What Happened?

[brian313313]

Yesterday for dinner, my two clownfish were eager up at the font of the tank eating. No noticeable problems. This morning, the smaller one was dead and the larger one had a lot of white muck on her and was hanging out near the surface. Some of the muck was hanging around and some long strings. She didn't make it through the day. They were the only two fish in there. I have snails & crabs and they seem to be doing fine. I need to figure out what this is before I add anything back. At first, I thought maybe Ich but I don't think it looks like that or kills that fast. I added a frag last week and didn't quarantine or dip. The tank it came out of looked healthy but I'm sure something came in with that. I want to identify it so I know what to do. I appreciate any help here. I also want to make sure it doesn't spread to any of my other tanks. I have washed my hands thoroughly after working with this tank today.

Tank Params were tested yesterday and the day before.
Ammonia: 0, Nitrate: 0, Ph: 8.2, Salinity: 1.026, Temp: 80.

 

[brian313313]

I'm pretty sure it's Brooklynella. It's a sad day but that should not be able to spread to my other tanks. They're all freshwater.

 

[ThRoewer]

Brooklynella!

Did you give them a formalin dip when you got them - a must with clownfish - and did you quarantine them?

 

[brian313313]

They were the first inhabitant in the aquarium so they were not quarantined. I've had them a couple months now. I added a coral and some hermit crabs last week though without quarantine. I'm sure that was it. Now I need to figure out the lifecycle of this disease. Will it ever be safe to put fish in this aquarium? The corals and inverts seem unaffected. I'm still web surfing at this point.

 

[ThRoewer]

6 weeks fallow at a minimum

 

[brian313313]

I am considering two options:

1. Three months without fish. Just keep the corals & inverts in there. The risk with this is that I'm setting up two more saltwater aquariums. The new aquariums will be in the basement and this one is upstairs but I'm concerned about the risk of spreading the parasite during tank maintenance.

2. Dip & move the corals. I'm not sure about the crabs & snails. If I try to save them they could keep some of the parasite since they're wet. I can't dip them, can I? Then throw away the sand, boil the rock, and start over. This was supposed to be a fish aquarium but I added some frags since I had the space & lighting. Nothing has attached to the live rock yet.

Normally, I set up an aquarium and get all the inhabitants at the beginning. The coral "looked" so clean that I didn't think much about it. Some lessons are learned the hard way unfortunately.

 

[microlady]

Set up your tanks, add all non-fish livestock, wait to add fish after 72 days. That is what I had to do after an ich outbreak. It sucks, but it is worth it. Good things happen when you are patient in this hobby. Good luck!

 

[microlady]

Oh, and I recommend using TTM and possibly formalin baths, followed by 6-8 week quarantine on all new fish.

 

[brian313313]

Thanks for the help. I'm just going to leave this aquarium fishless for a few months. Hopefully that will kill everything off. I eventually want to have some fish back in there. If I'm going to quarantine for 6-8 weeks then I guess I'll be buying some more fish soon. I'm setting up two more saltwater aquariums at the moment. They will essentially be quarantine tanks because only fish will be in them. No corals or live rock. Dead rock will go in for filtration but it's mined so there's nothing live on it.

 

[microlady]

That sounds good. Be sure your quarantine tank is in a separate room. Some data suggest that these parasites could spread through aerosols.

 

[brian313313]

The tank with Brooklynella is upstairs and all alone. The 4 new quarantine tanks I'm setting up will all be in the fish-room. I will have tops on them which should help. I need to remember when doing water changes to wash my hands and equipment between tanks.