Sick clown advice

[DStaelens]

Hello, it's been a long time since I've been active on the site....
Anyway, my old clownfish is having a rough spell. I was doing a lot of travel on the old job and to say the tank fell into disarray is an understatement. The nitrates spiked to levels unreadable with an API kit, but the clown and cardinal fish that were in the 120 gal for the last 7-8 years have been doing OK. I switched jobs, no travel, and have been hell bent on getting back a tank to be proud of again. Currently the nitrates are down to 20 via a large amount of water changes. The clown and cardinals were doing great, eating like pigs, water parameters have been good (I know I need to bring down the nitrates further). I decided it would be safe to get another clown mate for the current one and they got along great from the very start. The old clown did a visible change, behavior changed and it grew very fast in a matter of a couple weeks. All of sudden it acted like it was dying, laying in a patch of hair algae that I'm working on eliminating and not moving. For three days, it would suddenly get up, dart around the entire tank, then return looking like it was dying again. It suddenly stopped, and was acting normal again and eating for about two weeks. Three days ago I noticed she stopped eating and had a very large, long white fecal string hanging from her. Her eyes look a bit bulgy, not pop eyed but large, is breathing sort of heavily and started getting white blotches on her tail. She seems to be going downhill quickly. I setup a quick QT tank with tank water today, and dosed it with API general cure as symptoms seem look either bacterial or parasitic. The whiteness on her side seems to fade in and out. The white stuff flying around in the second picture is the freshly dosed general cure. Do you think I'm on the right path, or am I completely misdiagnosing and should be doing something else?

 

[StevesLEDs]

Looks like fin rot at first glance, which I believe is a fungal infection causing symptoms just like you described. There are many off the shelf treatments that can clear this up surprisingly quickly. Your clown will be able to grow his/her fins back as well.

When left untreated, it is usually fatal (in my experience over the past 18 years with marine aquariums).

A more risky treatment that I have successfully used on an engineer goby was a freshwater/diluted hydrogen peroxide dip. The stuff sloughed off, and he was feeling 100% better in about 24 hours. Fins took a few weeks to grow back.


Hope that helps?
Jeff

 

[Tonysi]

It looks more like brook to me, a pretty common disease for clownfish, dips in formalin would do the the trick.

 

[PSU4ME]

It looks like Brook with some fin damage, can't tell if it's rot or damage from the photo.

 

[DStaelens]

Thanks for the replies, unfortunately she didn't make it through the night. I was pretty attached to that fish. It used to swim into the palm of my hand and rub around in it when I was cleaning the tank :-(

 

[Tonysi]

Sorry for the loss hopefully you'll be able to catch the problems faster in the future. Good luck with your fishies

 

[Oxylebius]

@DStaelens

I'm sorry to hear about you loosing this fish. How is the second clown doing? Brook is very contagious.

Hello, it's been a long time since I've been active on the site....
Anyway, my old clownfish is having a rough spell. I was doing a lot of travel on the old job and to say the tank fell into disarray is an understatement. The nitrates spiked to levels unreadable with an API kit, but the clown and cardinal fish that were in the 120 gal for the last 7-8 years have been doing OK. I switched jobs, no travel, and have been hell bent on getting back a tank to be proud of again. Currently the nitrates are down to 20 via a large amount of water changes. The clown and cardinals were doing great, eating like pigs, water parameters have been good (I know I need to bring down the nitrates further).

Even though nitrate at high levels is less toxic than ammonia and nitrite, it can still kill fish. Research on this shows that some fish can tolerate high levels of nitrate better then other fish. But, even if this is the case, what high nitrate does on fish includes stress, making them more susceptible to disease, interfering with the growth of young, and decreasing the likelihood of reproduction. Fish can become lethargic and may have open sores or red blotches on their skin. It is common for fish kept at high levels to die suddenly.

But, you brought the levels down and your fish seemed to be doing okay.

I decided it would be safe to get another clown mate for the current one and they got along great from the very start.

