Melanism help

[oceandelight]

My boyfriend has a 46 gallon tank with a true percula clown fish in it. Last night he asked me if his clown fish had a hole in its head or if it was just a spot and I took one look at it and said I saw that before on someone’s post before and they said it was melanism. Ok so we are pretty sure it is that and on the other guys post it said that it was a chemical reaction from coral. Well this clown fish since we have had him like 6 –8 month has hosted with the hammer coral. Nothing else has changed in the tank other then we have put a bubble tip anemone in there two weeks ago thinking that maybe the clown fish would rather have an anemone rather then the coral but this is not the case he still swims in the hammer coral. We feed him many diverse types of food: bloodworms, mysid shrimp, brine shrimp, cyclo-peez, and occasionally other random things. Should we do anything for him? Our tank levels are:

Amm. 0 ppt
Trits 0 ppt
Trats 20 ppt
Salinity 30 ppt

 

[steve-s]

Other than doing some water changes for those nitrates and increasing the salinity some for the corals benefit, melanism of this type is of no concern. The chemical reaction (burn if you will) is a natural response to the constant contact of being in the coral. It will not hamper the health of the clown in any way.

Also ensure all your fish get the occassional veggie items, even if you have to "sneek" it into their foods. An all meat diet will eventually cause internal problems/blockage. Not to mention being incomplete nutritionally otherwise.

Cheers
Steve