Poor Infected Tomato Clown

[J2FcM]

Hey all - I just came back to my place (its Tuesday night) and I was gone since Friday.

Well, my white light is out, so I only have my blue light, and my poor Clown was jammed in a corner by himself, and it looks like his once almost black body is a pale, almost whitish color, white dots on his fins, and right under his dorsal it looks like a streak or patch of white...ie. Fungis? (never dealt with).

Having come primarily from fresh water, or Mantis Shrimp ONLY marine tanks... is there much hope for the guy??? And it sucks because I have coral, and crustaceans in the tank... I took some pics but he hid in the rock work after he woke up from the light being on (he never hides in the rock work). Tomorrow morning in the day Light i will try to get better pics....

Im just hoping he can be saved as he's looking\acting sickly. (well, he doesnt look sickly, HE IS SICKLY).

I also have 2 damsels, and one who gets bullied looks a lil ratty, and the middle guy looks perfectly fine.

argh!!!


PS - would it be any worth checking out a clinic nearby in So Cal via; http://www.aquavetmed.info/index.cfm?PID=6

anyone know how pricey that can be?

 

[sharkdude]

I don't know what to tell you dude. I'd look at the tank conditions that lead to the symptoms. Last water change? heater working ok, temp stable? fish eating varied nutritious diet? agression from tankmates?, etc

My guess the clinic would be expensive with no guarantees.

You could try a quarantine medical tank where you could try various medications based on recommendations here or from a reputable lfs.

Or you could let nature run its course and improve tank conditions and minimize stress and see if the fish recovers on its own.

or do a search for 'humane fish euthanasia methods'.

sorry I don't have better advice.

I rarely had a sick fish in my 10+ years of reef keeping. My approach was to keep a healthy environment and nutritious diet and the fish are fairly resilient to health issues.

 

[J2FcM]

Tank heater, good.
Varied diet...eh, not so much, mostly the same flakes, and rare rare rarely some shrimp pellets.
15% water changes about once a month.

I'd say from what I've read that the out break was brought on by a new turbo snail I bought? (I didn't QT).

Also, The Blue Damsels are both unaffected (at least visually), but the Clown was the head honcho! In a 30 gallon tank I would've thought everyone would be infected by now.