Help. Is my clown done?

[silentcivilian]

Tank: 24gallon, aquaclear70 pump, coralife 50/50 65watt lamp, 75watt heater, 400gph power head, 20lbs rock. SPG: 1.024. Current temp:25C.

Tank was stable, ran the cycle for a few weeks. This is a new tank, and im am new, my friend who help set me up, isnt new, and guided me very carefully.

Only have 2 fish, got them 2 days ago. The local shop who has also been very helpful told me they wanted a water sample before I bought fish, so they too knew the water was good. Clown since put in the tank hasnt swam much, just swims in the same area over and over, ignores food, doesnt even appear to see it. Has had one witnessed fight with my Lawnmower Blenny. Now it looks like I have a zombie clown fish. Want to know if there is hope to fixing?? Didnt want to loose a fish this fast, or for that matter, at all.

Sidenote, the Blenny is doing fantastic, loves the tank, eats all day, and poops like a dedicated poop machine.

See photo for damage to zombie clown.

 

[Logzor]

Your clownfish has Brooknella or "Brook" disease. This is a nasty parasite that typically targets clownfish and kills as little as 36 hours of first symptoms. It can spread to other fish but this is not typical.

You fish will at first be overly energetic, then stop eating, after this the fish will keep going to the surface gasping for air as the parasite invades the gills. Once the fish is gasping for air it is too late, freeze the fish or find another humane way to put it down.

I lost a clownfish, a diamond goby, and two anthias to this disease. I was able to save my other clown using a formalin bath for 15 minutes. This definitely saved the fish and worked extremely well.

The problem is that formaldehyde is hard to come by, luckily I have access to a lab. You would probably have to order it in, which would not give you enough time, unfortunately.

There should be directions online on how to apply the formalin bath, I forget what exact dose I used. I treated in a 5 gallon bucket with a heater and powerful airstone.

In the future you may want to consider QT'ing new arrivals and have the proper treatments on hand to deal with their disease. Most people do not QT and have not for years without incident, it is simply Russian roulette.

 

[Boyman]

+1 on brooknella

 

[spleify]

Sorry to hear

 

[silentcivilian]

Thanks guys, its bad news.. but my shop seems pretty fair and hopefully they can cut me a deal on a new fish as this fish isnt even 48hours tank new right now. Hopefully they understand. Thanks again for the info.