Sick clown... recommendations & help

K

ken123

Premium Member
Have my 2 clowns in QT right now. One does not look good. I see nothing on him/her. No spots, no slime, color looks off, fins are collapsed, sunken stomach area, staying in one area not swimming around, looks unhappy. Lethargic. She eats some pellets once in a while.
Any ideas?????
P4150004.jpg
 
There was/is a water and algae problem with the tank. The main tank is getting better, little algae and running carbon now. The snails were sluggish also but they seem better now since running carbon. This all would explain stress on the fish. Had lfs test water which they said looked normal.

Back to the clown. Not sure about a haze on her, but she appears to have trouble breathing. From my reading this is what she has. The other clown with her in QT looks fine. Can he get infected? Is formalin usually available at the lfs? So I should add formalin to fresh water with same water parameters as sw and put the fish in this bath for about 15 minutes? What about the main tank? Did not see anything about treating the main tank?
 
Fw dip for 15 min? Like the idea of no chems. Is that all there is to it? Just put the fish in f/w for a short time?
 
Is a FW dip effective against Brook. . .assuming that's what this fish has? I've had a clownfish with Brook, and those symptoms do sound familiar, but there are bacterial infections as well that won't show any symptoms, and I believe you need antibiotics to treat those. Formalin is quite effective, but I've often heard it's a harsher treatment than a freshwater dip. I would definitely separate the two fish if possible, since most of these things are contagious (Brook definitely is). Just don't put the second fish in with any other fish. It may have caught it already.

Anyway, here's some more info on Brooklynella: http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/ichparasiticdiseases/a/aabrooklynella.htm
 
oh, if you decide to go with the FW treatment, keep a very close eye on the fish and get him out of there if he starts to freak out (it will be apparent). They'll sometimes defecate as well. If this happens, get the fish out! Some fish will do quite well for 15 minutes, others won't last 5. I've gotten the itch parasite to drop from a sick clownfish in as little as 3, so even if the fish can't take the full 15 minutes, the treatment isn't necessarily a failure.
 
So I found this info about Fromalin. So I create the solution in a bucket and add Formalin, add the clown, then put the clown back in the QT tank. They have been out of the main tank for more than 4 days so the main tank should now be OK. Should I treat the other clown that is healthy that is the QT tank with the sick one? And I should wait for the sick clown to be back to normal before putting back in the main tank? I may need to repeat the dip. Scroll to the bottom for the dip method ... METHOD 2 (DIP) FOR THE PREVENTION OR TREATMENT OF FISH DISEASES:
 
Successful treatment of Brook requires "RAPID" response.

I would do a treatment on the healthy clown myself as the other is likely not going to make it if this is Brook...
 
Since I have never done anything like this before, I am of course nervous about harming anything with what is supposed to be a treatment. So do this on the healthy fish first since it has a better chance of surviva is what you are sayingl?
 
You can treat them both but the problem is that brook (brookynella) is typically pretty brutal on fish and unless caught early enough, survival rates are pretty lousy.

The point being that the parasite will likely move to the healthy fish (or has) and by the time the fish shows outward signs, they are typically in big trouble already.

I have had problems introducing unknown clown pairs in the past where 1 survives and the other does not and for no apparent reason. Just bum luck I guess.
 
Also leave the main tank fallow (fish less for 6 weeks) if you had them in the main tank because Itch will be present.
 
I only have 3 fish, the 2 clowns and a green chromis. The GC is impossible to catch.

I have read to put an aeration stone in the water while treating the fish, is this necessary? The Formalin-3 (Kordon) does not mention this.
 
I managed to catch the green chromis, it was too easy. Anyway, I dipped both the sick clown and the green chromis in the Fromalin bath for about 45 minutes each. Then dipped them in a plain sw bath, then added them both back into the QT tank. How often should I repeat this? Was thinking every other day for a total of 3 times. Did not dip the healthy looking clown, I guess I should dip him also?

There are now no fish in the tank. Only snails, a few dwarf hermits, pep shrimp and a serpent star. Will leave it fishless for a while. Running carbon on the main tank now.

Anything else I should be doing?
 
Follow the directions that came with the treatment...

I would dip the healthy fish as if he is infected, he will need it anyway and he could reinfect the other fish if you caught them in time.
 
I don't think that leaving the tank fallow is really something that makes it so that you will never get ich again. This is my opinion on it. Healthy fish don't get ich. Relate this to humans because it is easy to do. If you are healthy the odds of you getting sick are low (unless exposed to high amounts of a sickness causing bacteria/virus) Add a stress to your life (like trying to pay for your fish tank, having Deltec tastes on a Seaclone budget) and this will lead to a dip in your immune system which will make you susceptible to sickness. I believe that the same is true for fish. There will always be ich in the water, it can never totally be knocked out. However, a healthy fish, just like a healthy human, can fight off sickness (generally). If you provide stable water quality and predictable living for the clownfish the odds are that it will make it through ich. The problem with brook is that it is very invasive and will kill fish before their immune system has a chance to really fight it off. This is were fw dips or antibiotics come in handy and will save the fish. Is this fish wild caught? FWIW brook has almost been wiped out of the CB clownfish population. Some people don't know how hard it is to take care of wild caught clowns and if we didnt have CB clowns now there is no chance that they would be considered an easy fish. I think we can thank the CB program for making this an easy fish to take care of. I think the FW dip is the best coarse of action with sick fish because they can live in fresh water for quite a while (I had a purple tang with SEVERE ich from shipping live in FW for 3 hours before I put him back in the tank) The FW dip is all dependent on the fish though, while 30 mins is great, if the fish doesnt appear to have a problem with the water, longer is better. I am sorry for the long response but this is my take on sick fish in general.
 
OK will dip him also. They don't mention additional dips on the bottle but I think I read to do multple dips someplace. And I did not have an airstone running which some sites said to do.
 
an airstone is a good idea because formalin also kills bacteria which will up the CO2 in the tank plus water will absorb CO2 and make the water more acidic over time and a pH shift can be more deadly than the disease sometimes
 
Well I am learning and you can get 10 different opinions here. It makes sense the healthy one can be fine, but yet infections do spread. All I know is one clown and one chromis are not well. Niether is acting normal and have labored breathing. Both may have been stressed from the main tank either water quality or from cleaning algae from rocks.
 
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