Clowns have white fluffy tissue around gill

megtrainer · Sep 2, 2023

Greeting all,

Just got my tank setup with two clowns introduced about a month ago. Over time they have developed some tissue around mouth and gill. The female has some on the chin and male has some fluffy tissue on right chin.

They looked ok when they arrived however the female was a bit aggressive towards male when feeding. Initially we thought the tissue was a result of fighting and kind of hope they can resolve overtime.

However today just noticed on the left gill of the male have two white spots. They don’t look flat.

Any suggestions on what to do?

vetteguy53081 · Sep 2, 2023

megtrainer said:
Greeting all,

Just got my tank setup with two clowns introduced about a month ago. Over time they have developed some tissue around mouth and gill. The female has some on the chin and male has some fluffy tissue on right chin.

They looked ok when they arrived however the female was a bit aggressive towards male when feeding. Initially we thought the tissue was a result of fighting and kind of hope they can resolve overtime.

However today just noticed on the left gill of the male have two white spots. They don’t look flat.

Any suggestions on what to do?

Its hard to tell in the pics which are a little blue in lighting but may be mucus. You can Safely give the fish a 5 minute freshwater dip in tap water in a clean container the same temperature as display tank and see if this clears up.
Is fish eating and breathing normal ?

megtrainer · Sep 2, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
Its hard to tell in the pics which are a little blue in lighting but may be mucus. You can Safely give the fish a 5 minute freshwater dip in tap water in a clean container the same temperature as display tank and see if this clears up.
Is fish eating and breathing normal ?

Thank you. They both eat well and appears to be pretty calm and breathing normally and no other issues. I've also uploaded some video hopefully that shows more clearly. The "white ball" on his right gill and her chin have been there for over 3 weeks now. If it was mucus would that last this long?

vetteguy53081 · Sep 2, 2023

megtrainer said:
Thank you. They both eat well and appears to be pretty calm and breathing normally and no other issues. I've also uploaded some video hopefully that shows more clearly. The "white ball" on his right gill and her chin have been there for over 3 weeks now. If it was mucus would that last this long?

They have heavy mucus and can
Pics are hard to depict but other would be secondary bacterial
You can safely add ruby rally pro to the tank and it would alleviate bacterial issues if any

Jay Hemdal · Sep 2, 2023

megtrainer said:
Greeting all,

Just got my tank setup with two clowns introduced about a month ago. Over time they have developed some tissue around mouth and gill. The female has some on the chin and male has some fluffy tissue on right chin.

They looked ok when they arrived however the female was a bit aggressive towards male when feeding. Initially we thought the tissue was a result of fighting and kind of hope they can resolve overtime.

However today just noticed on the left gill of the male have two white spots. They don’t look flat.

Any suggestions on what to do?

Given the length of time they have had these, the history of fighting and the lack of other symptoms, I would say this is Lymphocystis. That is a mild viral disease that can get inside the fish from injuries. The virus causes the fish's skin cells to grow to a giant size. Eventually, after 1 to 2 months, the fish is able to fight off the virus and these lesions will go away.

Jay