sick fish

bignose · #1 12-17-2008, 12:49 AM

I have a clown fish that has cotton or velvet looking stuff growing on it's belly by its fins. What is it and what do I need to cure it?
Man I hate sick fish!

chevyjaxon · #2 12-17-2008, 06:56 AM

sounds like fungus to me any pics?

tlo · #3 12-17-2008, 07:58 AM

its often a sign of stress caused when water parameters are out of whack. What are your ammonia, nitrite, ph, and salinity measurements?

Patrice · #4 12-17-2008, 12:40 PM

What ever it is, I would move the fish into a quarantine tank right now.

bignose · #5 12-18-2008, 12:14 AM

The fish is in quaritine. I'll check my parameters and post them later today and I'll try to get a picture.

dsaundry · #6 12-18-2008, 04:37 PM

Mine had a similar issue..it looked like little buds of cotton..I moved them to my quarantine tank and treated it with a product from J+L..Cant remember the name at this point but I will look it up when I get home...I didn't see any real reaction from the meds though. Is your fish eating ok, mine ate like pigs even with these little cotton buds on them..in about 2-3 weeks problem was gone...oh and I stopped the meds after about a week.
I was told that some clowns go through this...so long as they are eating well they can usually fight it off....but you still have to watch your water parameters...

ElGuappo · #7 12-18-2008, 04:48 PM

i had the excact sme thing. i used maracyn fw cure while QT'd. took about a week and all was good. the cottony stuff mine had on them actually ate their fins and gills. thankfully they have grown back. should mention they got an additional 10 days or so just to monitor them in QT

bignose · #8 12-19-2008, 12:28 AM

I Haven't checked the params yet because I've been so busy. I'll check them soon. My fish is eating like crazy and I don't know if it is normal because I just had it given to me. It's a gold stripped maroon clown.

This may sound like a funny question but does sicknesses like this have any effect on coral?

GreenSpottedPuffer · #9 12-19-2008, 12:39 AM

Probably Lymphocystis (Cauliflower disease). No cure but also not bad. It almost always means your water quality is not good. Try to keep nitrates down to below 30 PPM in a FOWLR or below 5 PPM in a reef. You should not see these kinds of problems anymore. It will go away pretty fast.