PLEASE help me with this disease

[SilverShark]

I purchased two clownfish approximately two weeks ago and I am left with only one.

When I first introduced the two clownfish into my tank, there was a larger one who was obviously on the turn to a female and the male one would do his submissive dance.

They were both bold, colourful and very active. Swimming all over the place until on Day 3, the female turned a dark orange all across the top of her body.
They both flicked their bodies on the sand/rocks so I thought they were getting ICH so I dosed all food in garlic.

Here is a picture of the female on day 4


By day 5, the flicking on the fish had gotten worse and I noticed that that the females skin was not a smooth and shiny looking as the male anymore and it looked more rough and like the scales were very dark.
I dipped the female in a FW bath for 5 minutes and added her to the tank.

On day 6 she spent the entire day swimming facing the powerhead and wouldn't eat and she had seemed to have lost all movement in her tail. The next morning she was dead.
Skin very dark and rough looking


2 days after she died, the male who was a bright vivd yellow has now developed the same skin disease where the top of him has gone darker. It looks like a stain all across the upper part of the body.
Is this brook? Velvet? An unknown disease?

I added to the tank 48 hours ago a treatment (http://www.ntlabs.co.uk/products/Anti%2dBacterial-Marine-Treatment.html) and he has stopped scratching aggressively like he was before but he still has the skin discolouration and luckily is still eating for now, but only small particles of food.



Can someone please give me a diagnosis on what this skin disease is? I have no other fish in my tank, just cleaner shrimp and soft corals only.

I want to get him another mate but don't want to risk infecting another fish so I need him to get back to health asap.

 

[HumbleFish]

Hard to say from the pics. If you saw a fine white dusting all over the fish (think sprinkled sugar) then it's probably either Ich or Velvet. But if it looked more like excessive mucous on the fish, or like the skin was peeling/sloughing off... then I'd be more inclined to say Brook.

 

[SilverShark]

It definitely looks like the upper part of the body which is darker is sloughing off.
How long does it take for brook to kill a fish? 7 days?

 

[MrTuskfish]

It definitely looks like the upper part of the body which is darker is sloughing off.
How long does it take for brook to kill a fish? 7 days?

Usually less than 7 days. Peeling or sloughing skin is the first symptom that is seen; outside of the fish just acting generally sick. Fish with brook often hang around a PH and scratch. I think this is probably brook and formalin is the only treatment. Your initial post sounds like you didn't use a QT, big mistake. If this is brook, again I'm not sure, you have very little time to treat all of your fish in a QT and leave the DT fishless for 6+ weeks. If this is brook, I doubt you can save the badly covered one, but need to work on the others----he could make it, though. Brook is very deadly and contagious; for some reason, it often doesn't move fast, but will suddenly be all over your fish. There are exceptions to everything, I've seen brook take a month to kill all the fish in a tank and have also seen all fish go from normal to dead in two days or so. A FW bath will give the worst fish some temporary relief, but is far from a cure.

Again, from the pics and your description, brook in my best educated guess. There is a possibility that this is just the terminal phase of any sickness or disease that we just don't know about.

 

[SilverShark]

I gave my remaining clown a dip in saltwater and I added some of Seachem's Para Guard and left him for an hour.
He's back in the main tank now and swimming/eating as normal. The odd body spasm but he seems ok. Still has the dark colouring though.

I'll give him another dip with this treatment in the next few days.

Does anyone have experience with this product? Also it got me thinking, as my tank only has this 1 clownfish in it, can some of the parasites be living off the rocks and in the sand etc?

Yeah, I know wish I had set up a QT now

 

[MrTuskfish]

Paraguard is an all-purpose "does everything" med; (IMO) its primarily used for receiving tanksand like all products that claim to do everything, it doesn't do much of anything. If my memory is working, its main ingredient is mal. green; an old all-purpose parasite med. It might kill some free swimming parasites; but is no substitute for formalin.

Re your 2nd question: sure, any tank that has protozoan parasites has forms of the parasite living in the tank. The only way to rid the tank of these parasites is to let the tank remain fishless for 6-8 weeks. If this is brooklynella, you don't have much time; but again if it is brook, other fish should be showing symptoms. Tough call.

 

[SilverShark]

I'll see how I get on with the Paraguard for the time being as I can't get hold of Formalin. Also my LFS mentioned a two part treatment called Safety Stop. Anyone used this before?

 

[MrTuskfish]

There is absolutely nothing that will kill any of the common protozoan parasites in a reef tank. You need a QT, no way around it. I'm still not 100% sure what this is; if no other fish have symptoms, it could be a zillion things that was not contagious. BTW, from your 1st post above: Garlic does nothing to cure any parasite or disease.

 

[SilverShark]

This is the only fish in my tank alongside two cleaner shrimp.
I did the second bath with Paraguard this evening. The clownfish is still eating and swimming normal, just still has the dark colouring to his body. No more signs of scratching and body spasms which is good.

 

[triggreef]

You can also try metrodinazole as a dip & food soak. It should be fairly easy to get ahold of. It may not be a proven method for anything but I had recent luck with it, & it is easy on the fish. I've read about it working on many parasites including brook.

 

[SilverShark]

Does Seachem make it? (http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Metronidazole.html)
I was dosing my food in garlic as I read it helps to boost their immune system so they can fight the disease off.
However as my clown is still swimming and eating healthy I have no idea what parasite (if any) or what disease I am fighting here.
He is acting perfectly normal now but still has the dark discolouration. I hope he is better and that he regains his bright appearance.

 

[jamesbaur13]

I wouldn't worry about your clownfish turning darker on top...

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/210057-why-is-my-clown-fish-turning-black/

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f16/clown-fish-turning-black-256749.html

I haven't been in this hobby too long, but I have a pair of occ clowns... they also turned dark on top like you are seeing with yours.

As far as I can tell this hasn't been pinpointed to any specific reason, but it doesn't appear to have any effect on the fishes health.

IMO It seems normal and I would cease any treatment for this particular issue.

However, if your fish have shown visible white spots and have been scratching it is possible they have ich or possibly even brook. IMO Neither would have any correlation to the dark color, it's a separate issue. For that read the ich stickies/read up on brook just in case things progress. The last pic of the clown you lost has me a little concerned something may be going on, but this could also be attributed to the FW dip and treatment it received.

Another thing to point out... clowns do a shimmy dance. There's theories of why they do this, just realize the shimmy is normal. If you're curious to see what that looks like...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv9_4N6B9WI

You'll see the small one do it a couple secs into the video.

IMO I wouldn't do anything at this point... I'd cease treatment and wait it out a few days to see if anything progresses.

Hope this helps..

 

[SilverShark]

Thanks James

Well my female turned dark after a few days of being in the tank and stayed dark until she died but she was acting like she had ich. The day after she died my male turned dark and also had the same ich symptoms and extreme body spasms which luckily he is no longer doing but still has the dark patch as seen in the pic.

Also when the female turned dark, the darker skin seemed rough compared to the smoothness that it looked like before.

I thought it was brook, but as he is no longer scratching his body on the rocks since his treatment baths and as he is still alive then I can only presume that it isn't brook but something else perhaps.

Whatever it is/was I hope its long gone now and that eventually he returns to his bright former self