Advice on Disease Eradication/Management

[NH_Reefer]

Hi All,

Hoping to get some advice on my current situation.

My tank unfortunately had a disease come through and wipe out almost all my fish. I have been adding fish over the last few weeks so I cannot pin point when it came in for sure. Essentially over the course of about a week most of the fish died off. Chromis, Royal Gramma, Diamond Goby and finally two clowns (the OGs of the tank). The clowns were the only fish that showed any signs of disease. The others all ate like pigs up until they were dead suddenly. The clowns over 2-3 days stopped eating, developed tattered fins and seemed to have spots of losing color around their heads. The last day they seemed to have spreading across their bodies of whatever this was. I'm assuming velvet, I didn't see larger spots that looked like ich. I attached some pics and vids but they aren't great.

I'm now left with a yellow watchman and filefish that are both doing amazing, eating, no signs of disease. The softies, LPS and inverts are all doing great as well. I checked for voltage with a multimeter and that was fine.

Params all good, Ammonia <0.15, Nitrate 10, pH 8.3, 35.4ppm salinity, dkh 8.1, 78F

Any thoughts on next steps/disease ID? I did set up a 10g QT that I could move the filefish and goby to and go fallow. Ideally would like to avoid that but obviously no choice if it does seem like velvet.

I'm mostly just curious because the other fish never showed a single sign of disease, and now I have these two left that look healthy as can be.

Appreciate any advice!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi All,

Hoping to get some advice on my current situation.

My tank unfortunately had a disease come through and wipe out almost all my fish. I have been adding fish over the last few weeks so I cannot pin point when it came in for sure. Essentially over the course of about a week most of the fish died off. Chromis, Royal Gramma, Diamond Goby and finally two clowns (the OGs of the tank). The clowns were the only fish that showed any signs of disease. The others all ate like pigs up until they were dead suddenly. The clowns over 2-3 days stopped eating, developed tattered fins and seemed to have spots of losing color around their heads. The last day they seemed to have spreading across their bodies of whatever this was. I'm assuming velvet, I didn't see larger spots that looked like ich. I attached some pics and vids but they aren't great.

I'm now left with a yellow watchman and filefish that are both doing amazing, eating, no signs of disease. The softies, LPS and inverts are all doing great as well. I checked for voltage with a multimeter and that was fine.

Params all good, Ammonia <0.15, Nitrate 10, pH 8.3, 35.4ppm salinity, dkh 8.1, 78F

Any thoughts on next steps/disease ID? I did set up a 10g QT that I could move the filefish and goby to and go fallow. Ideally would like to avoid that but obviously no choice if it does seem like velvet.

I'm mostly just curious because the other fish never showed a single sign of disease, and now I have these two left that look healthy as can be.

Appreciate any advice!

Video does not play but these clowns are showing signs of brooklynella disease which as affects other fish including dwarf angels and damsels. These fish need to be quarantined and treated and you must STOP adding fish and focus on sick clowns and leave tank empty as listed below.
The thick mucus on its body is a second sign which is noticeable on the fish. This mucus generally starts at the facial area as well as gills and spreads across the body producing lesions as it progresses often confused with ich and can turn into secondary bacteria. Other symptoms will be lethargic behavior, refusing to eat and heavy breathing from the mucus.
Typical treatment is a formalin solution is mixed with in a separate container with either fresh or saltwater. Start with a quick dip in the formalin at a higher concentration then performing treatment in a prolonged bath of formalin base at a lower concentration in a quarantine tank. The longer the fish are exposed to the formalin treatment the more effective it will be at eliminating this issue.
If a formalin solution is not available for immediate use, temporary relief can be achieved by giving the fish a FW bath or dip in water same temperature as display tank. Even though this treatment will not cure the disease, it can help to remove some of the parasites, as well as reduce the amount of mucus in the gills to assist with respiration problems.
Treatment is best done in a QT tank using either quick cure (more effective but now harder to find) or Ruby Rally Pro. Ruby takes a little longer and initial treatment generally takes 2-3 days to really start going to work.
With the advanced stage of this- I recommend immediate quarantine of all inhabitants and leaving display without fish for 4-6 weeks.
A quarantine system if you dont have one can be as simple as a starter tank kit from walmart which has most of the essentials

 

[NH_Reefer]

deleted

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I don't see Brooklynella in the video. If it had been Brook, the clownfish would be the first to be affected. The fish in the video is a bit thin and very frantic. I *think* I can see rapid breathing. Velvet is one possibility. Since the corals are doing well, I am going to rule out water quality issues for the moment.

Going forward, I think you should set up a quarantine tank with a stable bio filter and move the remaining fish into that, then, your options would be to get a couple of new fish and all four through a comprehensive quarantine, or run just the remaining two through it while you display tank runs with no fish in it for 60 days.

