White spot on Clownfish

Reef Monkey · Jan 1, 2008

I was just looking at my tank a couple of minutes ago and I noticed that my female Clownfish has a white spot on her body just underneath her dorsal fin. The spot is cartiledge colored and about the size of a pin head right now. It's hard for me to tell if it is a raised bump as she keeps moving. Both fish are tank raised and I've had them for about a year now. I've tried to get decent photos but my camera isn't the greatest for taking close up shots and it's pretty hard to get my fish to keep still. I have no other tank mates and never have. I do about a 10% water change every 2-3 weeks and run a protein skimmer and carbon 24/7.

Tank
30 gallon
80 temp
salinity 1.027
Ph 8.15

I know Lee will probably ask this, I feed both clownfish New Life Spectrum Marine Pellets. I know not the best nutrition. I've read Lee's post on fish nutrition and I've been meaning to expand the menu for my clownfish but everytime I look to buy something other than pellets "I ask myself is this a product Lee would give to his fish?" and then I never end up pulling the trigger because I'm scared it might not be a good alternative. Does anybody know of a specific type of food that I should be feeding my clownfish. Anyway any help would be appreciated. I believe this just developed within the past day or so so it's still early on.

Reef Monkey · Jan 2, 2008

I noticed this morning that the appearance of the spot isn't quite as visible anymore but it is still there. Now it looks as though someone put a small very light air brush dot of white paint as it appears to be faded on the edges. I also noticed that she is lathargic and laying on the bottom of the tank in one of the corners. Is this Ich? Thank you in advance for any help.

leebca · Jan 2, 2008

I would only just monitor it at this stage. A single very small white spot is not enough to take any particular action with, in my opinion. Many fish develop (sort of like a human zit) a walled off area against a bacteria or irritation. The fish will usually overcome this on its own when fed properly and under minimum stressors.

Extra water changes are good and anything you can do to lessen the bacteria count in the water is helpful.

Almost anything other than pellets is a good choice.

Pellets usually contain wheat products and the fish don't digest wheat products. So the wheat goes into the aquarium and THAT is what one group of bacteria are living on. This increases the numbers of the bacteria in the aquarium.

I'd switch to frozen, going by this post: Different Marine Fish Food Forms and find a food listed for omnivore fishes. Add some marine seaweed into the tank once a day or once every other day, too. Remove what isn't eaten in a few hours.

Reef Monkey · Jan 2, 2008

Lee,

Would frozen shrimp work. I have some that are in a package in my freezer, intended for human consumption. The ingrediants on the back list shrimp and salt as it's only ingrediants and it states that it is wild caught with 18g of protein per serving. I'm not sure where I would get seaweed close by I'll have to do some digging around on this one. What are your thoughts on frozen silversides and plankton as well? Do you have a particular brand that you prefer? If not, what should i be on the look out for as far as ingrediants? I remember reading a couple of months back about the whole wheat gluten thing in regards to pellets. I will have to reread everything that I can get my hands on on fish nutrition.

I noticed that my fish is still pretty slow moving, in fact when I got home from work about a half hour ago she was laying still in between a crevice in my rocks. I just saw her swim around a little a couple of minutes ago and the spot appeared to be gone. She didn't eat anything early this morning. Let me know your thoughts on the frozen shrimp and if you think it sounds good to use then I will plan on using that tomorrow morning instead. Thanks Lee.

leebca · Jan 3, 2008

Shrimp is okay for like one meal out of 21, IF it is saltwater shrimp (some farm raised 'shrimp' are actually freshwater). But, I think you're missing a very important point of your choice of foods -- you want whole foods. Omnivores don't just eat a part of a shrimp, they eat the whole shrimp. Shrimp tails is just the flesh part of the shrimp and marine life can't live on just sea flesh, they need the whole seafood.

I'm not sure where Edgemont is, however, you may be able to get fish foods sent to you by one of the sponsors here on Reef Frontiers. Check into frozen marine fish foods at some of the online vendors. They also offer seaweeds (macro sea algae) pre-packaged for marine fishes, too.

They come in different colors. The first choice is the green, but it is good to mix colors now and then.

Reef Monkey · Jan 3, 2008

They actually aren't shrimp tails, their the body. I get your point though, I will look at getting some seaweed online and see what else I can find as well.