Clown Fish Disease

[Majority_Rules]

Everyday I come home from work and right away I look at my tank to make sure everything is ok. Right away I noticed my clown fish had a white film over his body and he was swimming sideways. I of course freaked out and called a couple of LFS to get some advice. One said sorry there's nothing you can really do and the other said I needed to come and pick up some medicine. I dipped him in the treatment water and put him in the QT and just waited. A few hours later he died. I feel horrible and wish I had been home earlier to notice the problem sooner. I don't understand though, he was fine last night. I did a 15% water change on sunday and three days later he has this disease. Has it ever been heard of that LFS salt water can be contaminated with Brooklynella or ich? It's just weird to me that I use their water and three days later he dies. He is the only fish I have in there so I really don't know where it came from. My ammonia and nitrate are a bit high which I've been trying to remedy. One LFS said ammonia at .25 and nitrate at 5 or 10 isn't a big deal. The other said it is a BIG deal and that's why he got sick. All these mixed opinions. I'm still leaning towards contaminated water. I dunno. I was just wondering if anyone has ever heard of bad LFS saltwater?

 

[Casino]

There is such a thing as bad LFS water. One of the first rules in this hobby is to never put any LFS water with your water. Any ammonia is bad and nitrates at 5 or 10 isnt that bad.

 

[Urchinhead]

Brooklynella aka Clownfish disease is a extremely virulent pathogen. Onset of symptoms to expiration of fish is usually within hours so don't beat yourself up over it. Odds are it was a wild caught clown as they are more susceptible to and likely to carry the protozoan.

For reference treatment is usually a series of palliative hypo-salinity dips until you can get ahold of some formalin to treat it. A 5ml to 1L solution of formalin/water is a good way to go and the fish should be in the dip for 5 minutes. Monitor it for stress and remove if required. You will need to do this for about 2 weeks with a dip every 2-3 days and the fish in a QT tank. Or you can run the QT tank with Formalin in the water (I don't like to do this).

You are also going to have to take any other fish in the tank now and put them into a QT tank and treat them for exposure to Brook as they can be asymptomatic hosts (carriers) of it and will infect any new clowns you put into the tank while at the same time keeping your display tank free of fish for about 4-6 weeks in order to make sure the tank is clean or else you should think about not having any more clownfish.

Also go with a confirmed tank bred clown as they are more hardy, less likely to be diseased or carriers of other little nasties and its allot more humane/eco friendly.

 

[Majority_Rules]

So do you guys all make your own saltwater? I thought I was doing the right thing by buying saltwater made by someone who's been doing it forever.
I did dip my clown in a formalin solution last night for a few minutes with hypo-salinity. I think I was too late at this point. I did everything the instructions said to. I aerated it and put some stuff in there to get rid of any ammonia burn and then I placed him in a QT and watched him. Luckily I don't have any other fish, so I'm just going to have to wait a while before getting any others.
So is it possible the LFS water had it then? Or do clown fish carry it and higher levels of ammonia and nitrate bring it out? Sorry for all the questions I just want to make sure this never happens again and thanks for all the help.

 

[Urchinhead]

Odds are it wasn't your water source. More likely it was the fish. And odds were it was just too late. I lost a wild caught (I didn't know it at the time as it was mislabeled at the LFS) and her mate (tank bred) in 6 hours even with treatment. Its a real fast killer.

I make my own water and buy water depending on how lazy I am. In the long run making your own is cheaper and gives you better control over SG Ca Alk pH etc.