Mystery illness?

[Moort82]

Hi was wondering if some of you could give your opinion on this mystery, i'm calling illness as its unusual but doesn't seem to affect the clowns in any way, no flicking or signs of distress in any way. They also eat like little pigs.

This is the female who shows it worse. Pics taken with a flash to highlight the problem.

Male

They have had it all the while i've had them, which is roughly 3-4months. They are in a seperate breeding tank and they went through a course of formalin baths, which seemed to reduce the signs. Since then it has come back slightly but not really change.

I'm struggling for a id. I've ruled out whitespot, velvet and brook due to the fish still being here. So was wondering if anyone had seen something similar before.
I plan to qt and treat but want to now what to treat for first. I'm also gonna put this in the fish health section to see if anyone has any ideas.

Thanks in advance.

 

[SkullV]

That is Crypt (ich). It will come and go but eventually it will probably kill them if it has gotten that bad. You need to treat with Hypo or Copper in a QT tank.

 

[duncantse]

Looks to me like ich.

 

[Moort82]

I know its looks like crypt ich but it definately isn't. I've seen whitespot many times before and this is completely different. The fish are seemngly in good health and the patches stay put all the while, they don't change as the parasites detach and re-atach if you know what i mean.

This is why its so confusing as it looks like other things, which i know it definately isn't.

 

[SkullV]

I would pull the fish to QT and treat with Marcyn 1 and 2 then. That should cover fungal and bacterial if you are 100% certain it's not crypt (I still think it is). If that doesnt work the treat with Copper and that will take care of the full spectrum.

 

[Nebthet]

This is definitely ich! My little clowns are going through the same thing right now and they nearly died because it got into their gills and they couldn't breath properly and I caught them sucking air from the waters surface.

Here is a pic of them about a week ago.

Please quaranteen your clowns immediately and begin treatment.

I wasn't sure if mine was actually Cryp/Ich or if it was Brooklynella so I got medication that deals with both of those issues at my local pet shop.. The product was called Rid-Ich and has formalin and Malachite Green in it, which both are used for treatment of Ich and for Brook (the formalin).

It has taken about a week of treatment for the spots to disappear from my clownfishes skin and it states to continue treatment for another four days to ensure the ich is completely killed from the quaranteen system.
It will take 6-8 weeks for your tank to be fishless/fallow for ich to be irradicated from your tank.

Copper treatments also work on ich, but can cause your fish to loose their appetites. The Rid-Ich I am using on the other hand has seemed to increase my fishes appetites 100 fold. I have never seen them eat so much. LOL.

Even if you think your clowns are doing fine and are not flashing or scratching on anything right now things can turn for the worse very quickly.

 

[SkullV]

This is definitely ich! My little clowns are going through the same thing right now and they nearly died because it got into their gills and they couldn't breath properly and I caught them sucking air from the waters surface.

Here is a pic of them about a week ago.

Please quaranteen your clowns immediately and begin treatment.

I wasn't sure if mine was actually Cryp/Ich or if it was Brooklynella so I got medication that deals with both of those issues at my local pet shop.. The product was called Rid-Ich and has formalin and Malachite Green in it, which both are used for treatment of Ich and for Brook (the formalin).

It has taken about a week of treatment for the spots to disappear from my clownfishes skin and it states to continue treatment for another four days to ensure the ich is completely killed from the quaranteen system.
It will take 6-8 weeks for your tank to be fishless/fallow for ich to be irradicated from your tank.

Copper treatments also work on ich, but can cause your fish to loose their appetites. The Rid-Ich I am using on the other hand has seemed to increase my fishes appetites 100 fold. I have never seen them eat so much. LOL.

Even if you think your clowns are doing fine and are not flashing or scratching on anything right now things can turn for the worse very quickly.

Good job on the QT work, and you probably saved your clowns, but Rid-Ich will not kill the Crypt entirely. You need either 3 weeks in copper or 4 weeks in hypo to really do it in.

Good luck!

 

[Moort82]

I've just sent some more pics to a local university professor and it's being looked into. It has been confirmed that its not crypt but it needs further testing to id further. They have asked for skin scrapings so i'm waiting to find out a suitable treatment.

I know that it looked like crypt in the pictures but if you saw it in the flesh you'd know it wasn't. Its really frustrating but they act completely normal like healthy clowns.

We also don't have as many good treatments over here. For some reason most of the potent ones are banned or very hard to get hold off because of the active ingredients and health and safety overkill.

And Nebthet, ideally you'd have a longer fallow period from everything i have read, 10-12 weeks would be better as this should be long enough for 99% of the parasites to die. Glad your clowns are ok.

 

[MarinaP]

Looks like bacterial infection. I would use Furan-based meds or any gram-negative antibiotics in a hospial tank. It is not ich.

 

[bues0022]

Velvet? Agreed that it doesn't look like ich

 

[Moort82]

Velvet? Agreed that it doesn't look like ich

The fact they are still going and happy would rule out velvet. I've also done the light test and they came out clean. It is a very confusing illness this.

 

[Moort82]

Looks like bacterial infection. I would use Furan-based meds or any gram-negative antibiotics in a hospial tank. It is not ich.

Furan meds are very hard to get hold of over here, i used the last of my Furan on theirs dips (because i didn't have enough for a full course of treatment).

I have a couple of options but the best seems to be CUPRAZIN - seawater fungicide / protozoacide. Whitespot, Oodinium, Benedenia, Trichodina and fungal infections.
That's assuming its not bacterial and i have no experience but i would have expected to see more symptoms with that. The eyes are clear, no red patches or veins on the fins. Obviously i want to get the treatment right and i'll wait to see what the university says. Thankfully it appears i have time on my side.