Clownfish with ich

[Julian.Rad17]

About 2 weeks ago i added a royal gramma to my red sea reefer nano. He did great for the first week or so but then started to show a dusty coating around his head and back. He scratched against the rocks and sand and wouldn't eat garlic soaked food. During this time i added a fire shrimp to the tank that probably stressed him out and a few days later he was dead. Now it seems like my clownfish have the same thing. They wont eat and haven't been acting normal. They also have this dusty white coating. Is there anything to keep them from dying and infecting my whole tank?

 

[vhuang168]

Too late. Your whole tank is already infected.


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[Julian.Rad17]

Thanks for the great advice.

 

[MuShu]

Can you get ahold of something like Kanaplex? If you have a LFS nearby, see what they would have you treat it with.

 

[Julian.Rad17]

I just emailed my LFS about the ich and I'm waiting for a response

 

[Deinonych]

Can you get ahold of something like Kanaplex? If you have a LFS nearby, see what they would have you treat it with.

Kanaplex is for bacterial infections; it will not treat parasitic infections, which is likely what the OP has based on the description of symptoms.

To the OP: can you post pictures of the affected fish? It will help with diagnosis and treatment recommendations.

 

[snorvich]

Velvet most likely not ich.

 

[Julian.Rad17]

If you don't look closely it just looks like white and dusty but when you look closer, you can see tiny white dots throught their body including near their mouth. They also ignore food and have left the powerhead that they host for some reason. Hopefully this description helps.

 

[dustinkimpel]

If its ich there are many forums on here walking you through the process. You will really be put to the test if you want to do this hobby or not. If you do CONFIRM it as ich take the fish out and treat it with cupramine in another tank. You can leave your shrimp in there and just keep the tank running for 2 months fishless. It's the only sure fire method. Every reefkeeper ever has been there, you can get through it.

 

[Deinonych]

If you don't look closely it just looks like white and dusty but when you look closer, you can see tiny white dots throught their body including near their mouth. They also ignore food and have left the powerhead that they host for some reason. Hopefully this description helps.

I agree with Steve - your description sounds more like velvet than ich. You will need to move quickly with treatment if so; velvet kills extremely quickly. Chloroquine phosphate is the preferred treatment for velvet.

 

[ThRoewer]

Velvet most likely not ich.

Either that or brook. Though "dusting" of head and back sounds very much like velvet.

Ich usually takes weeks to kill a fish - if it kills them at all.

 

[Julian.Rad17]

Well they have had this dusting for about 3-4 days so is that typical of velvet? Is there a medication that I can use? I was thinking I could put them into a small bucket for a few hours and treat them with any medication so if any of you know what to use that would help. I would like to avoid treating my entire tank if possible.

 

[Deinonych]

If it's velvet, medicated dips will only provide temporary relief. As noted above, chloroquine phosphate is the preferred treatment for velvet. In all likelihood, all fish have been exposed and will need to be treated in a dedicated hospital tank.

 

[ThRoewer]

What the fish need is 2 to 4 weeks in Chloroquine phosphate in a treatment tank while the DT stays fallow for 6 weeks. Just to be on the safe side you may also give them a formalin bath against brooklynella (only if the fish still look fit enough to handle it).

 

[Julian.Rad17]

Thanks for the advice guys, the 2 clowns died this morning. I'm going to my LFS to see what they say about this.

 

[ThRoewer]

Most LFS don't know much about diseases and will just sell you some useless or even dangerous "medication".

Your best course of action is to leave the tank without any fish for two months and set up one or two quarantine tanks.
Since the quarantine should ideally last 2 months as well, you could get new fish right now.
The one thing that you should do with every new fish is to give it a formalin bath. This vastly reduces the likelihood of Brooklynella and Uronema making it into your tank. It may also reduce the risk of velvet, but best is not to get anything from a system that has velvet in it. So whoever you got these fish and inverts from l would be very careful with buying from.

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[Julian.Rad17]

I just got back from the LFS and he said any medication even if called "reef safe" will end up killing corals/inverts. He said the only thing I can do is soak the food in Vita Chem and garlic to keep the remaining fishes immune system high. He said if that the fish probably would've already gotten ich/velvet by now so ill just keep feeding them with the supplement and hopefully they'll fight it off.

 

[ThRoewer]

Garlic doesn't do much good for fish (unless you want to cook them with it) and may even be harmful if fed over a longer period.
And while fish may be able to handle ich on their own, I would never take any chances with velvet or Brooklynella.

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[snorvich]

Garlic doesn't do much good for fish (unless you want to cook them with it) and may even be harmful if fed over a longer period.
And while fish may be able to handle ich on their own, I would never take any chances with velvet or Brooklynella.

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What he said. You might consider a different LFS

 

[Julian.Rad17]

Well I can't setup quartentine tanks so I had no other option anyway.