Clown fish illness identification please?

[Greenstarfish03]

Please help me id what is wrong with my clown fish. She has been like this since approximately October so this isnt a fast moving illness. She looks a little beat up, very thin, and her color is much darker then normal. She still wants to eat and tries but she is either disoriented or I originaly thought she had an eye issue bc she seems to swim by food when going one direction. She has much better success foing the other dirextion and scavenging around the sand which is normal. At times she seems lethargic. Ive only treated her with methyl blue at humble fishes reconmendation. After treatment she seems less disoriented and overall better but after a while she ends up back in the same spot so the mb isnt resolving the issue. Ive done 7 or 8 mb dips since this started. Any help id appreciated.

 

[Spare time]

You could try prazi pro

 

[Big G]

Probably internal parasites. Here's Humblefish's description and treatment for maximum info.

Consider treating with General Cure. It has both Metro + Prazi. Best to mix GC + Food + Focus (a binder) and a small pinch of epsom salts, and feed each day for 10 days.

Internal Issues

Internal Issues For simplicity’s sake, there are 6 basic problems a marine fish may experience on the inside: 1. Intestinal worms Symptoms: White stringy feces, pinched stomach, loss of color, fish eats voraciously but still seems to be losing weight. Treatment of choice: Praziquantel...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[scottedontknow]

Not going to lie to you but that looks like brook. Can we get better pictures?

 

[Greenstarfish03]

The reason i went away from brook was just bc he has had this for several months and all other fish are fine, but ive been weong before.

 

[Greenstarfish03]

Not going to lie to you but that looks like brook. Can we get better pictures?

Do these pictures help? @scottedontknow

 

[Tahoe61]

She definitely looks very malnourished, maybe related to intestinal parasites. The clown is now compromised by a secondary infection. At this point I am doubtful any intervention will save the clown unfortunately.

 

[scottedontknow]

have you done a FW dip to test for flukes? any signs of white stringy poop?

 

[Greenstarfish03]

have you done a FW dip to test for flukes? any signs of white stringy poop?

I have not done a FW dip. I haven't seen white poop, but w/ that being said I can't say I've seen any poop. I will keep an eye open for poop. I have thought about doing a FW dip it just seemed tough for the fish, but at this point whatever this is is probably worse. In 15 years I've never had a sick fish so this is uncharted territory for me. I was thinking about picking up some AC today as well since that doesn't seem to difficult and it seems to treat a lot of things. I would prefer to dip the fish then treat my entire display tank if I can help it.

 

[scottedontknow]

thats the tough part saddly, reason im thinking brook is if there arn't signs of white stringy poop or any external signs *flukes* or ick also the eyes dont seem cloudy so parasites seem unlikely. if its booke or even velvet you can fix that with a H202 (hydrogen peroxide) bath, if its flukes you can do a FW dip and see them pop off then treat knowing you have a fluke issue. if its parasites you can soak the food in API general cure and that will help with the internal issuse.

 

[Greenstarfish03]

thats the tough part saddly, reason im thinking brook is if there arn't signs of white stringy poop or any external signs *flukes* or ick also the eyes dont seem cloudy so parasites seem unlikely. if its booke or even velvet you can fix that with a H202 (hydrogen peroxide) bath, if its flukes you can do a FW dip and see them pop off then treat knowing you have a fluke issue. if its parasites you can soak the food in API general cure and that will help with the internal issuse.

I just looked up brook again and I could be wrong but I dont think that is trmhe issue. There is no mucous or sloughing and brook usualy kils quick this fish has had this for at least 3 months. This is a slow killer. I just see a couple spots on the opposite side i will post a pic of. Do these look like a fluke?

 

[DeniseAndy]

Oh, poor baby is certainly starving from something. I am not pointing finger at you as you are trying to get her to eat and treating her. Try prazipro or maybe metronidazole. This will help with internal parasites and possibly some infection. If you can get her out into a hospital tank, I would treat with the big three, kanamycin, metronidazole and nitrofurazone.

I wish you and the fish good luck!

 

[scottedontknow]

FW dip to confirm if it’s flukes. I’d get some GC ASAP

 

[Greenstarfish03]

Oh, poor baby is certainly starving from something. I am not pointing finger at you as you are trying to get her to eat and treating her. Try prazipro or maybe metronidazole. This will help with internal parasites and possibly some infection. If you can get her out into a hospital tank, I would treat with the big three, kanamycin, metronidazole and nitrofurazone.

I wish you and the fish good luck!

She eats fairly well just seems like its hard for her to get food with the ither fish around. I can get her out but I dont really have a hospital tank. Hmmm. I wonder what it would take to set one up.

 

[Greenstarfish03]

FW dip to confirm if it’s flukes. I’d get some GC ASAP

I have a bucket w/ ro water in it now (its orange bc i dont seem to have a black one). I have had an air stone in it for an hour or so but the bucket got to warm the heater was apparently to big. As soon as i get it to the right temp. I will do the fw dip. I did pick up some GC on the way home. Im not sure of the best way to use it yet though. I really dont like putting things in my display. Can i treat her with it in the bucket?

 

[scottedontknow]

I have a bucket w/ ro water in it now (its orange bc i dont seem to have a black one). I have had an air stone in it for an hour or so but the bucket got to warm the heater was apparently to big. As soon as i get it to the right temp. I will do the fw dip. I did pick up some GC on the way home. Im not sure of the best way to use it yet though. I really dont like putting things in my display. Can i treat her with it in the bucket?

Check your Pm

 

[DeniseAndy]

If you want to dip and not take out to treat in tank, you can use formalin to dip/ acriflavin will work also. Best for most parasites and acriflavin can help with infections. However, do not use formalin if she has any open wounds and make sure to use extra air movement (air stone best option).
You would need to dip multiple times - maybe daily or so. Could be hard and stressful.
You can soak the food in the antibiotics with focus to bind and can help. Most things in the main system will tolerate this except sponges. There is also food predone with antibiotics, but I have never tried them.

 

[Greenstarfish03]

I just had my wife bring a scope home so I could take a look at these. This is what came off after the fesh water dip. Any ifea what they are? I have GC, erythromycin, and focus is in my mail box just came in today I can use rught away. I have water ready so I can fill a lottle 10g tank as a qt tank if that would help. My tank is a 100g mixed reef w lots of inverts etc. So i definitely don't want tonuse the ab in my display and im Leary about putting any chemical in the dt. My thought as of now is make a mixture of thr gc and focus to feed the dt fish, and then move the clown to the 10g for a bit and treat her with spiked food and maybe both the ab and gc in the tank? I have never set a qt up before.

 

[Greenstarfish03]

Update: Clown has been in qt for 4 days. Im feeding her medicated food mix of GC, focus and epson salt twice a day. The entire qt recieved a dose of GC on day 1 and then on day 3 a dose of erythromycin and then a second dose of erythromycin today. I will do a water change tomorrow then do a second dose of GC. She looks ok in the QT. Seems to be swimming fairly normally, no floaring to the top or laying around. She is eating actualy constantly trying to eat but she acts like a pig foraging around the bottom of the tank for food. She doesnt seem to be able to see food very near by so she just pushes her nose around the bottom until she bumps into food. She manages to get most of the dood i put in the tank. In my dt she may have just been starving bc there is too much competition for a fish w a vision problem. I could be wrong but this just seems like she is malnutritioned from an eye problem and too much competition. If that is the case I still dont know what is causing the eye issue. From looking at her eyes though i dont see an obvious issue that is the weird thing. I have had this fish for 3 to 5 years.