What is wrong with my fish?

Badnade · Aug 18, 2020

Hey, guys. Not really sure what is going on with my fish.

I have blood orange clown, black snowflake ocellaris, 2 damsels, and a lawnmower blenny.

I bought the blood orange clown online so it was shipped overnight. When it arrived, it was taken out of the bag and didn't have much color, I assumed it was stressed. It did have a clear spot on one of it's fins. After a few hours, it went away. The spots come and go occasionally, most of the time within a few hours. The other day, it was getting white spots which looked like ich, those went away on a few days. Now there are about 6 clear dots on it's fins and it's also rubbing it's head on stuff in the tank. It is a very strong eater, will nearly fight other tankmates for the food. Breathing is normal. No other symptoms whatsoever. It does stay in the anemone in the tank.

The ocellaris seems like it gets one or two of the clear spots occasionally too but they also go away. It also rubs itself on objects but eats fine and doesn't have heavy breathing.

Lawnmower blenny is also rubbing but no other symptoms.

Damsels show no symptoms.

Anyone have an idea what's going on?

Jay Hemdal · Aug 18, 2020

Pictures often help, but with minimal symptoms like this, that may not help. Based on the coming and going of the spots, I’d guess early stage Cryptocaryon (ich). The scratching could be more of an indication of flukes, and fish commonly have both infections going on. Do you have a treatment tank available?

Jay

Badnade · Aug 18, 2020

I don't currently have a treatment tank but I suppose I could make one if it came to it.

Jay Hemdal · Aug 18, 2020

What you should look for are the spots going away but then returning with greater numbers each time. That’s a sign that the ich population is growing.
I asked if you had a hospital tank because the treatment meds to be done n the absence of invertebrates....but I didn’t ask, do you also have inverts in the tank?
Jay

Badnade · Aug 18, 2020

They are clear spots that are only on the fins. None on the body. They are not the white spots I've seen on fish with ich.

Yeah, I have snails and an anemone.

Jay Hemdal · Aug 18, 2020

Badnade said:
They are clear spots that are only on the fins. None on the body. They are not the white spots I've seen on fish with ich.

Yeah, I have snails and an anemone.

Are the spots about the size of a grain of salt? Most people describe ich as “white spots, the size of a graIn of salt”, I’m a bit thrown off by your description that they are clear.....unless they are much larger than ich....some copepod parasites move around on the fish, but they are larger, like a grain of rice.
Jay

Badnade · Aug 18, 2020

They're not all the same size. Some are grain of salt size, some are grain of rice or slightly larger. Just come home this evening, most of the spots are now not clearly visible.

However where they used to be, it appears they are swollen "bumps" but are not white or clear, they are just the same color as the fish. And they are also only on the fins. None of this is on the body.

I can attempt to get pictures but it seems it may be impossible. Just fed it. It almost fought my other fish over food. Appears healthy otherwise.

Jay Hemdal · Aug 18, 2020

Well, I'm stumped. Most serious infectious diseases have major symptoms, like the fish not feeding. I also don't know of a parasite that focuses on the fish's fins (not much food there - larger parasites usually go the body). Normally, what I would do with a fish like that is either let it be (and watch for other symptoms to develop), or give it a FW diagnostic dip....just to rule out copepods or flukes.

Jay

vetteguy53081 · Aug 18, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Well, I'm stumped. Most serious infectious diseases have major symptoms, like the fish not feeding. I also don't know of a parasite that focuses on the fish's fins (not much food there - larger parasites usually go the body). Normally, what I would do with a fish like that is either let it be (and watch for other symptoms to develop), or give it a FW diagnostic dip....just to rule out copepods or flukes.

Jay

Jay, Im thinking might be affected by the protozoan ciliate Chilodonella which is treated with either Treat your fish with Metronidazole or Malachite green

Jay Hemdal · Aug 18, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
Jay, Im thinking might be affected by the protozoan ciliate Chilodonella which is treated with either Treat your fish with Metronidazole or Malachite green

Do you mean the related Uronema? I've only seen Chilodonella in freshwater fish.

The "grain of rice" size is also too large to be a protozoan.

Jay

vetteguy53081 · Aug 18, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Do you mean the related Uronema? I've only seen Chilodonella in freshwater fish.

The "grain of rice" size is also too large to be a protozoan.

Jay

Yes

Badnade · Sep 9, 2020

Here is a picture of what I'm talking about on it's back fin. These come and go. It didn't have this white spot last night and it will probably be gone by the end of the day.

It fights other fish for food, doesn't scratch and is breathing normally.

Again, the only place these spots appear are on it's back fin. Just the fin, not on the body.