Parasite, Micro Bubbles, or Sand Particles?

[Pajewbanuts]

Ive had a couple of clownfish for close to 2 months now and everything has been great. About a couple of weeks ago i noticed some extremely small white dots and had been keeping an eye on them. The strange thing being they would be visible and twelve hours later be nearly gone. No other fish in my tank have shown any signs of this and the two clowns are eating well and show no signs of fatigue. Could it just be these things just sticking to their slime coat and i catch it at the wrong time or could they be suffering from some kind of parasite? Though visual evidence would be of much more help i cannot get a clear enough picture as they are still only about 1 1/2" and the dots are that small. I would love some opinions before i dose them with some cupramine and cause them any stress.

Thanks for any suggestions

 

[Dkuhlmann]

It could be ich or something else like you say sand or micro bubbles. But keep an eye on them as if it's ich you will have to start treating them. There are some stickies at the top of this forum about TTM, Tank Transfer Method and one with a big red arrow called Setting up. This is the best treatment for getting rid of ich. But don't worry just yet. My clowns sleep on the sand bed and they occasionally have sand stuck to them, but not in any large amounts. Also most tanks do have ich in them just that the fish have an immunity to the parasite. So keeping fish well fed and healthy goes a long way.

So for now don't worry, and if you can get a picture please post it.

Welcome to Reef Central!

 

[ca1ore]

My own philosophy regarding disease is to not treat until the symptoms are clearly progressing or the fish acting lethargic. Perhaps not a great approach for something like velvet that can kill very quickly, but I've been fortunate enough to never have had that one. For me it's ich, flukes, bacterial issues and popeye. None of those are particularly quick killers making unecessary treatment the bigger problem.