Sick clowns?

The parasites are still attached, but the clowns are acting much better today! I wonder if maybe the parasites are starting to detach. I'm assuming they don't all act in perfect unison. Or maybe it's all due to the drop in salinity. I'm hoping it's not that they've just gotten over the stress of being moved, because they'll be going through the same process again tonight.

Regardless, they are finally swimming like clownfish again--they had lost their "wag"--and they even ate a little this morning. They are still breathing rapidly, but do I think it's less labored. Overall, they seem to be feeling better.
 
Just to keep up the thread in case someone with a similar situation comes along. Today is day 5 of TTM, and I made the first transfer last night (not counting moving them from the original QT when ick was discovered, to the secondary QT). The current tank has a temp of 78 and SG of 1.018.

I think the parasites have begun to drop off! I don't see as many on the fish, and they are acting like they feel better. Also, I think their breathing has finally improved, though it's hard to tell because they're swimming around so much--not complaining about that! I'm wondering if the parasite actually began to drop off yesterday because they ate like pigs right before I transferred them.
 
I would expect them to be spot free before the next transfer. 7 days is usually the most the parasites stay on the fish.
You could add some slime coat restorer to speed up their healing process.
 
The fish are still covered in parasites [sigh]. I had expected them to be gone by now, but it occurred to me that even though I spotted the parasites on Tuesday or Wednesday, they were still in the infected tank until Friday night. So if they gained new parasites on Friday, they should all be dropping off sometime tomorrow if they only stay on seven days.

I plan to transfer them around 7 pm tomorrow, so I'm hoping for some dropping action tomorrow! Despite the parasites, they are acting like they feel fine and eat very well.

In the meantime, I think I have figured out the white poop issue! In order to explain, I will have to confess that I haven't been soaking my fish food in vitamins until just recently. I got in some Selcon and Vita-something, and started soaking the clowns' food in it once a day. I've only seen food-colored poop for a few days now.
 
Did the white spots they have now came on while in treatment or are these all old ones?
Normally I would have expected most to be gone by now.
If they are still there tomorrow it might be something different ... I just wouldn't know what.
 
Well, they were never clear, so I assume they've been there all along. But tomorrow is day seven of TTM, so I expect them to drop off then. I don't know what else it would be either. They're acting quite normal now, and not really even scratching. But I don't get as much time on Wednesdays to observe them...
 
... I'm going to say that Friday is actually day 7 and they should come off by then. I actually transferred the fish out of the infected tank around midnight last Friday.

I transferred them back to the original QT just now. The acclimation container that I was using to catch them has a tube in it that still had water in it today. I didn't want to use it since I had clean everything with bleach. I had read where some people used the PVC pieces in their tank to catch the fish, so I tried using the elbow with my hand on one end. It worked okay with the larger fish, but not so well with the smaller one. It was very stressful on both of us, and I really hope I haven't injured him! :( He is definitely very stressed right now, so I'm just turning out the lights to encourage them to calm down.

Praying for happy, healthy, parasite-free fish in the morning!
 
It takes a bit too long for them to clear up for my taste. Can you take some pictures of how they look like now?
Also, for the catching it works best to partially drain the water out of the tank and then scoop them up with your hands or with a beaker or drinking glass.
 
I took the photos below this morning. I think it looks like they have more spots than the previous photos I posted (while they were still in the infested tank), but it seems like there are fewer than a couple days ago... I should have taken some photos then.

The strange thing is that they are showing no other signs that I can see. They swim around and eat well. As far as I can tell, their breathing is fine, but I'll admit that it's hard for me to tell.

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It looks like ich but the fact that it hasn't gone away by now despite TTM is weird.
Normally, if there is no reinfection, the fish should be clear after 3 to 7 days.

But since they are still alive I would want to exclude brook and velvet - both would have killed them with such an infection density.

Do you have NLS Ick-Shield Powder (CP)?
I would continue TTM but also add some CP if they are not clear by tomorrow.
 
It looks like ich but the fact that it hasn't gone away by now despite TTM is weird.
Normally, if there is no reinfection, the fish should be clear after 3 to 7 days.

I agree.

To the OP: can you describe how you are doing TTM? Are you sterilizing all equipment between tranfers?
 
I don't have any ick shield powder, but I can check my lfs tomorrow, or order online.
I have been very careful of my ttm, with two sets of everything.
I will describe my process in more detail later this evening when I'm at my PC with a keyboard. I'm out for the evening and was just checking in on my phone.
I appreciate the help as always!
 
Even if you would do something wrong I would expect at least a decrease in infection level and not an increase.

Something is fishy here.
 
Here is information about my set up and TTM process. It's probably more than you wanted, but maybe something will ring a bell...

-Regular QT (before TTM) is a 10 gallon tank with about 8 gallons of water in it. HOB filter with a small handful of live rock rubble inside, along with a carbon filter or just filter floss if treating with meds. Inside the tank is a 50w heater, an airstone, some PVC pieces and a small terra cotta flowerpot added for the clowns. This setup was cleaned and sat out to dry for about a month before it was set up for the clowns.

