Sick clownfish, help needed

[IslandCrow]

I already posted this in the fish diseases forum, but hopefully more people will read it here. I don't think this poor guy's going to survive the night.

Anyway, the juvenile GSM I bought on Friday was doing great, swimming around and eating Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, he was hiding quite a bit, but still looked OK. This morning, when I was finally able to get him out of the piece of PVC he was hiding in, I noticed what looked like sores around his mouth. Right now, he's on his side at the bottom of the tank, breathing heavily. I've changed out about 50% of the water throughout the day, but I really don't know if that's my issue. Here are the parameters:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.1
Nitrate: 1.0
PH: 8.1
Alk: 3.0
Salinity: 35
Temp: 76-78

These have all been stable since I put him in on Friday. Here are a couple pictures of the sores (or perhaps something else) I was talking about:

 

[kevin2000]

Great pic!

That white stuff is excess mucus ... fish generate this mucus in response to an abrasion issue or when their skin is irritated by a parasite (its their method of trying to shed the parasite off their skin). In many cases this excess mucus is a sign that your fish may have brooklynella (aka clownfish disease).

If this were my fish I would capture the fish and give it a formalin bath .... not much downside since a properly administered formalin bath is not going to harm the fish and its the treatment of choice if your dealing with brooklynella.

Heres a link discussing Brooklynella
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/brooklynella.html
Heres a link discusssing how to give a formalin bath
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/formalinbaths.html

If you go the formalin bath route you should note that the formalin concentration discussed in the link above assumes your using std formalin which is a 37% solution of formaldehyde - the formalin carried on many LFS shelves is Formalin 03 which is a 3% solution and you need to adjust the concentration accordingly.

Hope this helps.

 

[IslandCrow]

Thanks, I'll take a look at those articles. I happen to have some formalin on hand, so a formalin bath is certainly an option. My main concern is that he's pretty stressed as it is, and I'm afraid a formalin bath may just put him over the edge. I know you can also do a lesser treatment with formalin over a more extended period. Could this be an acceptable alternative, or would I just be delaying the inevitable?

 

[kevin2000]

I have QT each/ever fish for many yrs .. and each/every fish gets a formalin bath before going into QT. IMO a properly administered formalin bath is not stressful and has a decent chance of helping the fish.

Best method for capturing most fish .. especially clowns is just to use a clear container (glass jar works OK) ... distract the clown with one hand (if he's mean he may attack the hand .. if not use some food) and scoop him up with the other hand holding the clear container.

Hope this helps.

 

[IslandCrow]

I may give more thought to pre-treatment now. I was always on the side of if it ain't broke, don't fix it. This came on fast, and I'm pretty sure at this point that I'm fighting a losing battle. I just gave the poor guy a formalin bath. I could only stand to leave him in there for about 15 minutes, so I'm not sure how effective that really was. Right now, he can't even swim and is just lying on the bottom of the tank breathing hard with his fins just barely moving. He may have just been too young to fight it. I don't want to admit it, but I think it's time to put this poor guy out of his misery. Has anyone ever brought a fish back from this point?

 

[kevin2000]

If your considering euthanasia then placing the fish in a small container of SW and placing that container in your freezer is a method used by many professional aquarist.

Sorry for your situation.

 

[IslandCrow]

I actually went with the alchohol death. I figured it worked for butterflies. Being a tropical animal myself, I just don't like the idea of freezing to death. The real pity is, not only did I lose a fish today, but the only suitable alchohol I had on hand was Grey Goose vodka. What a way to break in the bottle. Well, I took a shot myself afterwords. It's amazing how attached you can get to a fish in a few days. Hopefully if this ever happens again, I can recognize the warning signs a little earlier. They're such beautiful fish. I hate to see one of them die.

On a different note. I had a couple snails and hermit crabs in the QT with the sick fish. I don't think they're susceptible to brook, but I'm guessing the parasites could hitchhike on them if I were to put them back in my main tank. How long should I isolate them before they're safe?

 

[dous]

sorry for your loss..

 

[ACBlinky]

So sorry you lost him. I recently lost a pair of saddlebacks to brook, it's a horrible condition.
I was browsing the disease archives for posts on brook and Leebca, who seems to know an awful lot about disease, has posted in the past and mentioned that the brooklynella parasite doesn't have a free swimming stage so once you remove the fish, you effectively remove the parasite. I'd still leave them in a fishless tank for a week or so just to be sure, it can't hurt.

 

[IslandCrow]

Yeah, I don't think my main tank is going to miss a few janitors for a couple more weeks or so. Thanks once again for all your help, Kevin2000. Now to find another juvenile goldstripe. The only LFS that gets them in on a regular basis takes terrible care of their fish, and I would never buy anything from them (though pity for the poor creatures has almost gotten me on a couple occasions). The good news here is that for once I listened to everyone's advice and quarantined the new fish, so I only had one sick clown and not two.