white spots

[vzapata]

Irregular shaped white spots have recently appeared on the fins of one of my percula clowns and on the nose and body of my blue tang. The water temp is 78 - 80 and water levels are good. All the fish in the tank are eating very well. ( mix of zooplankton, krill, brine, and dry flake food )

What is the best method to treat this?

Thanks in advance!

[FMarini]

Hi:
are these white spots cotton ball like or flatenned.
If flatttened....Do you think its ick?
If it is ick (most likely caused by a recent stressor), then the two most reliable treatments are copper or hyposalinity. Neither of which i recommend for a reef tank, and neither can you do in the prescence of invertebrates.
So is this a reef tank?
If it is then i would quarentine the fish (use a simple rubbermaid tub, sponge filter, and main tank water)and treat in there.
If you have NO inverts then you can slowly lower (over three days)the salinity of your main tank to 1.009-1.010. Ensure you have a accurate hydrometer, and keep the salinity there for 30 days. Copper takes 3 days before the ick is gone but treat for the full 10. Hypo takes about 1 week for the ick to die off and again treat for the full month. I woulsd also figure out what was the stressor in this tank (such as beefing, a new tankmate, major wate quality issues, etc. To prevent this from happening again.
frank

[vzapata]

I'm not sure if it's ick or not. In the past, when I've experienced ick, it appeared like small white specks about the size of a grain of salt. These are flattened spots ... I have not seen this before.

My tank is a reef tank, so I think that I will quarantine the two fish with the spots. I have a 20 gal. quarantine tank that I use. I will try lowering the salinity and see what happens.

What I dont understand is, I'm not sure why this happened. All levels have been very steady. ( nitrates up a bit - about 30 ppm ) All fish have been eating very well. The only change has been the addition of a xenia.

Thanks FMarini!

[vzapata]

http://24.7.224.197:81/spots.jpg