To treat or not to treat?

[ReefKeeperRob]

I introduced two True Perculas to my display tank without quarantining them first. Yes I know, bad idea for any fish. Long story short one of them did well and ate well, the other never ate for 2 weeks and started to look worse by the day (no symptoms on skin just very weak swimming). I did not have a QT tank setup but at this point it was apparent that the one perc was surely going to die. So I figured taking my chances and setting up an uncycled QT with 50-100% water changes as needed was better than not doing anything at all. Well this actually turned out to be a success. I QT'd both of them because they had paired up and I wanted to lessen the stress as much as possible. They both eat now but still the one is picky and doesn't eat nearly as much.

Now for the question. Right now I'm not treating the QT with anything. My main goal was to get them away from the other fish and eating. Should I treat the QT tank with formalin for a few weeks before I put them back into the display? One way or the other they're going to be in QT for a few more weeks. Or at this point if they had something it would have killed them by now? The one that wasn't eating before seems much more irritated by stress, the ammonia in QT got a little high and it swam/rested on the bottom while the other was fine. When the levels went back to normal and they were both good again.

Anyway - to treat or not to treat

 

[ReefKeeperRob]

Nobody has any ideas?

 

[ocellaris123]

If it were me I wouldn't treat unless they showed symptoms. Medication can do more harm than good in some cases.

 

[chrisstie]

I'd ask what are you feeding and how young are they. I have a young clown who is picky about the type of food he eats and I think its because hes small. he prefers smaller foods where my older clown gobbles anything up.

If you visually inspect the fish there should be no tears or rips or anything on them. I wouldn't treat for weeks with formalin, maybe a 30 min saltwater dip with the recommended dosage if you're worried. Also find out if your LFS ran any type of treatment (or wherever you got him from) beforehand.

If there is one thing you might consider I'd suggest something like Prazipro. There may be nothing visually wrong with the fish and in that case I'd recommend no treatment- however anti parasitic stuff could help if you notice he has any stringy poop.

Otherwise he may just need to acclimate and will be fine. Moving him around a lot and changing out dirty water is pretty stressful. A stable tank environment may be what he needs if he appears healthy despite a bit stressed.

 

[ReefKeeperRob]

The fish look fine. They are young and one of them succumbs to stress A LOT easier than the other. Even with the water changes they are doing much much better in QT. Well the one was always good but the one that wasn't eating is eating some Sprulina Brine now and is swimming much stronger. It's still not really going at it like you would normally see a fish eat. Going to leave them in there for a few more weeks and try some different foods.

This has been a huge success so far. I was just curious if I should treat them with something before placing them back into the display. They were captive raised at the University of Maryland which is supposed to reduce the chance of them having some of the common clownfish diseases but who knows what they may have picked up along the way.

It sounds like if I don't see anything unusual even though I'm having a hard time getting the one to eat I shouldn't treat with anything.