true perc sickness

[burnah]

hey there... ive got a true perc clown which i bought about a month ago. she has quite a career in my tank:

jumped a few days after i got her, was found and put back in tank quite soon. i saw that she had a small cut on one gill.

not even one week later (the cut was healing) she developed pop eye only on the side where she touched the floor. after a week of that not going away, i decided to dip with an antibiotic. it was not easy to catch her, and i think she might have hurt herself in the chase.

after the dip, no change for a week. she was eating normal and was getting used to be fed seperatly on the water surface, so she could eat a lot. what i noticed then was that her poop was white and long.

now (3 weeks after jump) her eye has begun to get better (still not normal size) for a few days, the scratch on the gill is almost completly healed. i thought she was recovering, BUT today i noticed some kind of bubble or sphere between her eyes, looking as if filled with liquid, abouth half the size of an eye. in the course of the day it decreased in size, but has gotten more "fuzzy". as she eats quite much, the poop within a day is normal AND white and stringy.

i am thinking about dipping her again with an antibiotic as she already learned to take food seperately which would make the catching process easier and less stressful, but on the other hand i am worried about the poop thing as i would not guess that is a symptom of a bacterial skin infection.

please help!

 

[burnah]

pictures just taken:

 

[ReefKeeperRob]

That's a nice looking fish you have there. I went through a similar ordeal as you are going through. My fish had pop-eye and stringy pooh as well but no other sign of Brook. One of mine were not eating though. Many people who seemed to know what they were talking about instructed me to treat with Maracyn II which I did. After about 1 day of treating with the Maracyn II I lost my Percs but I think they were just too sick to deal with the additional stress of the antibiotics in the water.

I think if I were to do it over I would have kept the water in absolutely perfect condition and try to get them eating. I'm definately not an expert on the subject though.

 

[ReefKeeperRob]

I could be wrong about this but as far as I understand dipping a fish may help temporarily but something more long term is probably necessary to completely kill a an infection.

 

[burnah]

thanks for your advice! i have never dealt with fish deseases in saltwater, im only used to fw fishes and they usually died very quick. im astonished for how long this has lasted and she still is fat and behaving normal so i might just see what happens

 

[bwest]

I successfully treated my Allardi clowns for what I believe was both Brook and Ich. Right before I took them out of the main tank they were just barely hanging on. The female was practically laying on the sandbed.

I did a combination hyposalinity and malachite green treatment for 5 weeks.

Here's a before and after:

It seemed like a pain, but when I look at them both being incredibly healthy now, it was well worth it.

 

[burnah]

well im quite sure it is not brook as she is in that condition for quite a while and still eats. the popeye has gotten better, but the white spots/bubbles are still here although they shifted place. she now has 2 of them on her back.

eating well, poop is sometimes stringy white.

please help

 

[burnah]

i just noticed a weird thing she does when no one comes close to the tank for some time:

she swims close to the sandbed and from time to time she "swirls" the sand with her caudal fin, she has already created a small bed in the sand.

 

[ReefKeeperRob]

Is the fish breathing fast?

 

[burnah]

a little bit, not quite noticable... i decided to take her into a hospital tank, which will happen tomorrow.

she seems to have an infection (not sure about that) in her mouth, it does not close properly and she has problems with chewing and swallowing food. i already set up the quaranteen tank with a filter, heater and pvc pipes, she will be transfered tomorrow. the poop is still stringy from time to time

 

[ReefKeeperRob]

Let me know how quarantine goes. Do you have a filter that you've seeded? The two times I've tried quarantine I've had issues with the ammonia getting high. Keep a close eye on it, if it becomes detectable it can make the fish go downhill very fast.

 

[burnah]

no seeded filter. i had no time for that, but will introduce it tomorrow. i will do waterchanges daily nevertheless. i do not quite see why transfer bacteria from the main tank to the hospital tank when thinking about treating with antibiotics? please inform me about that...


she was already quite lethargic when transfering but now she is active again. the infection is all on her head and in her mouth, at least i think its an infection as it showed up first on the wound from jumping and it looked as if it spread. do you think treating with antibiotics will help getting rid of that?

 

[ReefKeeperRob]

Burnah -

How is quarantine going? I wish I had more advice to offer you but I haven't been at this long myself. I do hope things are going well.

 

[ReefKeeperRob]

You might want to describe your situation on the Fish Treatment forum and ask about Maracyn II.

 

[burnah]

well she's getting better but still cant eat due to the infection in the mouth/gills area - she cant close her mouth properly but she aint interested in the food offered either. i am treating her with something from my LFS which is supposed to treat fungi and bacterial skin infections.