Spots on naked clownfish.

[DREUTZ]

I had made a thread about this about a year ago, but I didn't have a good pic and the spots on my naked o. clownfish went away. They would come back from time to time but always go away. Tonight I looked at them and it is by far the worst coverage of these spots I've ever seen and happened the get some decent pics. Spots are grayish and vary between lighter and darker as well as different size spots or blotches. As far as I can tell they are not raised off of the surface nor does it seem like a "furry" type coating. Here are some pics:

Pics are not perfect, but are better than the last ones. Any ideas?

 

[DREUTZ]

Wow should've read the other posts before I created this. There is a similar new post about perc clowns.

From that post additional information that might be useful is that both of the clowns have the same type of symptoms but my bicolor blenny, blue spot jawfish and royal gramma do not have anything like it. (although I saw a white mark on my bsj that I thought was from when he jumped into my fuge a couple of times before I made a wall, but it may be related to the clown thing) Also the clowns do not really host anything and i don't have a nem so the only thing that I think could sting them is a hammer coral that they rarely encounter and gsp that the male would rub on every so often but I have not seen him do it in months.

 

[DREUTZ]

Bump

 

[KathyC]

The spots you are describing sound like a sting from a coral in the tank, could be any of the ones you mentioned. They are usually a shade of gray and fade in time with seemingly no effect on the fish.

As long as the fish are eating as usual and behaving normally, I would not be concerned.
Do you have the space for an anenome in the tank? (not necessary, just curious)

 

[DREUTZ]

I was concerned about how both clowns got the spots at the same time. Recently the female has been beating the sh*t out of the male which hasn't happened since about a year ago when I first got them and they were battling it out.

Eating seems normal, but I will continue to watch.

I do not have room for an anenome, but would get one if I did. Rockwork is covered in corals and I do not want to rish the nem stinging everything as well as the overall size it would be in my 29 gal Biocube, I am curious why you asked about the nem?

 

[KathyC]

Funny that you say they are battling again and they were at the time you first saw these spots on them.
They could be feeling ...frisky..and might be looking for a place to hang out together. Hence my question about the anenome. Since you don't have one, they are probably snuggling up to something in your tank that is stinging them.
Not that you have to have an anenome for them, and sure I understand the issues they can cause in a tank when they wander around
The mild stings won't really hurt them and they should avoid whatever it is that is stinging them (assuming still that they are stings).
Clowns will host many things in a tank, including powerheads as some have said..not too bright sometimes!

Any room for a frilly mushroom, they are not as troublesome as an anenome and often clowns seem to like them?

 

[DREUTZ]

The male used to host the GSP all the time, but he hasn't been interested lately. Maybe it is the hammer that is stinging them. I might be able to fit some sort of hairy type mushroom in there but I may need to move some stuff around. Thank you for the input and I will update if anything new comes up!