Numerous fish losses due to Brooklynella?

greech

New member
I'm beginning to think my tank is cursed. I have lost numerous fish and I am really bummed with the most recent loss of my male B/W clown. Some quick history:

02/09 - Purchased an established 12G Aquapod with LR and a few mushrooms and corals.
02/09 - Added a pair of B/W clowns
06/09 - Upgraded to a 40 Breeder (relocated all contents of the AP into this tank plus a few more lbs of dry rock from BRS.
07/09 - Added a Yellow Head Jawfish which was great and healthy for about a week and then one day it came out of its borrow with a larger bump on its side, refused to eat and died later that night.
07/09 - Added a Black Cap Basslet which died within a week. No signs of disease were present on this fish but it started swimming strangely which from what I read may have been due to the way it was collected and/or swim bladder issue.
08/08 - Added a Midas Blenny. Everything went well with this fish for about a month and then started to devleop what looked like ich but would not be present all the time and also some raised (not white) bumps on its side. I fed garlic off and on which seemed to help but the blenny eventually died a couple weeks later.
10/09 - Added a Sunburst Anthia which lasted all of 3 days before it died. No parasites or issues were noted. This fish never ate in my tank despite eating mysis at the LFS.

This all brings me to yesterday when my male clownfish developed a white mucus coating (which also seemed to infect his gills) and heavy breathing overnight and died later in the day. Now I am left with one female clownfish who is showing no signs of illness but I am concerned that she will. From what I have read it looks like my clown came down with brooklynella so I am wondering if this clown may have been infected all along which caused my other fish deaths? It just seems odd both clown have never been affected by anything and almost seemed bulletproof compared to the other fish I have tried to add.

I went out yesterday and bought a hospital tank setup for my female clown but I am wondering if I should actually transfer her or leave her be and observe her.

Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia are all 0
SG = 1.025
pH = 7.9

I do weekly WC's of 10-20% and my parameters have never spiked that I am aware of. I use RO/DI water and mix my own water. None of the fish that died above were in the tank dead for more than a couple of minutes (yes I have had the misfortune to be at home and watch them pass). I never QT'd and of my fish which was obviously a bad move! I have never had any issue with corals or my shrimp. Corals are open and full, eat well and are showing growth.

If the feamle continues to do well and show no signs of disease should I leave her in the DT or go ahaed and treat her with formalin? I would like to have fish in this tank so if she does ok without treatment am I looking at more deaths? Does brook only affect susceptible fish? I could use some input on how to proceed from here. Thanks for looking. Here is a recent FTS in case it helps.

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Well what I would do is remove all fish from the display and treat them with Cuprmaine in the treatment tank. I would leave the main tank without fish for at least 10 weeks.....

Then every new fish,coral and invert chould be QT'd for at least 10 weeks to be safe they are not carrying any parasites. I would treat all new fish with cupramine just to be safe.

And I am saying cupramine for the ich.....Are you positive it was Brook???
 
Were you putting your fish through quaratine before they went into the main tank.
 
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Well what I would do is remove all fish from the display and treat them with Cuprmaine in the treatment tank. I would leave the main tank without fish for at least 10 weeks.....

Then every new fish,coral and invert chould be QT'd for at least 10 weeks to be safe they are not carrying any parasites. I would treat all new fish with cupramine just to be safe.

And I am saying cupramine for the ich.....Are you positive it was Brook???

Based on the symptoms I observed and the comparison pics I have looked at as well as research here and WWM, I am positive it was Brook. Is cupramine an effective treatment for Brook. Formalin seesm to be the preffered treatment but it scares the crap out of me.

Were you putting your fish through quaratine before they went into the main tank.

Sadly, no. I was one of those skeptics but it will never happen again!!!

Thank you both for your input. I could use a lot more:

- Should I use some sort of filter on my hospital tank? I have a new 10-gallon tank, an Aquaclear 20 HOB filter, heater and some PVC. If I use the filter, do I run any media (floss, carbon, etc.)?

- I also have a Koralia nano I can add to the tank. Do I need an airstone?

- Should I/Can I use some water from my DT to fill the hospital tank or should I use all new water?
 
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When setting up the tank I would use some kind of filter material from your main tank to help with the nitrification. The more bacteria the better. You can get the bacteria in a bottle stuff I have had good luck with nitromax marine or Seachem Stability. If you don't get a good bacteria in there you will get ammonia build up. If the ammonia gets to high it is very toxic. When you start the tank use the water from your main tank but not after you start the treatment.

I would have put the floss and filter media for the HOB in your main tank to let some bacteria establish in it.
Does this HOB filter have some sort of area for bacteria to grow or is it just a mechanical filter? I prefer some kind of biological filtration along with mechanical. Biological would be bio-balls or a bio wheel type filter. But you have to seed it with bacteria from either a bottle or your main tank.

When you start treatment no carbon but you still want to filter biologically. Keep an eye on ammonia and be prepared to do water changes if the ammoni goes up.

If you are positive it was Brook then I do not think Cupramine will work......I would ask on the Seachem forum what they suggest.
 
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Its a brand new AQ filter which has the biomax rings but they are not established. My DT has LR for bio and I am running a larger HOB filter which I only run floss and Chemipure in. I was planning on changing the water in the hospital tank often. I thought hospital tanks should not run any kind of bio filtration as chemicals such as Formalin will kill the bacteria anyway?
 
Its a brand new AQ filter which has the biomax rings but they are not established. My DT has LR for bio and I am running a larger HOB filter which I only run floss and Chemipure in. I was planning on changing the water in the hospital tank often. I thought hospital tanks should not run any kind of bio filtration as chemicals such as Formalin will kill the bacteria anyway?

You want the bacteria that is what keeps you from getting ammonia. Every tank has to go thru the nitrification process of ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. The ammonia and Nitrite are the ones to be concerned with. The more biological filtration you have the better. It is possible that some treatments will weaken the biological filter but I dont think they kill it off completly. I have never used formalin. I have a 125 set up as my hospital/OT...I have a W/D filter and an emperor 400 bio wheel filter. I am looking to increase the size of the W/D filter to increase my biological filtration media. If ammonia starts to increase just make sure you can do a water change. It is a little harder for me to do a water change that will lower the ammonia because of my treatment tank size therefore I want better biological filtration.
 
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