Please help with my maroon clown!

[salt newbie01]

My clown has something wrong with his rt eye. Some days it is only a small white spot on the bottom of the eye, and other days the bottom half of his eye is swollen and sticking out. On the bad days the eye is milky looking. It will just be a small spot for days and then it will get worse and stay that way for several days. It seems to go back and forth. Could it be some type of fungus? None of the other fish seem to have anything wrong with them. I just wish I could get whatever it is to go away. I don't want it to get worse and end up killing the fish. The fish is still eating and hosting in the nem even on the bad days.
Here are some pics. the first is a good day and the other ones are from a bad day.

Ignore the white spot on his forehead. It was a small particle that came to rest on the fish, it was gone a few seconds later. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? Could it be a wound from something ie coral banded shrimp or yellow tang??

 

[Steven Pro]

I don't know what that is, but it doesn't look good. If you have a quarantine tank, I would move it there and go through a few different treatments and watch if they have any affect. I would first try something like Furan-2. If that doesn't work, Prazi-Pro would be my next choice.

 

[steve-s]

If bacterial and given the location, I think you'll have better results with either Maracyn II (Minocycline) for SW (2mg/gal added daily for 7 days) or Genatmycin sulphate (20mg/gal daily for 10 days). Both treatments would require a good 25% water change prior to each new dose being added. A reduction in salinity would also improve efficacy. All of course in a proper QT.

How long have you had the clown, has it been treated for anything since you aquired it and what/when was the last item added to the display tank?
Is the clown solo or does it have a mate?

Cheers
Steve

 

[salt newbie01]

I have had the clown and the nem since the middle of may. Nothing in the tank has ever been treated for anything. They came as a pair and have been together for approx 3 years. The clown is by itself - no mate. The last things added were a couple small coral frags approx 1 month ago. I believe the spot was there before I got the coral frags. I would like to find something I can treat in the main tank. I hate to further stress the fish by trying to move him to a qt. It would be hard to remove the fish without using a net - which I don't want to do for fear of damaging the cheek spines or further irritating the eye. Someone suggested dosing the tank with epsom salts. Has anyone heard of this? And if so does anyone know the proper ratio and the duration?
Thank you all for your help,

 

[steve-s]

Epsom salts is if you'll excuse the analogy, an "old wives tale" remedy used for pop eye. There is nothing to date proven about the relationship of magnesium sulfate and curing pop eye. Usually the act of moving the fish to a cleaner tank (QT) or the subsequent water changes as a result of is what does it. The epsom is pretty much coincidental.

This by the looks of it is a recurring (?) bacterial infection. Treating it in the tank is not recommended. If the right conditions present themselves, the eye will actually fall out completely. You need to use an antibiotic and that should not happen in your main system.

You do not need to use a net.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-09/tb/feature/index.php

Cheers
Steve

 

[TOURKID]

maracyn2 is a wonder drug. DOUBLE THE DOSE. so if you have a ten gal. qt tank, use 2 tabs the first day, then 1 tab every day after that. your water will turn pee yellow. thats ok

 

[steve-s]

Use 2 mg/gal each and every day. Do not use the manufacturers recommendation. It will not work. Each pill is 10 mg so 2 pills for every 10 gallons of tank water volume added daily. Make sure you do a 25% water change prior to each new dose.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Angela Short]

You are getting good advise here newbi You can set up a emergency QT pretty cheap (petsmart had 10 gallons for 7.99) a small PH and a couple of PVC joints for hiding in and you are set. You will have to do daily water changes probably to keep the tank from going into a cycle and naturally replace the dose of medication you pull out via water change on top of the dose for that day. 10 days is not so bad to save her pretty eye. Lowering the salinity will also reduce stress on the eye as her body fluids are not as salty as the water and a open sore can leach out fluids faster in higher salinities. Just keep a eye on PH if you drop the Salinity, it can drop.

 

[salt newbie01]

Thanks for the advise evryone. I do have a 10 gallon with heater and small hob filter for water movement. If I put a piece of lr from my display tank in the qt would it help keep it from running a cycle? I don't want to put the fish in QT and have it die from water parameters getting out of wack. So any advise on how to set up the QT would be greatly appreciated. Howe much lower should I get the salinity?
I know I shouldn't use a net - I just haven't had much luck trying to catch fish without a net. Maybe I will try at night, under cover of moonlighting. The clown sleeps in the nem, so maybe if I can get close enough with a clear containor I can get him to go into it fairly easily. We'll see.

Thanks everyone,

 

[Angela Short]

Most antibiotics will kill the bio anyways so the LR will not help much. One of the antibiotics out there is easy on bio but can't remember which...

 

[steve-s]

Actually Minocycline is the least likely to affect biofiltration.

Cheers
Steve

 

[salt newbie01]

What would be the proper way to set my QT up? The maracyn II will be to my house either sat or mon. I have a 10gal, small filter for movement, heater, and pvc for comfort. What should I set the salinity to? My main tank sits at 1.025. Should I put any LR in the qt? I just don't want it to cycle and kill the fish but I don't think I have time to let it cycle before putting the fish in. Should I just do 4-5 gallon water changes from the main tank in the am and pm? Would that keep the water fresh enough to prevent a cycle? Doing that I would have to dose the medicine differently but I could figure that out.
Thanks again to everyone for the help,

 

[salt newbie01]

Well I got the clown into 10 gallon QT on sunday night - Added first dose ( 2 tabs) of maracyn II monday night. You guys were right - water turned bright yellow. This morning the water looked cloudy also. Is this normal with the medication? I couldn't test the water this morning but I can go home at lunch and test it if needed. It shouldn't have had an ammonia spike already should it?
I planned on doing a 2-3 gallon water change before dosing the tank tonight. I thought this might help keep the tank within normal parameters. Does this sound like a good idea or should I do something else?

Thanks