Here is our current quarantine protocol:

Current Quarantine Protocol

2023 Quarantine Procedures Jay Hemdal David Scarborough Protozoans (Cryptocaryon/ich, Amyloodinium/velvet) and Metazoan trematodes/flukes are by far the most common parasites found on newly acquired fish. A carefully managed quarantine process can effectively eliminate these parasites before...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[NH_Reefer]

Video does not play but these clowns are showing signs of brooklynella disease which as affects other fish including dwarf angels and damsels. These fish need to be quarantined and treated and you must STOP adding fish and focus on sick clowns and leave tank empty as listed below.
The thick mucus on its body is a second sign which is noticeable on the fish. This mucus generally starts at the facial area as well as gills and spreads across the body producing lesions as it progresses often confused with ich and can turn into secondary bacteria. Other symptoms will be lethargic behavior, refusing to eat and heavy breathing from the mucus.
Typical treatment is a formalin solution is mixed with in a separate container with either fresh or saltwater. Start with a quick dip in the formalin at a higher concentration then performing treatment in a prolonged bath of formalin base at a lower concentration in a quarantine tank. The longer the fish are exposed to the formalin treatment the more effective it will be at eliminating this issue.
If a formalin solution is not available for immediate use, temporary relief can be achieved by giving the fish a FW bath or dip in water same temperature as display tank. Even though this treatment will not cure the disease, it can help to remove some of the parasites, as well as reduce the amount of mucus in the gills to assist with respiration problems.
Treatment is best done in a QT tank using either quick cure (more effective but now harder to find) or Ruby Rally Pro. Ruby takes a little longer and initial treatment generally takes 2-3 days to really start going to work.
With the advanced stage of this- I recommend immediate quarantine of all inhabitants and leaving display without fish for 4-6 weeks.
A quarantine system if you dont have one can be as simple as a starter tank kit from walmart which has most of the essentials

I appreciate the advice but did you read the post?

I didn’t say anything about adding more fish, in fact I stated I was prepared to go fallow but wanted to see if that was the correct move first.

I can’t focus on treating the clowns because as stated above, they died.

I also mentioned that I have a 10g QT set up and ready to go for the filefish and yellow goby in the tank currently, though they are very healthy with no signs of disease a week after the other fish died off.

Additionally, the lawnmower Blenny, diamond goby, and gramma all died which are species generally not affected from Brook by my understanding.

 

[NH_Reefer]

I don't see Brooklynella in the video. If it had been Brook, the clownfish would be the first to be affected. The fish in the video is a bit thin and very frantic. I *think* I can see rapid breathing. Velvet is one possibility. Since the corals are doing well, I am going to rule out water quality issues for the moment.

Going forward, I think you should set up a quarantine tank with a stable bio filter and move the remaining fish into that, then, your options would be to get a couple of new fish and all four through a comprehensive quarantine, or run just the remaining two through it while you display tank runs with no fish in it for 60 days.

Here is our current quarantine protocol:

Current Quarantine Protocol

2023 Quarantine Procedures Jay Hemdal David Scarborough Protozoans (Cryptocaryon/ich, Amyloodinium/velvet) and Metazoan trematodes/flukes are by far the most common parasites found on newly acquired fish. A carefully managed quarantine process can effectively eliminate these parasites before...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

Thanks Jay. Yeah I think the best plan is to move the goby and file to the QT and run fallow, just wanted to get some more input from the community with more knowledge than me!

 

[vetteguy53081]

I appreciate the advice but did you read the post?

I didn’t say anything about adding more fish, in fact I stated I was prepared to go fallow but wanted to see if that was the correct move first.

I can’t focus on treating the clowns because as stated above, they died.

I also mentioned that I have a 10g QT set up and ready to go for the filefish and yellow goby in the tank currently, though they are very healthy with no signs of disease a week after the other fish died off.

Additionally, the lawnmower Blenny, diamond goby, and gramma all died which are species generally not affected from
Brook by my understanding.

I realize what you said " I have been adding fish over the last few weeks so I cannot pin point when it came in for sure. Essentially over the course of about a week most of the fish died off." << and reiterating- cease any additions until problem corrected.
As Jay too stated- quarantine what you have remaining. Its not just brook but the fallow is to assure whatever you had ( can be velvet, etc) have gone without a host and died off. I missed the part on clowns with pics of them assumed they were current pics.
You say water is good. How are you testing water (kits)?

 

[NH_Reefer]

I use salifert kits and a Hanna for salinity

 

[MnFish1]

1. IMHO - and its my opinion - the test kit makes no difference - Api is not an evil test
2. Second about the fish IMHO - it's hard to tell. If I were you - I would remove it - and the rest and treat in a hospital situation.
3. The bottom line is that all of your fish iMHO - since there have been deaths - you should treat all the fish with copper as per protocol - and the prazipro.

Sorry to hear of this mess.