Spots on my clown fish

[Amajewski]

Hi. I have 2 captivity bred clown fish and the past 3 mornings I have noticed they look like they are covered in white sand but after about an hour of the lights being on it goes away and the fish look normal. All of my parameters are correct and have been steady and the fish are eating and active. I've had them for about 2 weeks and they just started this after I added a green star polyp a few days ago. I have added a cleaner shrimp as well but they still have the white stuff every morning. Is it Ich or could it be something else?

48 gallon tank, carbon filter, hydor skimmer, 2 clown fish, 1 green star polyp and 1 cleaner shrimp, about 20 pounds live rock

[schatzi]

Clown fish like to wiggle in the sand on occasion so it could be just that, sand. Or maybe something else. Someone else on here will chime in and in the meantime keep an eye on them.

[snorvich]

Ich would not fall off after an hour. Not to worry. However, clownfish will not allow themselves to be cleaned, and cleaner shrimp have no value in controlling parasites normally found in the aquarium. Great scavengers, however, and highly recommended.

[Amajewski]

Thanks for the advice! I've kept freshwater tanks my whole life but saltwater is a whole new beast to me. I've been super careful and tedious with the setup so I hope it works out.

[snorvich]

Thanks for the advice! I've kept freshwater tanks my whole life but saltwater is a whole new beast to me. I've been super careful and tedious with the setup so I hope it works out.

You will do fine. A year from now, you will be giving advice.

[MMacro]

Ich would not fall off after an hour. Not to worry. However, clownfish will not allow themselves to be cleaned, and cleaner shrimp have no value in controlling parasites normally found in the aquarium. Great scavengers, however, and highly recommended.

My cleaner shrimp cleaned my small clownfish all the time. I guess he was just weird.

[snorvich]

My cleaner shrimp cleaned my small clownfish all the time. I guess he was just weird.

Usually, clownfish will not allow cleaning because of their slime coat.