Black Ick?

[Canuck]

Good morning,
This is my first post here on this site therefore I am hoping that someone here will be able to help me with my potential problem.
My husband and I have a 55G corner unit reef tank with 2 clowns, a Sailfin Tang, Christmas Wrasse, Blue spotted Hawaiin puffer, sandsifting star, 8 snails and a hermit crab with some corals in the center.
This morning I came downstairs and noticed some black around my clownfishs fins. Looking closer I noticed a couple of spots. I tried to look it up on the internet and the only thing that I have been able to find is that it may be Black Ick. This came up on about.com. I checked my water and all reading were great.
SG 1.024, Nitrate/ite: 0.00 and Amonia 0.00.
Aside from the spots, they are acting normal, and a verocious appetite and are swimming around like usual.
Does anyone have any suggestions for me on what this may be or what to do to treat it if need be?
Thanks

[dobejazz]

Welcome to TRT

Are the spots only on the clowns? what type of clowns are they?

[Hop]

Here are some shots of various diseases if it helps any....

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=127010

[tellycoleman]

I had black ick about one year ago.
But my clowns were the last fish affected buy it.
Usually clowns have scales that are closer together than other fish and for this reason they are more resistant to ick.
A picture would be nice if you have a good enouph camera
if your clowns are eating like crazy and healthy i would be leaning toward parasite instead.
Tangs are usually the first effected by ick.
I would feed with garlic and or selcon and watch him to see if it gets worse.
If it does you may need to quarantine.
Is he scratching against the rocks or substrate?
Black ick is no joke and with my experience just feeding more with garlic didnt do nothing.
first I would try very hard to make a correct I.D. of the problem.
put a sponge/ or filter in your tank today to get bacteria growing on it. (If you have to quarantine)
My experince with black ick was that it is very aggresive.
So if that is truely what it is you need to take a more active than passive approach.
Good luck
post a pick

[Canuck]

Thanks Pop,
That post really helped.
My clowns actually look like the ones with the hyer melanation or whatever it was... suffering from the stings from coral.
Thankfully the spots shown on the fish suffering from Black Ick don't match what my clowns have.

To be honest I don't know which breed of clowns they are. They were the first fish we got when we started the tank.

I'm hoping that it will stay as is. If it gets worse over the next day then I will take action. As for now they are still swimming and acting normal.
They have taken to flashing up against the CC on the bottom of our tank to make dips, as they enjoy playing hide and seek together.
The smaller one is a funny character so I wouldn't doubt that he would have rubbed against the coral. We were however told that it doesn't sting, however I have since been told that all do to varying degrees.
I don't see them hosting with the corals at all but it isn't to say they take up with it at night when the lights are off.
Yes, they are the only fish with the spots. We have the Sailfin Tang which from what I read would be one of the first fish to be affected by Black Ick. So that is now why I am not thinking that that is what it is. He is fine and all the other fish are fine. The crab has been in his shell alot and not being his normal self for the past week but I thought he was molting... now I'm just wondering if he doesn't quite like the puffer...

Thanks and I will keep all posted.