-I usually top off with water from my display, which I believe to be disease-free. I currently have two fish in the display: one seaweed blenny, which came as a hitchhiker with my live sand from the Gulf of Mexico about 14 months ago, and a pajama cardinal, which came from my lfs about 7 months ago. The only other fish I had in the display was a firefish, which jumped to his death last summer. None of these fish have ever showed any signs of ick.

-What we believe is ick was first spotted on 6/16 or 6/17 (after they had been in QT for 4 weeks), but the clowns remained in the original QT tank through 6/20. My guess is that a milder case of ick probably surfaced earlier and I missed it. Then I noticed the the second wave that was much more severe.

-Once we decided it was ick, I purchased a 5.5 gallon tank along with a new heater, airstones, airline tubing, thermometer, turkey baster (for sucking out waste and leftover food), new container for dipping out water. I've also tried to not even double-dip the pipet for the refractometer when checking salinity.

-For TTM, I have removed the HOB filter and its contents, and the flowerpot.

Day 1, 6/19: around midnight (maybe even shortly after, making it 6/20) I transferred the fish from the original QT (let's call it QT-A) to QT-B. The following morning, I cleaned QT-A with tap water and sat it out to dry. Items that were not drying as quickly were placed on the floor in front of the air vent (it's hot here, so it runs almost constantly). Everything was dry for 24 hours before setting up for the next transfer.

-To set up QT-B, I used mostly water from my display. But the fish were showing signs of distress and breathing heavily the next morning (assuming the ick was in their gills), so I followed the advice of ThRoewer and set up a freshwater drip to lower SG to 1.018. I have kept them at this salinity since this time. Also, the temp has remained constant at 78.

Day 4, 6/22: around 10pm, I transferred the fish from QT-B back to QT-A. This time I did not use any saltwater from my display since I needed SG 1.018. Used fresh saltwater (at least 24hrs old). Also, when I cleaned QT-B the following morning, I used a little bleach as a precaution since I expected some parasites to fall off.

Day 7, 6/25: around 7pm, I transferred the fish from QT-A back to QT-B. Again, used fresh saltwater (at least 24hrs old). Also used bleach again to clean QT-A.

That's it so far. The only item that I used on both tanks was up until the most recent transfer I did share the top because I didn't have the material to make another (plastic canvas from the hobby store). I did rinse it well in between. Also, when I set up QT-B this most recent time. I did stick the turkey baster from QT-A into the tank before I realized it was the wrong one :( But once I realized it I put it in the items to be washed and grabbed the correct baster.

I'm about to post a couple photos from this morning... I think they have fewer parasites...
 
I just gave a rundown of my setup and TTM process. But here are some photos from this morning. I think they have fewer parasites, especially the larger one. Do you?

Is it possible that a lower SG is slowing down their life cycle, causing them to stay on longer?

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Today I found one spot that I might have missed, where some parasites may have settled. My heaters have a rubber top on them that does not fit super tight around the glass tube. Water can get up in there, but it is hard to dry out. I just noticed today as I was checking to be sure my equipment was dry (I need it to all be dry by 5pm to meet the 24 hr requirement). So maybe some of the parasite started dropping off in QT-A and settled in the heater. Then I cleaned and thought I dried it. But when I put it back in QT-A during the last transfer, they entered the free-swimming and on-fish stage causing the infection to continue, or overlap... And the same could have happened with QT-B.

So now I have the heater propped up so that the air from the vent blows on it all day. I'll check it later and hit it with a hair dryer if that hasn't dried it up.

Does this sound feasible?
 
It may be that your display has ich but it's inhabitants are immune enough not to show any symptoms.
I would start using fresh water or at least let the water from your display rest for two days in a sterilized bucket before pouring it into the TTM tank.
 
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I could not imagine this being anything other than Cryptocaryon based on the last set of pictures.

As for the heaters, you may want to put them into a bucket with hot water (above 40°C) for at least one hour. That should kill all parasites. If you then dry them it should be totally safe.
 
New photos below... Beginning on day 4, they were no longer exposed to my display water. So if my display water was the source of the ick, wouldn't it be gone by now on day 11? Maybe we can at least rule this out. [sigh of relief]

Could it actually be the heater caps housing ick and causing it to continue like this? There aren't many places in my QT for parasites to lodge, so maybe a lot of them took residence there. ??? And it really wouldn't take many hiding out in there to multiply and infest a fish in such a small tank.

They were in tanks with possible contamination from the ick in the heater caps up until yesterday. I'm holding out hope that this is it.

(As a side note, I learned today that if you try to photography possible ick with a flashlight aimed directly at the fish from the side, you will not really be able to see the parasites because the light effectively flattens them out. Then it looks more like Brook, which we know this is not. The light has to be held overhead in order to define the parasites on the fish's body.)

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