Please help Identifying sick fish with growths ☹️

[Crosbie]

This is my first tank (and post here). I cycled my tank for 2 and a bit weeks then had my water tested at a large fish shop who told me everything was fine. Got a couple of coral sea Percula Clowns who were looking perfect. Two days later one had 3 tiny fluffy white growths on one side, fluffy white growths/damage on its dorsal fin and what I thought was the same thing just above its gill. I have since noticed that the growth just at the top of the gill is actually 3 tiny crystal clear bubbles. The same day I added the Clowns I added two blood shrimp. The two shrimp and two Clowns are the only inhabitants in my 250L tank.

I have a brightwell brick that i dose with microbacter7 ,red sea mat, skimmer, uv steriliser and a little bag of carbon under the skimmer. The water is crystal clear although the NH3 I just tested before making this post is right around 0.01, pH 7.9, sal 35 sal at 24.8 degrees C.

I added the fish 7 days ago and noticed the growths on day 2. They haven't done much since except the dorsal fin damage has either got a tiny bit worse or stayed the same and I'm just noticing more because I've spent about 20 hours staring at them up close. Initially I thought it was damage from a spirited jump against the guard or impeller but the bubbles suggest its clearly not, combined with it not getting any better after 5 days, and if anything, it's a tiny bit worse.

I then thought it was lymphocystis but I can't find anything that would explain the bubbles. The other fish is fine, it may have a single tiny growth on its tail but whatever it is, is so tiny I can't even pick it up on camera or see it unless it's at a specific angle.

They both are swimming around fine although they more or less hang out at the wave machine with the occasional swim down the side of the tank. There's no coloudiness to their colour, spots or discolouration other than what I've mentioned. No rubbing against anything and they both eat fine. No gasping or nipping at the surface. No slime and poop seems solid and breaks apart as its released.

Red: fluffy fin growth/damage
Green: Bubbles
Blue: fluffy growths

I froze a video to show the bubbles as they are hard to make out looking at the fish side on.

I have uploaded a couple of videos which I'll link below.



This has upset me immensely and I would really appreciate any advice on what this is.

Thanks a bunch in advance

(PS I have only just uploaded the videos, they are pretty high definition but YouTube takes a while to render the higher qualities so if 360p is all that's available then it make take another hour or so)

 

[MnFish1]

Well I will say - you have absolutely the best disease pictures on R2R - thanks a lot - it makes it easier - as well as the history. I see lymphocystis - I am not appreciating the bubbles. If lymphocystis - it's a viral disease - no need to worry - except clean water - great parameters. I would ask - are the fish eating, any other symptoms>

 

[Crosbie]

Thanks alot for your response.

Oh they are eating alright. I have been feeding them twice a day alternating frozen brine shrimp and mysis shrimp, half a cube of each per feeding session, and they still chase their poop around when it floats by. I love them so much already which is why I have been freaking out the past 5 days spending all my spare time looking at them trying to stare the problem away.

They looked incredibly stressed out when I put them in the tank spending the first 2 days glued to the furthest away top corner of the tank that they could possibly be. I think if they could have jumped out the tank and swam away they would have.

Now they seem like a normal regular set of weirdo clownfish from what I have gathered looking at other people's experiences. They seem super chill now and come and investigate my face if I'm looking in the tank.

There's nothing else weird about them other than the bubbles which is the main thing that's concerning me and the slight erosion of the dorsal fin which was pristine when I put them in the tank and is looking a bit tattered now. I kinda thought lymphocystis would have been growth rather than erosion. The big fluffy bit that flaps around looks like growth but the rest of the fin looks a little deteriorated from when I first noticed it but then again I am looking extra close now.

I am just looking for people to let me know what to do because I am super stressed out worrying that there is something I should be doing and by not I am jeopardising the fish.

I don't have a QT yet but I am buying one tomorrow but I don't want to move them unless I need to if it's lymphocystis as it will just stress them out even more and they seem settled now.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks alot for your response.

