Clownfish sick - Ick? Brook? Amyloodinium?

[Newms118]

So my clownfish has been sick for about a week and a half with what appears to be some white specks/translucent specs/pimples that have come and gone and come back again. Its obviously some parasite. I'm just not sure what it is, or how to get rid of this. Here are some pics.

Here are some I took today while dipping the fish in Paraguard for 45 minutes. Notice how they are on both sides of the fish and all along the body.

I also noticed that in some places, there were some discolorizations that had a greenish tent to them. Its hard to see the color in the pic, but if you look at the white part of the tail, you can see the section. Its greenish but just doesnt look like it here.

In terms of how the fish behaves, when hes covered in the specs, hes breathing a little labored, and he likes to rest on the bottom, not moving his fins much and even kind of leaning on his side. If I agitate him, hell get up and swim a bit. And at least a day ago, the fish was swimming and picking at food at the water surface.

For treatment, the water has 40 mg / gallon CP (NLS Ick Shield), and Prazipro. When the fish is struggling, like today, I dipped him in Paraguard (3 mL per gallon for 45 minutes) because I dont have anything else to do. I've ordered formalin in case the Paraguard is just not strong enough. I havent done freshwater dips because I thought the Paraguard dip was sufficient.

Anyone have an idea what I'm dealing with here? I'm afraid of losing this guy .

 

[snorvich]

History of the fish? When was last wet item added?

 

[mets17127]

Ich. If it was brook or velvet it would be dead already. Do the TTM and see if that does it.

 

[Newms118]

Ich. If it was brook or velvet it would be dead already. Do the TTM and see if that does it.

I cant do the TTM, I dont have the equipment and my other tank has other QT fish in it. If I'm treating with chloroquine phosphate, how can I have Ick? I guess I can up the dose to 60 mg / gallon then if nothing else.

I agree if it was Brook or Velvet the fish would be worse off, its still alive, has more of these crystals on it now.

Also, the fish is in a tank with a royal gramma and a blue damsel. Neither of those fish have ever shown signs of this, its been unique to the clownfish.

 

[Newms118]

History of the fish? When was last wet item added?

The fish, along with a royal gramma and blue damsel, have had Ick before, so they went through a whole course of chloroquine phosphate at 40 mg / gallon. I have another QT tank in the same room with fish I got from Live aquaria. Whatever came in with my last pink bar goby must have brought this in, and then the droplets got in the air and infected this other tank, because before this, the fish looked fine, was scratching so thats why I had Prazipro in the water, thought it was flukes. So right now, both of my QT tanks are going though identical treatments to try and prevent cross contamination again, if thats what this was.

I guess Ill go with really bad case of Ick and put more chloroquine phoshphate in the water since if it was Brook or something else, wouldnt the fish have died by now? Also, does formalin baths have no affect on Ick if its on the fish? Because these crystals didnt come off in Paraguard.

 

[ThRoewer]

CP is not always reliable against Cryptocaryon.

As a treatment of an active infection I personally found hyposalinity more reliable and easier on the fish than CP.

TTM is the best prevention method with new fish. In combination with formalin dips it can also be effective against brook.

 

[jduck]

NLS is not CP, they use a different form of chloroquine.

7-chloro 4-quinolinyl

 

[Newms118]

NLS is not CP, they use a different form of chloroquine.

7-chloro 4-quinolinyl

True, its a derivative. Its supposed to be stronger than CP.

 

[Newms118]

CP is not always reliable against Cryptocaryon.

As a treatment of an active infection I personally found hyposalinity more reliable and easier on the fish than CP.

TTM is the best prevention method with new fish. In combination with formalin dips it can also be effective against brook.

Unfortunately TTM requires more space and equipment than I have, so I cant use that. How do you measure your salinity? I have a refractometer but that doesn't go low enough to measure salinity for hypo.

 

[ThRoewer]

Unfortunately TTM requires more space and equipment than I have, so I cant use that. How do you measure your salinity? I have a refractometer but that doesn't go low enough to measure salinity for hypo.

How big is the fish? I've kept small fish for days or even weeks in 1/2 gallon specimen containers or 1 to 2 gallon tanks that were hanged into a larger tank. So unless the fish is large there should not be a space issue for TTM.

And what kind of salinity refractometer do you have that it doesn't go all the way to 0 ppt (1.000 kg/L)?
I would definitely get one that goes all the way from 0 to 70 ppt.

 

[Newms118]

How big is the fish? I've kept small fish for days or even weeks in 1/2 gallon specimen containers or 1 to 2 gallon tanks that were hanged into a larger tank. So unless the fish is large there should not be a space issue for TTM.

And what kind of salinity refractometer do you have that it doesn't go all the way to 0 ppt (1.000 kg/L)?
I would definitely get one that goes all the way from 0 to 70 ppt.

I have a Marine Depot Pro refractometer. Stupid thing only goes from 1.030 to 1.015. Theres a line way below the last mark for 1.000 but in between the put the stupid logo so no way to tell.

The clown is just about 2 to 2.5 inches in length. Would a 5 gallon bucket be sufficient in size for the clown, royal gramma, and blue damsel?

 

[ThRoewer]

5 gallon would be more than enough.
As for the refractometer - get one without commercials on the scale! You need one that can read from 1.000 to 1.050 (better even 1.070) without any blackout zones.

 

[mets17127]

Do you have a refractometer or a swing arm hydrometer?

 

[snorvich]

I have another QT tank in the same room with fish I got from Live aquaria. Whatever came in with my last pink bar goby must have brought this in, and then the droplets got in the air and infected this other tank . . .

Please read this.

 

[Newms118]

Please read this.

Exactly, thats why I think it came from the other tank. Those fish arent showing any signs of Ick but one is scratching. They were receiving the same drug treatment as the tank with the clownfish.

 

[Newms118]

Do you have a refractometer or a swing arm hydrometer?

Refractometer. I wanted that because its supposed to be more accurate.

 

[Newms118]

5 gallon would be more than enough.
As for the refractometer - get one without commercials on the scale! You need one that can read from 1.000 to 1.050 (better even 1.070) without any blackout zones.

Ok, I can set up the 5 gallon with say 3 to 4 gallons of water. Only thing is this wont have the biological filter anymore. So how do you control for ammonia? Just use Prime and water changes daily?

I saw in another post that the TTM should be done every 3 or 4 days, so does that include daily water changes as well?

I'm low on equipment, but what I could put in the bucket is an airstone and a heater. Is that sufficient for a tank or is a powerhead necessary?

For cleaning the tank, I plan on using bleach and water, and then letting it air dry for at least 48 hours before starting it up again. Ill go from bucket to tank to bucket etc.

 

[snorvich]

Ok, I can set up the 5 gallon with say 3 to 4 gallons of water. Only thing is this wont have the biological filter anymore. So how do you control for ammonia? Just use Prime and water changes daily?

Prime on day two of each cycle; with one fish it is often not needed

 

[Newms118]

Prime on day two of each cycle; with one fish it is often not needed

So for one bucket Ill have a clownfish, royal gramma and blue damsel. I guess thats ok for 3 gallon saltwater in 5 gallon bucket.

Do you think I could fit a pinkbar goby, chalk bass, firefish, neon goby, and chromis in another bucket with similar volume or do I need a larger container?

 

[mets17127]

That all sounds fine. I personally don't bleach my containers after transfer, as I read that once they're dry the ich is dead. I just wash with tap water and sit next to the dehumidifier in the summer or the wood stove in winter