Diagnose and Treatment of O. Clownfish(Long post)

[travie]

I'm not sure exactly what aliment has attacked my Ocellaris Clownfish. I noticed a couple days ago one of them start to get litte white bumps on it. The fish now has more bumps on it then when I first noticed it, and my other clownfish has started to get them.

I have not noticed either one of them scratch since I saw the bumps, they are both eating normal, and they seem to be swimming just fine. I have noticed that the first infected fish hides more while the lights are. Now, since the lights have been off, he is swimming near the other one in the front of the tank.

I'm not sure which of he few aliments it could be. And since I do not know they disease, I can't even try to treat it.

Thanks for any and all help.
Travis

[coachfraley]

pics might help...

ich, velvet, or brooklynia

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

My first guess would be Ich, however Brooklynia is also a very real possibility.

[unleashed]

ditto with GB

If you have a QT tank that would help. My preferred method of treatment for these kinds of parasites/infections is to use hyposalinity and use copper as a last resort.

However, I have never treated clowns with hypo

[travie]

Should I treat with copper medication, freshwater dips, or hyposalinity(at what salinity?)?

The weird part to me is that they have been in the tank a month and are just now showing signs of a disease. I figured any diseases would infect them right away after stress from the trip home and acclimating process.

[unleashed]

Should I treat with copper medication, freshwater dips, or hyposalinity(at what salinity?)?

The weird part to me is that they have been in the tank a month and are just now showing signs of a disease. I figured any diseases would infect them right away after stress from the trip home and acclimating process.

If you have no separate tank to treat them in, don't treat at all. Let them ride it out.

If you do have a QT tank set up, lower the salinity down to 1.009 over the course of a week or so, not at once. Don't do a freshwater dip - it will have little effect at this stage. Only use copper (in a QT tank) if you absolutely must

Hyposalinity is much less stressful on the fish

[travie]

I haven't received my refractometer yet, so I don't want to do the hyposalinity till then. I'll just let them go in the display tank till then at least. I'll try to get pictures up tonight for a better diagnosis.

[travie]

The first one to get infected is now just barely hovering off the substrate. Definitely has gotten worse, I don't know if the stress from moving to a QT tank and treatment would make the poor little guy worse. Should I let him go and hope he fights it off? Or move, treat, and hope the stress doesn't make it worse?