Clownfish - black spot?

[tsaraber]

I'm wondering if anyone can ID this spot for me. It showed up about 2 weeks ago, it doesn't look raised or like anything is hanging from it. Then just a couple days ago another one popped up on his other side in almost the same location as the first.

A little info on the clown - we've had him for about three months and he acts fine otherwise, eats well and is active. We just introduced a new, smaller clown to the tank recently but I can't remember if the first one got the black spot before or after this.

He's a tank raised percula, and other tank mates include another percula and a cleaner shrimp along with snails, hermits and an emerald crab.

 

[steve-s]

It's a form of melanism. It's more commonly a reaction (chemical) when hosting in corals and/or anemones. Not usually something to be overly concerned about.

How's the fish's diet?

Cheers
Steve

 

[tsaraber]

We do have a torch coral but have yet to see him go near it - doesn't mean he isn't sneaking into it at night though.

We feed them once a day Formula One flake food and once a week they get freeze dried brine shrimp. Not enough variety maybe?

 

[steve-s]

Diet can sometimes be a concern with melanism (which I doubt this is) but a varied diet will be good no matter the situation. I would suggest a rotation of meaty and veggie type foods regularly. Also try incorporating vitimin additives into the mix and occassionally garlic extract as an antioxidant/immune booster.

Freeze dried brine will be of little value. If you switch that to a gut loaded heavily fortified type (frozen) or mysis, you'd be better off. You can also seach on the forum for blender mush recipes and make your own foods.

Cheer
Steve

 

[tsaraber]

Thanks for the advice Steve. =)

After reading your post we started feeding them more of a variety.. Frozen mysis and something else frozen - not sure what it is as hubby does the feeding.

Today both spots are clearing up nicely and no new ones have popped up (knock on wood). We have noticed that at night they do tend to hover around our torch coral so I'm guessing you were right on the money.

Now if only we could get them into the coral during the day.... =)

Thanks again!

 

[steve-s]

Good stuff

Now if only we could get them into the coral during the day.... =)

It sounds nice up front but you actually don't want that, at least the coral doesn't

Hovering over/around the coral is one thing but if the clown gets down right cozy, the coral could become severely stressed. It can often lead to recession, necrosis or general poor health. LPS corals are not typically the best surrogates. Soft corals fair quite a bit better. The melanistic affect would be similar though if not more pronounced.

Cheers
Steve

 

[tsaraber]

Thanks for the heads up...

Definately don't want to be stressing out the torch coral - so far it's our best looking coral...