I'm currently battling an outbreak of Brookinella, in my tank, initially I read that Metro, will kill this parasite, and is reef safe(I have a few polyps and mushrooms not a full blown reef), so I treated the tank with a Metro containing med we have here in the UK called Octozin, I followed the instructions treated for 3 days and the infected fish were no better; in fact worse, after more research I decided to fw dip the fish that were the worse infected,I followed a dipping regime I found on a uk fish site, matched ph and temp dipped for 5 mins, I lost 2 of the three dipped fish within hours one was beyond saving at all when I dipped him, but my Orange spot Rabbit and Sohal still had a fair bit of fight left in them, the Foxface seem way better for the dip I lost the Sohal though, I kept beating myself up about the Sohal and the Trigger I lost even though I knew they were going to die soon and the dip would at least give them some relief from the parasite. After more research I decided to give up on the Metro, and remove the remaining fish to a hospital tank and treat with a med we have over here that is Formalin,Acriflavine and Malachite green, the Rabbit is still doing great and improving my chromis have never been affected at all but treating them in case, but my Maroon clown finally succumbed, ironic that the clownfish was one of the last to show symptoms of 'Clownfish disease', he is in the hospital tank with the rest and was much worse when I checked on him tonight after work(lots of stringy mucous, cloudy eyes ,deterioating fins) so as much as I hated the whole Fw dip thing I decide that to give him relief and allow the meds to work it was the only choice I had(didn't think he'd last the night), once in the dip he was very stressed I could only bear to watch for a minute or so then I returned him to the hospital tank....he was dead 5 hours later...I hate this feeling of trying to do what is best but still feeling I brought on death quicker through the stress of the dip, can't get past this I hate myself right now.
So I'm down to three fish from eight, Im leaving the DT fallow for at least a month, thought I may put some Metro in after a large wchange tonight, time to get the rock scrubbed redo the scape while I await the return of the fish the few corals I had are all doing fine after the Metro, so I thought another dose couldn't hurt and may speed up the killing of the Brook parasites remaining....
Any advice or helpful criticism would be welcomed(apart from the obvious QT in future), the odd thing about this outbreak was the time frame, the first fish to show any signs was my Dog face this was way back in September(I bought him in August), then it just disappeared, next I saw it on my Sohal around 2 weeks ago, that's when I did some research as I have never encountered it before, a week later there were 3 infected fish now all but the Chromis have had it. Its the Sep appearance on the puffer then nothing for months I don't get, the Puffer was the first to die, could he have somehow been resistant and contained/killed it then when he died it was released into the water column, that still dosen't explain only the Sohal only getting it 2 weeks ago, then the sudden explosion of infection. This hobby is a ***** sometimes, Im just glad this nasty parasite is contained to my one SW tank I have another 6 FW tanks....don't even want to think how bad it could be if it could live in FW...
Still hate FW dipping....guilt!!!!!
So I'm down to three fish from eight, Im leaving the DT fallow for at least a month, thought I may put some Metro in after a large wchange tonight, time to get the rock scrubbed redo the scape while I await the return of the fish the few corals I had are all doing fine after the Metro, so I thought another dose couldn't hurt and may speed up the killing of the Brook parasites remaining....
Any advice or helpful criticism would be welcomed(apart from the obvious QT in future), the odd thing about this outbreak was the time frame, the first fish to show any signs was my Dog face this was way back in September(I bought him in August), then it just disappeared, next I saw it on my Sohal around 2 weeks ago, that's when I did some research as I have never encountered it before, a week later there were 3 infected fish now all but the Chromis have had it. Its the Sep appearance on the puffer then nothing for months I don't get, the Puffer was the first to die, could he have somehow been resistant and contained/killed it then when he died it was released into the water column, that still dosen't explain only the Sohal only getting it 2 weeks ago, then the sudden explosion of infection. This hobby is a ***** sometimes, Im just glad this nasty parasite is contained to my one SW tank I have another 6 FW tanks....don't even want to think how bad it could be if it could live in FW...
Still hate FW dipping....guilt!!!!!