Clownfish passed away, help me save the other one.

[erikakasinnes]

Hey!

I've had 2 clownfish for about a month now, a few days ago i noticed the tailfin of one of them was torn. I didn't think much about it since he was seeming fine at the moment. Today i had to put him out of his misery, sadly enough.

Yesterday he stopped eating, his fin was getting worse and today the whole fin was gone and he just lied on the bottom expressing his last moments in twitching death. I pulled him out and ended his misery.

It happened very fast, the other one has somewhat the same symptoms, his fin is a little torn but he is still acting normal and eating. However, i have googled for hours trying to find what is going on, since my water values are correct and everything else is somewhat thriving (copepods bloom, coral growth etc.) it's hard to tell what is wrong.

The only thing i have come to think is that it is some parasite of some sort. I tried to take some pictures of the dead one, perhaps someone can tell what it is? As you can se there is some sort of "thing" that i pulled of his skin.. It was moving. The other one have the same type of "thing" on him.. So im def. worried. It looks like some kind of parasite. What should I do?

I also added a picture of the one still alive with the **** on him.

I am currently planing to do a freshwater dip with him for 5 minutes, if that doesnt work im lost.

What do you guys think?

 

[Newsmyrna80]

How did FW dips go? Did anything come off the fish during the dip? Hard to say what the "parasite" is without a microscope. It sort of looks like a fluke. The parasite pictured looks gelatinous which flukes are not. It appears the dead clown had a bacterial infection which is common with fluke infestations. Do you gave any Prazi on hand? This will help with flukes, if there are any. Also do you have Maracyn or General Cure? This will help with the infection.

 

[erikakasinnes]

It went well. He is up and swimming again. There was several of these circle shaped flat things dropping off. A few stayed on him as he went back into the reef but it seems they have dropped off aswell now.

What I can see the only other fish in the reef (being a Salarias) is not affected by these goddamn things. Hopefully they won't be able to grow hold again.

I have not used any medications and since the other fish died within 2 days i think it would have helped little, it feels really bad tough. Being a beginner it's hard to see where I went wrong. I'll update in the morning to see if i can spot any things on him then..

 

[snorvich]

Please see the section on flukes here.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

The other fish may not be exhibiting symptoms yet but it has been exposed therefore it needs to go through treatment as well.