Established clownfish suddenly breathing heavily/white marks on one side of jaw

[max_rosey]

Hello all! I've looked through the forums for an answer on this but since every situation is so different, I couldn't figure out for sure what our issue is:

In the last 24 hours one of our 2 captive bred clownfish started breathing heavily and moving slowly, mostly hiding towards the back of the tank but still swimming around somewhat. He has some white stuff on one part of his lower jaw.

The tank is a 32gallon fluval flex all in one, and it has been running for 9 months. The clownfish have been in there since it was cycled, bought captive bred at a reliable LFS. We also have a yellow watchman goby, jester goby, and a harptail blenny; a handful of snails, hermits, and one peppermint shrimp; and a small variety of soft corals. All the livestock and corals are captive-bred.

All the other fish and inverts seem normal.

The tank has been very stable, but some of our corals were struggling in the last few weeks and I think I finally singled out a dying cabbage leather as the issue. I have been doing 5 gal water changes every few days for the last week or so, and added parafilter last week while troubleshooting the soft corals. I also just changed out the carbon filters this week to try to resolve the issue from the dying leather, and it seems like those two things worked for the corals.

Besides the parafilter, we haven't added anything new into the tank for months. Our green star polyp died and anthelias have been shriveling up, but the parameters gave stayed stable throughout that time.

When I just checked the ammonia again before posting it's at 0.2, but earlier in the week when I checked it was 0 (I'll working on a 5gal water change as soon as I finish posting this)

Any thoughts on what this could be, and what we can do about it? This is the first time we've had any fish health issues in this tank! Thanks so much in advance!

Parameters:
Ph: 8.2
Ammonia: 0.2
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10-15
Phosphate: .25
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 78-79

 

[Uncle99]

In pic 1 and 2, maybe ick, but not certain. although not severe, I see a few whites dots, round to oval in shape, easily countable.

Lack of appetite and lethargic behavior, hiding, usually are other symptoms, which coincide with thparasite.

If you believe that to be the case, and when you are ready, only copper, hypo or TTM is proven to work and your DT must go fish less for 70ish days at normal heating, less if you increase the heat.

I usually see dots on the fins as well and in your pic, I don’t see any, so I’m a bit on the fence here.

 

[max_rosey]

Thank you for the insight! Would Ick appear suddenly without introducing anything new into the tank though?

I tried to get a photo from a different angle...It almost looks like he scraped the bottom left part of his jaw?? Im pretty positive it's not from aggression from anyone in the tank though.

 

[max_rosey]

One quick update: I just tried putting some benereef coral food in (which all the fish love too), and the injured/sick clownfish did swim out and try to get some (though not as energetically as usual)...so hopefully thats a positive sign!

I also re-tested the ammonia and its actually at 0, I just must have messed up the test before.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

One quick update: I just tried putting some benereef coral food in (which all the fish love too), and the injured/sick clownfish did swim out and try to get some (though not as energetically as usual)...so hopefully thats a positive sign!

I also re-tested the ammonia and its actually at 0, I just must have messed up the test before.

It is very unlikely that this is a result of some water quality issue - both clowns would be affected if that were the case. The die offs of the soft corals is worrisome though - and I could not get a good enough view of the second clown to see if it is breathing a bit fast.

This clown is showing excess mucus and very rapid breathing. There are a number of conditions that can cause that, but usually not in long term captive raised clownfish like this.

It doesn't appear to be ich in the video, and ich won't cause such rapid breathing.

Jay

 

[max_rosey]

The die offs of the soft corals is worrisome though - and I could not get a good enough view of the second clown to see if it is breathing a bit fast.

Thanks Jay, I have read many of your posts while scouring this forum for info today, and I really appreciate your thoughtfulness and clarity.

With the soft corals, first it was just our GSP that suddenly died (about 4-6 weeks ago), but since we couldn't pinpoint an issue and everyone else seemed fine we just left it alone. Then the anthelia and xenia stopped extending their polyps and started shrinking, and our photosynthetic plating sponge started deteriorating. However, at the same time we have multiple toadstools, ricordea mushrooms, a Kenya tree, gorgonian, and a finger leather that have all seemed totally fine.

After putting in the polyfilter (which didn't show any color change) and removing a powerhead that had been making a grinding sound (we had cleaned it and it was working fine again, but i took it out just in case there was some sort of metal leaching into the water), I realized that we around the time the GSP died we had recently gotten a cabbage leather that never looked happy and was definitely dying- so last week i finally pulled that out. Since then the sponge and xenia look a little bit fuller, but not enough yet for me to feel 100% confident that's the issue.

Around the time the GSP started struggling I had also started adding Phyto Feast Live a few times a week, but I stopped adding that a month ago just in case that was contributing to the issue.

Sorry for the overly long explanation, just wanted to make sure to provide full context.

Here's a video of our other clownfish, he's moving around a lot so let me know if a better video is needed!

 

[max_rosey]

Would it make sense to put the one clown (or both) in quarantine and give them something like General Cure or Methylene Blue?

Here's another attempt at a video of the other clownfish (he's a little smaller than the one showing symptoms, which you can see in the background)

 

[max_rosey]

Additional update: the clownfish who's having trouble breathing does have stringy white poop also (I saw that as an indicator in other threads on the topic)

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Additional update: the clownfish who's having trouble breathing does have stringy white poop also (I saw that as an indicator in other threads on the topic)

O.K., with the stringy poo and rapid breathing together, can be a sign of internal protozoans - Hexamita or Spironucleous. These are normal gut inhabitants of fish, but sometimes get out of control. If you could move the clowns to a treatment tank and dose with general cure and feed them brine shrimp as a laxative, that might help.
Jay

 

[max_rosey]

Thank you so much Jay, you're our hero!! We got him into a quarantine tank with General Cure last night and he already looks to be breathing a little better. Do you recommend that we just follow the instructions on the GC package as far as length of treatment? Is there anything special we should do when returning him to the main tank? Thanks again!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thank you so much Jay, you're our hero!! We got him into a quarantine tank with General Cure last night and he already looks to be breathing a little better. Do you recommend that we just follow the instructions on the GC package as far as length of treatment? Is there anything special we should do when returning him to the main tank? Thanks again!

Yes - I would follow the instructions on the GC package. Be prepared to do a third dose though. GC is a weird med - it combines praziquantel and metronidazole. These two medications are dosed differently. The instruction on the package is more how metro is dosed, and that is what you are using it for, not so much the prazi. Prazi should be dosed 8 or 9 days apart.

Jay

 

[max_rosey]

Hi Jay and all,
Unfortunately our clownfish passed away on day 6 of the treatment. He seemed to be looking better but was still breathing very quick and had some markings on his face. In fact I was getting ready to post asking what our next steps should be, but when I got home from work he had died.

I really appreciate everyone's attempts to help, just sharing this in case anyone else is in a similar situation and can learn from this. I'm guessing maybe the General Cure was the wrong medication to give, or we did something else wrong? Or maybe there was just nothing we could do...all our other fish continue to be totally fine. Thanks again for all your help!