long after. I never did find out what it was but ill be keeping posted to this thread to figure out why.

I hope your fish are ok,

 

Connor

 

not what I want to hear! anyone know what they could be?

[steveoutlaw]

Lance - it might just be the clown getting it's color. Mine did the same thing and eventually got some black sections on it. I'll post some pics when I get home.

 

Is the fish behaving normally otherwise?

[lletellier]

I don't think it is getting its color considering the black spots are on the orange parts of its body... seems to be acting normal IMO

[Guest webshout]

gmubeach posted a similar issue a week ago. Comments suggested maybe clown was getting stung. Don't know what the final outcome was.

 

Slightly off topic, similar symptoms, different fish. Last year my Yellow Tang started behaving erratically. He'd dart around the tank. I though he was "playing" with his refelction. Later in the week I noticed hyperventilation and multiple tiny red/black spots on his body. Unfortunately, he died soon after getting to the QT. My followup research suggested that he was stressed.

 

Good luck with your clown.

 

William

[steveoutlaw]

That's where mine got her coloring. It's like she has some black clownfish in her. Here's a pic:

 

 

She didn't have any black in the orange area when I got her. It started out as little spots and then grew into a large area of black.

 

 

I don't think it is getting its color considering the black spots are on the orange parts of its body... seems to be acting normal IMO

[m3fan8ic]

I noticed the same on one of my clowns. It stayed on his body for month before it started to go away. If I remember right I read that it's some sort of ick which is black in color as oppose to white that is inside the skin. My clown is healthy and now have no signs of that black dots/ick anymore. Good luck and hope this helped.

Sid

[davelin315]

Hmmm... I'm starting to feel a suspicious of my tank and a bit bad... both you and Troy have clowns with these dots on them and you both got stuff from my system at the same time. I looked up black spot ich and it's commonly known to affect tangs. That said, I don't have any sign of this infection in my system, but that's not to say that it's not there. I know that I've got regular ich in my system, but none of my lighter colored fish exhibit any signs of this disease. Also, it says that they typically exhibit lethargic moods, and again, none of my fish are exhibiting this. Check out this link: http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/compldiag.../a/aa041701.htm. It gives some information on black spot/tang disease and has a link to a yellow tang with the dots on them. They are tiny parasitic worms that move around. How big are the dots on your fish? Can you post a picture?

 

Sid also picked up an anemone from my system, could this be related? Sid, when did your fish show signs of this? Was it before or after you picked the anemone up from me? By your post, you said that it remained on his body for about a month and then went away. Since you picked up your anemone less than a month ago, I'm going to assume that it's a coincidence, but it's an awfully suspicious one.

 

I'm still hopeful that this is from stinging, but I'm starting to wonder about the circumstances surround the appearance of these black dots. Ugh, am I feeling guilty right now if this came from my system...

[Guest hound66]

My clown is actually getting black spots around his/her front fins like steve's. I'm assuming/hoping it is just getting coloring. Everything else appears normal.

[Origami]

Dave, I got a small frag from you the other day. I've not noticed anything odd with my livestock but I'll check tonight to be sure. Will let you know.

[lletellier]

They are tiny parasitic worms that move around

 

if that is the case could a freshwater dunk help??

 

Also steve... the spots are all over not just in one area I could be wrong but I don't think that is what is happening

Edited January 28, 2008 by lletellier

[m3fan8ic]

Dave no worries it's not because of the anemone my clown had that way before that and now it's gone

[F&Fmgr]

black ich or turbellarians are free living and free swimming ecto parasites. there life cycle is similiar to that of white spot. howver they differ at the larval stage. when an adult turb reaches a certain size on the fish it will drop off onto the substrate or rock or whatever and continue grow for a couple of days all while brooding more than 100 larvae inside of it. fresh water baths over the next week will work. I have even done freshwater with rid-ich mixed in which seems to be more effective. Be care with rid-ich...too much causes respiratory shock in all fish!! another good thin to do is temporarily if not permanently instal a uv sterilizer. and also do water changes with a gravel vacuum to hopefully siphon any adults and larvae off the substarte.

 

 

Sean

[lletellier]

I run uv and I do weekly 5 gallon water changes on my 20 gallon tank. If I do a freshwater dunk what is the best way to do that? how long do I hold them under, do I put the fish back in the tank after? thanks

[EBR]

Mine have similar spots -- always have to some degree, and they seem to come and go as they buddy up to the hammers. Now, if you don't have a hammer coral, then I can't offer anything useful ;-)

Matt

[bk_market]

my clown host in frogspawn coral and they get black spot all the time.

[davelin315]

Lance, can you post a picture of your clown?

 

Also, here's a question. If there are turbellid worms in my tank, wouldn't my fish be affected as well? I don't run a UV yet as I haven't had a chance to install it and the fish show nothing but regular ich, which I have known was in my system since the first fish was in there, but they're able to fend it off with healthy diet. I have a number of fish that this should show up fairly easily on, including yellow tangs and a couple of black ocellaris clowns (should show up on the white band). I've also got a couple of juvenile Dussumieri tangs, a Vlamingi tang, and other fish that have light enough colors to show these parasites. It sounds like they should also have this parasite if they are in the system and these worms came from it. In the time that I have had this tank running, although I haven't QTd any fish, I have done freshwater dips on all fish for an extended time and I have begun dipping my corals as well to remove parasites. If this is the case in my system, would something work on the entire system that would get rid of these worms but not harm the fauna that is in there that I want?

[Origami]

Nothing irregular in my tank yet, Dave.

[F&Fmgr]

parasites can live in the aquarium without you knowing... for example with the turbellarians, they have been found in the gill tissue of otherwise healthy fish. Also, not all turbellarian species cause hyper-melanization or dark spots.

 

just trying to offer my knowledge on the subject

 

dave- determining the hows, whys, and whats would require a timeline that only you would know. i cannot say why your fish wouldn't have it, maybe its not in your tank?

 

The formalin/FW bath works very well...keep the fish submerged for 5-10 mins. if the fish becomes lethargic or loses equilibrium or stops moving tap the container, if they don't move take them out and place them back into the tank.

 

Sean

[Origami]

Thanks, Sean. I have no evidence of having picked up anything but am just providing a data point since I received something from Dave here recently. I'll be keeping an eye out, though. What exactly shoud we be looking for anyway? If the spots show up, will they remain or will they come and go?