Brook or Ich??

gemmasicolo

New member
Just noticed today that something is wrong with my fish.
Here are some pics and the symptoms. Do you think it's brook or ich?

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Symptoms:
Stringy Poop
White specks all over body
Female Clown has a swolen cloudy eye
Female Clown is sometimes rubbing on the sand
All are eating well and no heavy breathing

Any ideas and treatments?
 
It looks more like ich to me too. I expect more mucous from brook. I treat for ich with Cupramine.

The cloudy eye on the clown could be a bacterial infection or flukes are a possibility if only part of the eye is cloudy and swollen. Cloudy eyes are a symptom for brook too, but both eyes would be cloudy and I would still expect to see more mucous on all the fish and markedly rapid breathing.
 
There is actually no mucus that I can see. The pics may just be a little blurry.

Would flukes cause stringy poop? I was thinking it could be flukes also.

The eye on the clown is swollen, which is what gives it the gray/cloudy look. I've read somewhere about Popeye, could that be it too?

I did a water change and tank cleaning yesterday and everyone seems happy. Still eating like pigs and the clowns are doing their little shaking dance back and forth. The only thing is that she's rubbing on the sand like she's trying to get the stringy poop off.

If there is a bacterial infection, is there anything I can use to treat the tank? I know for fungal you can use pimafix.
 
I don't think flukes are causing the white spotting that is on the fish in the photos, that looks like ich.

Internal parasites could be causing stringy poop, but the ich will likely kill the fish before any internal parasites, so I would deal with that first or possibly concurrently.

Popeye is just a common term for an opportunistic bacterial infection in the eye. It happens when water quality is poor, the fish is stressed, or there is a direct injury to the eye.

If it were brook, your fish would likely be dead or well on their way, as it tends to kill rather quickly once symptoms show up.

I wouldn't treat for any of these problems in a DT, I would move all of the fish to a hospital tank for treatment. Unfortunately I think you have multiple problems going on and treating them all at once may be difficult as not all medications can be used together. I have treated for flukes and ich at the same time, but I have never had to throw antibiotics into the mix.
 
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