Fuzzy white patches on cinnamon clown

[CJ]

My 9 year old cinnamon clown, never sick in her life, developed a pea size white fuzzy patch under her chin about 10 days ago. It has now gotten larger and a couple days ago a new patch appeared in front of her pectoral fin. Both are now about 1cm in size and I am giving up on her getting better by herself and started a hospital tank, if I can ever catch her. She shows no sign of illness, eats like a pig and is as aggressive as ever. I think I can see the outline of something new coming on her side, it's not getting any better.

After reading this forum for hours I have found little to help me determine what this might be. It looks like a fungus but I'm hearing that this is a relatively rare condition in marine aquaria. My next guess, Lymphocystis virus, for which there is no cure but little risk of death, however it could infect my other fish who so far look fine?

This was my very first fish and I'm quite attached to her. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

And, should I catch her, what on earth do I use to help her since I have no idea what her problem really is.

 

[Jerry W]

A picture would really help if you can post one. Lymphocystis comes to mind but unless the parameters are way off or the fishes immune function is compromised, it's not likely. You see lymph most often in newly imported fish, and commonly on angels, butterflies and tangs.

 

[CJ]

Not sure I can get a pic, will try tomorrow.

I've been reading all day and I'm more and more convinced it's Lymphocystis. I'm thinking perhaps the fish's immune system might be down because of age. Any idea how long cinnamons live in captivity? This one is a minimum of 9 years since it was full grown when I acquired it.

Thanks

 

[Travisxrs05]

Cj, actually my ocellaris clowns have also gotten it. I just got them no more than a week ago from my LFS and they also had a break out of it. More than 25 clowns at there store have gotten it. They are taking mine back and contacting ORA, and doing the quarantine at their store but I got pics of it on my two so let me know if its the same thing u have.

 

[CJ]

Thanks for posting the pics Travis. Yes, it sure looks like what mine has, you can see the enlarged cells in the first picture. Does the store know what it is?

Here is a link to an article I found about Lymphocystis:

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Lawler_Lymphocystis.html

 

[Travisxrs05]

Cj, well they have no idea on what it is. The strangest part about the fish is that they are from ORA. I still havent herd from the store yet about what they have but they are waiting on a response from ORA. I have already given my lfs my clowns and as i dropped them off they were telling me that this outbreak is only affecting the clowns and they have had them in quarantine for 2 weeks now with no signs of improvement. It does look close to Lymphocystis but they didnt say anything regarding it. It really doesnt look like it had any symptoms other than an aesthetics but i only had them for about 9 days, they ate fine swam fine, they didnt do anything abnormal. I will fill you in with anything they tell me.

 

[Travisxrs05]

I also forgot to add that they had only just recieved the clowns about 3-4 days before i got mine. So it had time to spread to all of there clowns.

 

[CJ]

If it's Lympho it probably wouldn't spread until some of the enlarged cells fall off and release the virus into the tank. I'm trying to post a picture of my clown. I haven't done it in years and it's painful

 

[CJ]

Okay, let's see if this works:

 

[CJ]

I guess it didn't, let's try again:

 

[CJ]

Travis, I have a friend who got some ORA clowns about a year or more ago and they were diseased, if I recall they died. It wasn't anything like what we have though. I'll have to ask him to refresh my memory.

Thanks for the info and yes, please, do keep me updated.

I hope one the experts on the board will see our pictures and comment.

 

[Travisxrs05]

Cj, from what i recalled from the LFS they had gotten the clowns *3-4 WEEKS* not days. They did tell me that they had some of the clowns with the mystery "warts" (what they say they are) in the quarantine for the entire month with no signs of improvements but they didnt have the strange "warts" kill any of the fish. In your picture your area of the disease is more on the fish where as mine looked like a piece of cotton stuck on the fish. I guess we just play the waiting game till someone with more knowledge on this subject posts something for us. That is a very good looking clown by the way. I hope it pulls out of this little hump.

 

[ihopss]

My clown has been Infected with the same thing , it almost looks like a leech of some kind .I will be tagging along. I have not added any fish in over a year, I did put a few new corals in, so my guess is that it came in with them.

 

[CJ]

Thanks, Travis. I've had her since I started reefing 8 years ago and she was full grown when I got her, so I figure she's at least 9 years old. Over the years, she continued to grow and put on some girth, , I like to feed my fish, they're more important to me than the corals. I've had a trap in the tank since last night and of course my butterfly is in and out looking for goodies, the blenny went in and panicked and is staying far away from it now, but of course Truffles, the cinnamon, AKA Bin Laden you can figure out why, won't go near it. I wonder how long it will take. As I type Zeke, the butterfly, is enjoying a stay in the trap eating the few flakes left from the feeding which I was hoping would catch Truffles. Oh well.

I agree the growths on your fish stand out from the fish more than mine. I hope we can find some answers. I spent hours searching this forum and found little helpful information other than the article I posted. I couldn't get the link in the stickies to work either.

 

[Travisxrs05]

No update from my lfs, im going there tomorrow and seeing what i can find out about the disease. No body has any ideas on what this is??

 

[CJ]

Thanks for the update Travis. I'm still trying to catch Truffles, she won't even go near the trap and she's getting more white fuzz on her sides. Grrr....


Come on guys, somebody must have some comment. Boomer where are you?

 

[screwsloose]

was there any scraping or sores there prior to the white patches? i would remove her asap and treat with a round of general cure. it has both prazi and metro in it and is a good general anesthetic.

 

[CJ]

Not that I am aware of. I am trying to catch her, not very productive so far.