White stuff on Clownfish: NOT ICH!

[Kdocimo90]

I have this white stuff on my clown.. its hard to describe what it is. It looks like if you were to wet a blank piece of printer paper and then smudge it, getting sort of peely.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Can you post a pic? It would be easier to tell if we could actually see what it looks like.

[Kdocimo90]

i'll see if i can catch a pic.. it may be hard

[ezcompany]

you'll need a pic asap. try posting your pic in the clownfish / anemone section, there's a chance that it can be either brook or velvet, both which are fatal to your clownfish in a very short period.

[Kdocimo90]

Here are the two pictures from the bunch that sucked.. Its impossible for me to catch a clear shot of my fish...

In This picture you can see a bit of the white on the back bottom fin.



This one you can KIND of not really see the white stuff

[WaterKeeper]

I can't see from the pics but it could also be velvet. It appears as a white vail covering the fish in stages. It is worse than ich as it hits the gills faster. We talk about treating it Here. Hopefully it is not. Have you added any new fish lately?

[Kdocimo90]

Originally posted by WaterKeeper
Have you added any new fish lately?

Not for probably about 2 months

[Kdocimo90]

does anyone have a clear picture of what velvet disease looks like? I cant really find one, and I may be able to compare it to my clown

[WaterKeeper]

Not really as it doesn't lend itself to a good picture. Must be camara shy. Best I can do
It is the thin white covering around the nose and eyes.

[Kdocimo90]

ugh i really cant tell

[Kdocimo90]

what are the ways of getting velvet disease?

[OK]

Do you have an anemone? Does it look like the slime coat is peeling off the fish? I have a pair of clowns that don't use my carpet anemone. One day during an extremely aggressive tank cleaning one of them came down with the symptoms you describe. I thought it was Brook. 2 days later the fish was magicly cured on its own.

Fast forward a year I was changing tanks. Anemone was all ready in the new tank then I added the fish. A beautiful 5 year old Royal Gramma leap out of the tank splashed back in and dove straight into the anemone. That thing closed up so fast I couldn't grab the fish in time to even attampt a rescue. To my suprise an hour later I found the Gramma swimming in the tank. It had the same look as the clowfish did a year ago.

Thats when I figured that the clowns were not used to the anemone's sting. While cleaning the tank the clown mush have gone into the anemone which caused the trama. A clown being a clown, it healed. The Gramma has never been seen since.

[WaterKeeper]

In that link I gave you there is a whole article on Oodininium.

[Kdocimo90]

I dont have an anemone.. could it be a sting from a coral?

[Kdocimo90]

Originally posted by WaterKeeper
In that link I gave you there is a whole article on Oodininium.

Yea but I have never seen it on any of my fish before. I've had this fish for about 3 years. And, as I said before, I havent added any new fish for months.

[WaterKeeper]

My guess then, it is not velvet. Maybe a bacterial infection. If you have a hospital tank I'd put it in there and give it some antibiotic laced food.

[Kdocimo90]

Well.. They accidentally werent fed for about 2 or 3 days. I normally feed with garlic extract. Could this gap make some type of parasite reappear? (not implying that the garlic has gotten rid of the parasite)

[WaterKeeper]

Dar gone garlic. Only gives fish bad breath.

I doubt it very much. A day or two without garlic is not going to cause a disease. If it was that important they would have cell phoned in a order from Pizza Hut.

[kevin2000]

Originally posted by Kdocimo90
does anyone have a clear picture of what velvet disease looks like? I cant really find one, and I may be able to compare it to my clown

Velvet is difficult to diagnose and often only visible at an angle on a fish ... it like a sheen on the fish often only visible in the late stages and even then at an angle. Tough to get a picture of and I have spent many an hour trying to find one on the web to no avail.

While spots on clowns normally boil down to 5 items. Ich (pretty easy to identify and not a candidate here) Brooklynella - aka clownfish disease .. fast killer which is know to produce excess mucus in fish (often associated with "white stuff") cured by formalin baths. Amylo (velvet) - described above and cured with copper. Lymphocytis - a viral disease akin to warts in humans ... starts out like ich but can grow larger/ugly - often goes away with good food/water - no meds work. Lastly - fungal issues which are kinda rare in SW.

Better picture would help a lot.

[Kdocimo90]

ok lets see...
Definitely NOT
Brooklynella
Lymphocytis
Fungal Issue

IDK maybe it is ich.. its just not pitch white dots like i've normally experienced. I dont think it is velvet because its not really shiney... it looks kind of "cottony" if that makes sense