Agh, ich and now brooklynella too.

rcmike · Jan 4, 2014

Hey guys, first off, I have been keeping marine tanks for a long time and know better than to not quarantine but I got lazy and added a few fish without doing it recently.

Anyway, after adding the new fish I started seeing a very light ich infestation on some of the fish. Over the years I have had light infestations like this clear up on their own eventually so I didn't get too exited over it. It has been lingering though and is getting a little worse, also the fish are acting more skittish.

This morning when I checked on the tank my two clownfish have stringy slime hanging off of them and it appears they have brooklynella. They are also acting very irritated and stressed. I did a formalin dip and moved both of them to a 10 gal. QT tank. I also lowered the salinity to 1.009. I had a starry blenny die a few days ago and it had stringy slime on it when I found it dead. I didn't think much of it at the time. I just figured it was from the decomposition.

Still in the reef I have a small sailfing tang, medium copperbanded butterfly, medium rabbitfish, coral beauty angel, diamond goby, and two scooter dragonetts. None of them show signs of brooklynella but the tang, rabbitfish, and angel have some ich. I am going to set up a QT tank for them and do a hypo treatment for the ich. Should I just do the hypo for ich and observe them for brooklynella or go ahead and treat them for that as well? What about the scooter dragonetts? I have seen them eat some frozen but I don't know if they would eat enough to survive QT. I have also read about putting a container of sand in the tank for the diamond goby but mine is so active he would throw it all out of the container in a short while. I am going to leave the display tank fish free until the ich has died out. I have read different time lengths. What do you guys recommend?

Mike J. · Jan 4, 2014

Wow, what a bummer. You surely can't put all those fish in a 10g QT. The DT will have to be fishless for 8-10 weeks. Here's an article on Reef2Reef discussing ich treatment. https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-discussion/56989-ich-discussion-treatment-options.html

rcmike · Jan 4, 2014

Oh no, I'm not putting them all in a 10g. I just have the two small clowns in there right now. I have a spare 75 and I'm going to use it. Im actually thinking of just putting 30 or so gallons in it so water changes won't be too bad.

Dowtish · Jan 4, 2014

Hate to hear this Mike. I think some of my fish have brook too. I thought it was just a bacterial thing, but now that a lot of the fish cleared up but the clowns didnt, I am almost positive that is what it is. I just set up a 10 gallon for them, but my male clown didnt make it in time. Im going to pull the female and treat.

Its definitely a challenge with the dragonettes and diamond goby. I would defitely put a large tupperware with sand in it, but that also makes me think you could be transferring the parasite into the QT, if its in some stage where its in the sandbed.

TJ's Reef · Jan 4, 2014

Hey Mike, hopefully you can get the upper hand here and successfully treat all your fish in time. If you plan on placing sand in the QT use a silica sand not coral in case you have to resort to Cupramine. The silica sand will not absorb copper or any other medications. Good luck and know how much we all hate the " Could a Should a Would a's"

Cheers, Todd

rcmike · Jan 4, 2014

Okay, got them all in the QT tank. Have the pleasure of reaquascaping now too. lol I think I'll try the silca in a tupperware container or something. I have some silica left over since that is what I use in the main tank. I will just throw it away afterwards. It's cheap.

rcmike · Jan 4, 2014

I went ahead and gave all the fish a formalin bath just to be sure. I noticed the angel was looking a little like it might have brooklynella also. Should I keep the ones that obviously have brooklynella separate or just treat them all like they have it and give them formalin baths? I have read every three days to give them a bath for three treatments.