Help - White spot

[Seige]

Picked up 2 new ocellaris clownfish earlier today. Within the last hour one started showing a single white protrusion below his right eye. About the size of the tip of a pen and bulging out a fair bit. The other fish appears to be fine for now.

Any ideas what it is and how do I treat it.

[Lucid]

sounds like marine ick, check out the sticky's Lee has posted in the Marine Fish: Care, Health and Disease Treatment - Reeflands Forum and read Marine Ich - Myths and Facts too. HTH

[Seige]

sounds like marine ick, check out the sticky's Lee has posted in the Marine Fish: Care, Health and Disease Treatment - Reeflands Forum and read Marine Ich - Myths and Facts too. HTH

Thanks, that's what I figured but the articles I found on the web said it was smaller. Obviously they were wrong. The article you linked was a lot more informative.

[leebca]

Keep us informed. If more spots develop or this one seems to get worse, get us a few photos of the fish with the condition.

[Lucid]

The best bet would be to take some good pics and post them for Lee to check out, just to make sure what it is. Then you can treat as needed.

[Seige]

I'll try. Not sure my camera can capture something that small clearly through glass on a rather fast moving target. It's pretty stressed right now. 2 tank moves within hours. I wasn't really prepared for a hospital tank so it was set up rather fast.

About to send a note to the LFS warning him about it. He had 7 others in the same tank.

[Lucid]

I hear ya, I had almost the same deal as you have. So what I did was take multiple pics and finally got a few 'decent' ones.

[Seige]

Is it best to split the 2 fish into seperate tanks and treat them seperately or just assume they both have it even though 1 has no overt signs of ich and throw them in a hospital tank together?

[leebca]

In general, when fishes are together and one displays a disease or condition, both then are removed and treated together in the same hospital tank.

[Seige]

Went to LFS to pick up a few items. They think it's Lymphocystis or possibly a fungus growth. I'm trying to find my camera charger so I can take pics.

[leebca]

Seige,

There is another way. You will have to decide what it is. Look on the Internet. Search for Lymphocystis also look for Cryptocaryon irritans. You then look for photos and images of fishes with these conditions. Match the pictures you find to what your fish looks like.

[Seige]

Seige,

There is another way. You will have to decide what it is. Look on the Internet. Search for Lymphocystis also look for Cryptocaryon irritans. You then look for photos and images of fishes with these conditions. Match the pictures you find to what your fish looks like.

I've been doing that at various times last night and today. No luck finding anything that looks like it yet.

Think I might have better luck finding my camera charger.

[Seige]

found an alternate charger for camera. pics aren't good though. he stayed right at the back I even hid under a towel lol didn't help. smart lil clowny. I'll keep trying.

Still only showing the one white protrusion. Think it might be a fungus. No other spots, just the one below his eye near his mouth.

[Seige]

These are the best of the ones so far. Can't see much. Just the protrusion on his right cheek.





Attachment 11152

[leebca]

Good start. Too far away, or use a zoom feature if the camera has one. You'll like to almost fill the frame with the fish, rather than have the fish a small portion in the frame.

[Seige]

Good start. Too far away, or use a zoom feature if the camera has one. You'll like to almost fill the frame with the fish, rather than have the fish a small portion in the frame.

Ya I was hoping too. It doesn't focus well zooming (auto or manual) in because of the glass I think but more likely user error. ROFL

The LFS checked his fish and confirmed it's Lymphocyctis. 2 of his 7 clowns have it.He said it should clear up on it's own after the clown is no longer stressed. My fish is fairly stressed from the move so it may be a few days. Would keeping the lights off on that tank help? I'd put him in with my cleaner shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis) to remove the lymph but my cleaner shrimp are pretty aggresive right now. Possibly because they far outsize everything else in the tank. Think one ate a black turbo snail. The shell is right outside the cave the 2 shrimp fight over.

[leebca]

Stress of acclimation is only one of the many stressors that can lead to the display of Lymph. Lymph is like the human cold virus. Always around and waiting for its chance.

The stressors include food (nutrition), feeding frequency, water quality, etc.

[Seige]

Stress of acclimation is only one of the many stressors that can lead to the display of Lymph. Lymph is like the human cold virus. Always around and waiting for its chance.

The stressors include food (nutrition), feeding frequency, water quality, etc.

Thanks. Most of that was out of my control so far. I had the clown for less then 4 hours before the Lymph appeared. I'll treat it better.

[Seige]

Lee, when the Lymph is gone I was thinking about emptying the QT and cleaning it out to hopefully kill whatevers left of the virus. I read that Lymph virus is species specific though so that may not matter. What do you recommend?

Also, when a QT isn't in use for a few weeks or more, is it normal to keep it running? To save electricity and lower noise (it's the loudest tank by far) I was wondering if it would hurt to turn off the heater and possibly put the filter on a timer for maybe 1 hour a day. Just enough to keep the system ready to go at it's cycled state.

[leebca]

Your QT questions are addressed in this post. I would suggest you read it closely: http://www.reefland.com/forum/marine...e-process.html

There are a few options, the easiest is to just keep the biological filter (the recommended sponge filter) running in the sump or in the main display system. The QT can be broken down and kept dry. What is the time consuming part of setting up the QT is having an active, ready-to-go biological filter, so just keep that going in the display system (sump or tank).

Lymph is much like the human cold virus. It is a virus and it is believed to be with almost any of the ornamental marine fishes we get out of the sea. I have not known first hand or seen research projects which prove it is species specific.

Thus, no special cleaning is needed for a QT that had a fish with Lymph in it. If you follow the above suggestion and keep the QT dry and biological filter running in the main system, that will be good enough.