Did you QT this new clown before you put it in your main tank? This may be where your disease issues started. By introducing a new clown, not necessarily the high nitrate. Although the high nitrate might have lowed the immune system on your fish, which allowed the fish to get sick.

The old clown did a visible change, behavior changed and it grew very fast in a matter of a couple weeks. All of sudden it acted like it was dying, laying in a patch of hair algae that I'm working on eliminating and not moving. For three days, it would suddenly get up, dart around the entire tank, then return looking like it was dying again. It suddenly stopped, and was acting normal again and eating for about two weeks. Three days ago I noticed she stopped eating and had a very large, long white fecal string hanging from her. Her eyes look a bit bulgy, not pop eyed but large, is breathing sort of heavily and started getting white blotches on her tail. She seems to be going downhill quickly. I setup a quick QT tank with tank water today, and dosed it with API general cure as symptoms seem look either bacterial or parasitic. The whiteness on her side seems to fade in and out. The white stuff flying around in the second picture is the freshly dosed general cure. Do you think I'm on the right path, or am I completely misdiagnosing and should be doing something else?

It did look like Brook, which is highly contagious parasite and common with clownfish. I know it is after the fact, but here is some reading on this disease. Just in case the new clown comes down with it. Or it continues to spread in your tank.
References:
http://www.fishvet.com/Brooklynella.htm
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Oodinium.html
http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-health/saltwater-conditions/brooklynellosis.aspx
http://www.ultimatereef.com/articles/brooklynella/

 

[DStaelens]

@Oxylebius
Thank you for the links and help. The other fish seem to be doing fine, they are all eating. I have been watching the smaller clown to see if he has been showing any signs, but knock on wood so far he has been eating well, and his colors have actually been coming in brighter than they were in the store. I'm happy to say Nitrate levels are down around 2 and nuisance algae seems to be receding.
To be honest, no I did not QT the new clown, I didn't have a QT tank setup at the time. I should know better after 8 years... It's setup now.
Do you think that a couple weeks of feeding Seachem Focus and metronidazole would help prevent a spread?

Thanks again,
Dave

@DStaelens

I'm sorry to hear about you loosing this fish. How is the second clown doing? Brook is very contagious.



Even though nitrate at high levels is less toxic than ammonia and nitrite, it can still kill fish. Research on this shows that some fish can tolerate high levels of nitrate better then other fish. But, even if this is the case, what high nitrate does on fish includes stress, making them more susceptible to disease, interfering with the growth of young, and decreasing the likelihood of reproduction. Fish can become lethargic and may have open sores or red blotches on their skin. It is common for fish kept at high levels to die suddenly.

But, you brought the levels down and your fish seemed to be doing okay.



Did you QT this new clown before you put it in your main tank? This may be where your disease issues started. By introducing a new clown, not necessarily the high nitrate. Although the high nitrate might have lowed the immune system on your fish, which allowed the fish to get sick.



It did look like Brook, which is highly contagious parasite and common with clownfish. I know it is after the fact, but here is some reading on this disease. Just in case the new clown comes down with it. Or it continues to spread in your tank.
References:
http://www.fishvet.com/Brooklynella.htm
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Oodinium.html
http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-health/saltwater-conditions/brooklynellosis.aspx
http://www.ultimatereef.com/articles/brooklynella/

 

[DStaelens]

Thanks Tonysi

Sorry for the loss hopefully you'll be able to catch the problems faster in the future. Good luck with your fishies

 

[Oxylebius]

Do you think that a couple weeks of feeding Seachem Focus and metronidazole would help prevent a spread?

There are many ways in which you can treat for it, and may articles contradict each other on treatments. Some treatments have worked for some people and other treatments for others. A sure way to make sure that the parasite is gone from the tank is to place the fish in QT (and medicate them) and at the same time allow the display tank to go fallow for the period of time that will allow for the parasite (in all forms of its life cycle) to die off. Without a host fish around it can't reproduce. This takes time, effort, and patience to do. Because of this many people try and hope that there is an easier way to treat it. With other treatments the risk is that you don't kill off all the parasites and eventually another breakout occurs.