Any idea what killed this clownfish? *pic*

[theclearblue]

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me figure out what killed the clownfish pictured below. It belongs to a friend of mine, who is a beginning reefkeeper, and I don't have enough knowledge of fish disease to give him an answer.

Here's what I know:
1) He owned this fish for ~ 1.5 weeks before it died.
2) The clownfish is tank raised and went directly from the breeder's shipping bag to acclimating to his tank (no stop at the LFS).
3) This fish appeared healthy and active in the morning, and was dead when he returned home in the evening. The fish ate actively while he owned it, and never noticed *anything* strange until it was dead on the bottom of the tank.
4) There's a yellow watchman in his tank, that he's owned for a month. It doesn't appear to be sick, but it came from an LFS that doesn't have very good quarantine practices.

As I see it, there are two possibilities as to how it became infected with Disease X

1- It was shipped already infected (seems unlikely as it came direct from the breeder).
2- The watchman from the LFS was a carrier for the disease and infected the CB clown.

Any ideas on what disease killed this clown based on the picture? He described the markings as "sores" although I might say lesions based on the picture.

Thanks for any help/insight, I'm not sure what to tell him.

 

[GSMguy]

for one thing the fish looks almost too young to sell.

 

[theclearblue]

I'm tempted to agree with you on that one, but not having seen them in person I didn't want to tell him that.

I've gotten tiny true percs from ORA, but they were still showing a hint of tail bar development and the smaller of the two had a touch of black outline on its tail, neither of which are present on this fish.

 

[edwing206]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12050110#post12050110 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GSMguy
for one thing the fish looks almost too young to sell.

What do you mean by that? I've gotten tiny clowns from a local breeder that were just getting their first stripe and they have done fine.

 

[theclearblue]

We may be giving the fish less credit than they deserve, but I think the younger fish tend to be more sensitive than older fish.

I don't know that picking up fish from a local breeder can be compared with a 18 hour fedex ride bagged as pairs.

 

[edwing206]

You're totally right. I thought he meant all young fish in general.