Oh they are eating alright. I have been feeding them twice a day alternating frozen brine shrimp and mysis shrimp, half a cube of each per feeding session, and they still chase their poop around when it floats by. I love them so much already which is why I have been freaking out the past 5 days spending all my spare time looking at them trying to stare the problem away.

They looked incredibly stressed out when I put them in the tank spending the first 2 days glued to the furthest away top corner of the tank that they could possibly be. I think if they could have jumped out the tank and swam away they would have.

Now they seem like a normal regular set of weirdo clownfish from what I have gathered looking at other people's experiences. They seem super chill now and come and investigate my face if I'm looking in the tank.

There's nothing else weird about them other than the bubbles which is the main thing that's concerning me and the slight erosion of the dorsal fin which was pristine when I put them in the tank and is looking a bit tattered now. I kinda thought lymphocystis would have been growth rather than erosion. The big fluffy bit that flaps around looks like growth but the rest of the fin looks a little deteriorated from when I first noticed it but then again I am looking extra close now.

I am just looking for people to let me know what to do because I am super stressed out worrying that there is something I should be doing and by not I am jeopardising the fish.

I don't have a QT yet but I am buying one tomorrow but I don't want to move them unless I need to if it's lymphocystis as it will just stress them out even more and they seem settled now.

I agree, the larger lesion on the dorsal fin is clearly Lymphocystis, so no worries there.

The other lesions are too small to really tell. These were wild caught? The big issue with wild clownfish is Brooklynella, but I don’t seen any strong evidence of that yet.

Jay

 

[Crosbie]

I agree, the larger lesion on the dorsal fin is clearly Lymphocystis, so no worries there.

The other lesions are too small to really tell. These were wild caught? The big issue with wild clownfish is Brooklynella, but I don’t seen any strong evidence of that yet.

Jay

Thanks for responding Jay, I really appreciate it.

Yes you are correct, they are wild caught. I was really taken by how opaque and pristine they were compared to all the other captive bred ones I had seen. I travelled around the country a bit visiting different stores before deciding on these which were several hours away from my home.

In my ignorant head at the time of purchase i thought wild caught fish would have a reduced probability of having genetic issues and be healthier. This made sense to me at the time but thinking about it now I can see why that may have not been a wise assessment.

They were also very expensive compared the tons of other clownfish they had, so again I thought they were likely to have been in the tank for a while and thus, if they had issues they would be apparent since they were the only pair in a tank on their own and the rest were like a battery farm with 50 in a tank.

Would the current best course of action be leaving them be and continue staring at them all day or should I be doing something? Also do the bubbles on the gill line up with lymphocystis?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks for responding Jay, I really appreciate it.

Yes you are correct, they are wild caught. I was really taken by how opaque and pristine they were compared to all the other captive bred ones I had seen. I travelled around the country a bit visiting different stores before deciding on these which were several hours away from my home.

In my ignorant head at the time of purchase i thought wild caught fish would have a reduced probability of having genetic issues and be healthier. This made sense to me at the time but thinking about it now I can see why that may have not been a wise assessment.

They were also very expensive compared the tons of other clownfish they had, so again I thought they were likely to have been in the tank for a while and thus, if they had issues they would be apparent since they were the only pair in a tank on their own and the rest were like a battery farm with 50 in a tank.

Would the current best course of action be leaving them be and continue staring at them all day or should I be doing something? Also do the bubbles on the gill line up with lymphocystis?

Wild clowns don’t have genetic issues, but they do some with a host of possible disease issues. The worst ones gone from SE Asia, and these didn’t come from there, so that’s good.

We have a pretty good proactive quarantine process on file here, but it doesn’t handle Brooklnella, and that’s the issue I see most often in wild clowns.

I also had the though that the various spots and such could be from the fish bickering with one another - but you said you’ve been watching them so closely, I figured you would have seen that.

I’ve seen clear bubbles show up on fish here, but I’ve never seen them in fish that I had direct access to, so I don’t know what the cause(s) could be.

Jay

 

[00W]

Never have I seen such great pictures.
Hope all goes well and, since no one has said it welcome Welcome to R2R!