Clown in trouble

[underpar]

Hi,

I have a percula clown that has a whitish "haze" on both of its sides. It seems to have appeared rather quickly.
I have tried to ID the problem through searches. It does not seem to be cottony in nature, but more a discoloration of his skin.
It is the only fish in a new system. He seems very lethargic and not interested in eating. Can anyone help?

Thanks, Fred

 

[CCall]

It sounds like Brooklynella (clown disease). Treat with parasite medications that have formalin in it.
Try to put garlic in its food to get him to eat. If that does not work; I use frozen rotifers to feed. They are small enough that when the clown opens his mouth he gets food in. You can soak the food in zoe which is a vitamin.

 

[underpar]

Thanks CCall. I live in a very rural area and by the time I was able to get some medication, the little guy had died.
I will be better prepared in the future.

Fred

 

[kevin2000]

If your fish had Brooklynella then a bath in formalin would have been warranted. Brook can be a very deadly and fast acting disease .. garlic and rotifers may have helped the fish's immune system but perhaps akin to giving chicken soup to a person with a serious disease.

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/brooklynella.html

 

[jthao]

i've treated ich and succeeded but now I've got a problem with this clownfish disease. I didn't know that it was a disease until my female true perc died. then I decided to get a new pair of percs, and now they're in the qt tank, but the male of the pair is showing signs of this white layer of nasty stuff covering his right gill. I'm guessing it's this brook stuff. so anyways, I've read this thread along with another few, and I'm wondering is it as hard as ich to cure?? and can I just feed him well, and will he be able to fight off the stuff by himself if he's healthy?

 

[kevin2000]

Brook is much more deadly than ich .. chicken soup methods are highly unlikely to have any impact. If your fish have brook then re-read the above link and look under the treatment section discussing how to give a formalin bath ... also note that the dosage outlined in the link assumes your using std formalin which is a 37% concentration of formaldehyde ... many LFS sell Formalin 3 which is a 3% concentration and if you use that you would need to compensate accordingly.

Since brook is quick to kill don't delay treatment.

You should treat both fish ... formalin depletes oxygen in the water so make sure you aerate the water during treatment.

Hope this helps.