Clownfish sudden death - suspected brooklynella or bullying?

DiscoMush

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I noticed one of my clowns had some signs of his pelvic fin being nipped at, but I mistakenly thought this was from the female bullying him and establishing dominance..

A week or so later it looks like he’s losing coloration near his stomach, which looks like it’s turning transparent from his original black color. At the time, I thought this lack of coloration was due to him rubbing against the sand where he sleeps.

This was first noticed in late Feb and he was doing fine and acting normally up until yesterday when he suddenly passed away. He didn’t have a lack of appetite, was swimming fine, no rapid gill movements, and no white mucus coating, so I didn’t suspect it was brook until it was too late.

In hindsight, it was probably brooklynella but I’m not familiar at all with saltwater fish diseases nor am I super confident in my abilities to diagnose and treat my remaining clown.

This is what my clown (top one) looked like when I first noticed the pelvic fins and what I now believe to have been the white mucus:
030B1366-68FD-406E-9091-231EC369150D.jpeg


The only medications I have on hand/access to are:

Kordon’s rid ich plus - which has around 11% formalin
Metronidazole capsules - got these from aliexpress so they feel like a gamble using them
Fritz coppersafe
Fritz maracyn
Nox ich
Ruby reef rally pro - Just ordered but hoping it’ll get through customs

I’ve spent some time on the forums to see how I should treat potential brook, but I’m worried I’m misdiagnosing and will do more harm than good if I’m incorrect. It’s also strange since I’ve read that once symptoms of brook arise, the affected fish tend to deteriorate quickly, but my clown seemed to be fine just until yesterday.

The remaining clown is fine in terms of physical health and behavior, and doesn’t have any fin damage or mucus from what I can readily see. I’m worried since I read Brook is very contagious and it’s suggested that whatever fish is exposed to it will likely get it inevitably so I’d like to get started on a hospital tank asap.

Any advice and input on this matter is immensely appreciated!
 

Sharkbait19

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Given how long it took to die since the first issue, and a lack of visible symptoms, I’d be hesitant to think it’s brook. Especially if no other fish are acting up.
Nothing looks off in the pic, but videos tend to be better diagnosing tools.
How long has it been since the most recent addition? Were all new fish quarantined?
 

Jay Hemdal

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Brook is really tough to ID on clowns that are mostly white. I do agree that the timing doesn’t closely align with Brook.
Can you try uploading a video of the remaining clown?
Jay
 
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DiscoMush

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Given how long it took to die since the first issue, and a lack of visible symptoms, I’d be hesitant to think it’s brook. Especially if no other fish are acting up.
Nothing looks off in the pic, but videos tend to be better diagnosing tools.
How long has it been since the most recent addition? Were all new fish quarantined?
Thanks for helping out here @Sharkbait19 and Jay!

The most recent addition in livestock was a Halloween hermit on March 12 (2023)
All the other livestock in this tank (3 turbos, 3 nassarius, and the two clowns) were acquired on the same day (November 19, 2022).

Unfortunately we didn't quarantine any of our livestock, but l'm probably going to qt moving forward lol

Brook is really tough to ID on clowns that are mostly white. I do agree that the timing doesn’t closely align with Brook.
Can you try uploading a video of the remaining clown?
Jay

Here's a video of what the clowns looked like when I first noticed the pectoral fin issue - the one that passed away is the one with less dots/patterning:


and here's a video of what the remaining clown looks like at the moment:

 

Jay Hemdal

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I don't see any evidence of disease on the remaining clown, but like I said, these white clowns can hide a lot of issues!

Jay
 

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