is this brooklynella?

[dpstrand]

I got a pair of tank raised clowns just over two weeks ago. These are the first fish in a new tank with rock moved directly from an established tank, it never showed any signs of a cycle.

Both ate well from the first day home. One continues to eat well, the other is quite interested in food but eats hardly anything, and color appears faded. It's been 3 days since this behavior started, and it looks like there is a white patch around the gills on one side:

I don't have a suitable QT set up yet. Should I try and capture her and treat her with formalin in a bucket for a couple hours? There are corals and invertebrates in the tank already.

 

[Percula9]

A formalin bath for a view minutes, then a qt if possible.

 

[dpstrand]

I got some "Quick Cure" which contains formalin and malachite green. The bottle recommends 1 drop per gallon per day but since I only had a bucket to treat in I put 10 drops in 5 gallons for about 45 minutes.

The white section under her gills looks worse today, but she was as active as ever and interested as ever in the food (although still wouldn't eat much).

I wonder if it is something other than brooklynella? She swims all over but is always tilted upwards (nose higher than tail). Does that mean anything? Also she is not rubbing at the white section at all.

 

[Percula9]

It's not going to go away instantly. If she stopped rubbing this is a good sign. Look out for secondary bacterial infection. Have Furan2 on hand to treat.

 

[dpstrand]

She is still alive, but her spot seems to be getting worse, the formalin doesn't seem to have helped. She is still quite active, but will only eat one or two brine shrimp a night, won't touch mysis or anything else. She still is not rubbing, despite it looking really bad in my opinion.

 

[Percula9]

She might be suffering now from secondary infection. Treat with antibiotics.

 

[dpstrand]

Well, she is still alive, but I have unexpected news: I found her clownfish tankmate dead this morning. He showed absolutely no signs of poor health, no spots, ate very well, great color, always active, no heavy breathing. I just don't get it, he seemed fine.

She would not eat tonight. For some reason she keeps swimming very close to a powerhead tonight, as if testing her strength against the intake. So far she has been fine, but I expect to find her stuck up against it if I can't get her to eat soon...

I could not find any Furan2, where can I purchase this?

 

[Percula9]

See if you can get Maracyn2 instead. Try www. liveaquaria.com if there are products you can't get at the local store. There is a fish store down Beach Blvd just before PCH on the left. I don't remember the name, but he should have it. I used to live in H.B

 

[dpstrand]

My little fish friend has moved on to the big ocean in the sky.

Based on the information and the pictures, do you think this was a case of brooklynella?

I have had one other fish in the tank prior which has been ok through the life of the clowns, a neon goby. How long should I wait until I look to replace the clowns?

 

[otrlynn]

I had a tomato clown whose symptoms looked very similar to the fish in your pictures. Died before I could do much in the way of treatment. I did not see any white "saltlike" spots, but rather a whitish gray film, with an area of scale loss beginning on one side. I thought it was probably marine velvet, though it could have been Brooklynella. Without doing the research that I should have, I added a coral beauty angel fish, which ate well and looked good for about a week, then developed what appeared to be the same symptoms, though on the dark head and back, it had a true velvety appearance. Fish also died. The two fish that had been in my tank, a hawkfish and what I think is a blue chromis (though very dark blue/gray w/yellow on the tail and dorsal fin) for at least a year, never showed any signs of illness and are thriving. They are the only other fish in the tank (though there are inverts, soft coral, and live rock) and are about to go in a QT tank today so that the main tank can run fallow for 6 weeks. I realized that whatever the two deceased fish had, it is likely to be in the tank, and will continue to kill new fish as long as there continue to be fish hosts for the parasite in the tank. Assuming they survive QT in a brand new tank where I'll be using an ammonia meter and testing parameters frequently, I'm at a loss to know what to do when I am ready to put them back in the tank. I could gradually drop the tank to the hypo range for two weeks to deal w/possible ich, then gradually raise it back to normal for a week or two and then do a dip in some medication that contains both formalin and malachite green (any suggestions?) that I think would deal w/ the marine velvet and Brook possibilities. Would this be the right approach? After the work of setting up the QT and letting the main tank go fallow, I don't want to run the risk of having the two fish bring anything back to the main tank. Any suggestions appreciated.