White clumps on tail?

[uwmck]

I have a 36 gallon tank, no reefs or live plants. Fish are four damsels, (two striped ones and two black ones). I ended up taking one of them in to the saltwater fish store and the workers told me that the white clumps on tails and on fins didnt look like ich, they said it was some sort of fungus. If anyone would know of any similar looking disease could you let me know and how to treat it? Only the two black damsels have it, but i am sure the others will follow. Thanks

 

[beth]

Could you post up your water readings including nitrate, phosphate and pH, in addition to the other readings.
What are you feeding the fish? How are the fish behaving besides the fin issue?
Can you be more specific about what you are seeing? Size? Shape?

 

[uwmck]

Ok, i finally got a test kit. Nitrite is 2.0
Alkalinity is 200
PH is 7.6
Nitrate is 20
Fish are being fed PRIME REEF FLAKES
The Black Damsel has a clumb of white on his tail, similar to ich, but just seems a little different. Also he has a little clump on his upper fin and a few really small ones on the body, none on front fins.

 

[uwmck]

The tank is relatively new, about three to four months. Only one of my four damsels has any sign of this cauliflower type disease. I have no live rock or reefs, I was wondering if i could or should treat the whole tank, considering its only four damsels. Sorry im a newcomer to this stuff. Thanks for your help

 

[beth]

Improve the environment and diet of your fish and you may see an improvement with these fish. That is the treatment I recommend at this point.
Why do you have nitrite? What filters are you using?

 

[uwmck]

I just tested for what was on the test stick! I am using two whisper filters, no protein skimmer as of now. Fish are getting really sick, many spots of ich or similar on their bodies, all four damsels have it. I am going to try and treat the whole tank, considering i have only four damsels and now live rock or reefs. Whether or not i should treat the whole tank is all i needed to know.

 

[uwmck]

Well i looked at the fish lastnight, and the one had a cauliflower like group on his tail and many spots on his body, the other three damsels had little white spots all over them, which resembled ich. So i guess i'll do a water change and change their diets. Could you give me some suggestions as to what to feed them and whether or not you think they could have ich too. What to you suggest to cure ich if thats what the others have?
One damsel has a cauliflower clump of white on his tail.
All four have little white spots over their bodies

 

[beth]

Sounds to me like you have ich which you need to treat. If your tank is FO you can treat the fish in the tank using hyposalinity. The FAQ Thread at the top of this forum details the procedure.