Scary Clownfish discolorations

[Sharkbait19]

As if my fish cannot get a break from disease, this started showing up on my clowns, and they’re swimming towards the top. What the heck is going on?! It’s very concerning. However, before I move them into QT tomorrow I’d like to know what I’m dealing with. It doesn’t look like anything good to me. Started on the fins and now is odd discolorations on the body. Noticed after cleaning the tank today. Reaction to something or parasitic infection?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Bump

 

[Sharkbait19]

It’s getting worse!!!

 

[Tamberav]

Are they eating? How long have you had them?

Very odd. Looks like the color just washed away. I wonder if this could somehow be something genetic.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Are they eating? How long have you had them?

Very odd. Looks like the color just washed away. I wonder if this could somehow be something

As if my fish cannot get a break from disease, this started showing up on my clowns, and they’re swimming towards the top. What the heck is going on?! It’s very concerning. However, before I move them into QT tomorrow I’d like to know what I’m dealing with. It doesn’t look like anything good to me. Started on the fins and now is odd discolorations on the body. Noticed after cleaning the tank today. Reaction to something or parasitic infection?

What corals are they in with? Have you seen them trying to host in a LPS? Have they been squabbling? You may not see fighting since the fish will be busy watching you, but the location of the lesions, and their linear shape could result from mouth scrapes. I don’t think it is genetic due to the rapid development. It could be a primary bacterial infection, but those are rare.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I hope someone didnt dye clownfish...
I would not put it past ppl.
D

 

[Sharkbait19]

Are they eating? How long have you had them?

Very odd. Looks like the color just washed away. I wonder if this could somehow be something genetic.

They’re eating. I’ve had them for around three months, but they’ve only entered the DT quite recently. This morning Nemo (the orange one) looks fine but Luxo (the mocha) is still washed out.

 

[Sharkbait19]

What corals are they in with? Have you seen them trying to host in a LPS? Have they been squabbling? You may not see fighting since the fish will be busy watching you, but the location of the lesions, and their linear shape could result from mouth scrapes. I don’t think it is genetic due to the rapid development. It could be a primary bacterial infection, but those are rare

They did try to host a torch coral but that never worked out, and they kind of gave up. They developed the typical black spots that come from stings, but this only developed later on. As far as fighting goes Nemo does get picked on because he is the smaller of the two, but he doesn’t have any discolorations anymore.
I added new corals yesterday and did a water change, and the spots showed up immediately afterwards. Would they happen to correlate with yesterday’s changes?? They were only a few corals ant snails, but could that cause such color drainage?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

They did try to host a torch coral but that never worked out, and they kind of gave up. They developed the typical black spots that come from stings, but this only developed later on. As far as fighting goes Nemo does get picked on because he is the smaller of the two, but he doesn’t have any discolorations anymore.
I added new corals yesterday and did a water change, and the spots showed up immediately afterwards. Would they happen to correlate with yesterday’s changes?? They were only a few corals ant snails, but could that cause such color drainage?

Unlikely that a water change (even if there were issues) would cause this. The Mocha's skin lesion seems quite a bit larger. That implies an active infection. If you see secondary symptoms (lack of feeding, swimming issues, etc.) you will definitely want to treat with antibiotics in a treatment tank. I hesitate to suggest that right now as it would not be without its own risks, and it becomes a risk/benefit question....

Jay

 

[Sharkbait19]

Unlikely that a water change (even if there were issues) would cause this. The Mocha's skin lesion seems quite a bit larger. That implies an active infection. If you see secondary symptoms (lack of feeding, swimming issues, etc.) you will definitely want to treat with antibiotics in a treatment tank. I hesitate to suggest that right now as it would not be without its own risks, and it becomes a risk/benefit question....

Jay

So should I observe for now and only treat if it gets noticeably worse?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So should I observe for now and only treat if it gets noticeably worse?

Well, that is a judgement call that I can't really make remotely. Do you have a treatment tank available? What about any antibiotics on hand?

Jay

 

[Sharkbait19]

I do have a qt tank ready, my only antibiotic is melafix, so nothing useful.
There is white stringy poo, does that correlate with the discolorations?

The discolorations are going down, no longer even on Nemo, so it may have just been a stress response. Time will tell I suppose.

 

[Born2beblack]

You said they tried to host a torch coral
Are they still trying to
Maybe its mucus issue due to the stings and them not getting immune to it
Okay I see they stopped

 

[Sharkbait19]

You said they tried to host a torch coral
Are they still trying to
Maybe its mucus issue due to the stings and them not getting immune to it
Okay I see they stopped

They seem frightened of it now, so I assume they got injured at some point.

 

[Sharkbait19]

The discolorations have disappeared completely today. That was certainly odd. Not sure what that was about...

 

[Sharkbait19]

Just an update: These discolorations seem to happen often after water changes, then go away. It could be stress-induced, but it is certainly odd that it is in specific locations...

 

[NoahLikesFish]

Chiclids do it it’s probably normal

 

[Sharkbait19]

Chiclids do it it’s probably normal

Sure, cichlids do that, but even then it typically is not in random spots. When cichlids change color it is a complete paling for the most part (with the exception of weird guys like chocs and sevs). Seeing that my clowns are otherwise very healthy, I'll just consider it another anomaly in the world of reefing.