Brook questions

littlefoxx · May 23, 2023

Hey all. So Ive got a question about Brook. Last week it wiped my damsels out. Two pair of clowns, damsel fish, lawnmower blenny and a cherub angel. My blue tang looked very rough. All are in QT. My blue is looking way better, my firefish and niger trigger appeared to never get sick. When can I move these fish to my DT? All fish have been in my QT tank when this broke out, so no sick fish was ever in my DT tank.

Lavey29 · May 23, 2023

So the brook developed while they were in QT tank? Did you treat with formulin?

Shibaken3 · May 23, 2023

did u ever treat it?

littlefoxx · May 23, 2023

So I know the tank had ICH in it which I was treating with metroplex and focus when I saw spots on the blue tang. My main QT tank had a leak, so I moved the QT fish to the tank now (which I was using as a calm tank to let my blue tang heal as he was a rescue and in bad shape when I got him) and had to move my cherub to this tank. Thats when I thought ICH re surfaced, but then my clowns and damsels all started showing the signs of brook. Took pictures before the damsels all died and went to my LFS who thought it was both brook and ICH. People on this form thought it looked like brook based on the pictures, which I agreed with. My tang then came down with it, but I did a massive water change and treated with copper as I don't have anything for brook and can't find anything at my LFS. He became very faded and looked like his coat was coming off, just like the others. But now he is doing way better. The trigger and filefish were never effected it seems.

littlefoxx · May 23, 2023

littlefoxx said:
So I know the tank had ICH in it which I was treating with metroplex and focus when I saw spots on the blue tang. My main QT tank had a leak, so I moved the QT fish to the tank now (which I was using as a calm tank to let my blue tang heal as he was a rescue and in bad shape when I got him) and had to move my cherub to this tank. Thats when I thought ICH re surfaced, but then my clowns and damsels all started showing the signs of brook. Took pictures before the damsels all died and went to my LFS who thought it was both brook and ICH. People on this form thought it looked like brook based on the pictures, which I agreed with. My tang then came down with it, but I did a massive water change and treated with copper as I don't have anything for brook and can't find anything at my LFS. He became very faded and looked like his coat was coming off, just like the others. But now he is doing way better. The trigger and filefish were never effected it seems.

firefish not filefish

Jay Hemdal · May 23, 2023

littlefoxx said:
Hey all. So Ive got a question about Brook. Last week it wiped my damsels out. Two pair of clowns, damsel fish, lawnmower blenny and a cherub angel. My blue tang looked very rough. All are in QT. My blue is looking way better, my firefish and niger trigger appeared to never get sick. When can I move these fish to my DT? All fish have been in my QT tank when this broke out, so no sick fish was ever in my DT tank.

I'm not sure we ever 100% confirmed what your fish had was Brook or not. Either way, if it was a protozoan of some sort, the typical clearing time is 45 days beyond the date that the last symptoms were seen, but that is for fish that went through a full treatment for whatever the issue was. If they didn't, then the protozoan could pop back up at any time.

Jay

vetteguy53081 · May 23, 2023

Agree - this is an assumption and both brook and ich doesnt typically go away. Brook has a specific treatment which is generally formalin based and ich has its own which is not just metroplex and would be copper based or hyposalinity.
IF fish had brook, often the fish develops secondary bacterial lesions confused with ich.
Pics will/would be very valuable here along with symptoms such as heavy beathing, loss of appetite, body appearance, lethargic behavior and more.