Help my maroon clown needs your help

[PrattysReef]

I could really use some help here. My partner got a pair of maroon clowns two days ago and they looked really healthy and active. I noticed the female was swimming into the full force of my sicce xstreams all of yesterday and wouldn't leave them. I assumed it was just stupid clownfish behaviour but this morning when I woke up I immediately noticed a whitish film over its body. This hasn't effected any of the other fish in the tank so far. If anyone could help ID this ailment for me and how I should treat it I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[PrattysReef]

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Get your hospital tank ready. Not sure, but it may be brooklynella. If it's not too late in the day there, I would take the fish back to the store right away for a refund. More pictures in white light would help.

@Jay Hemdal

 

[PrattysReef]

Here's some more photos in white light

 

[PrattysReef]

Weird thing is it doesn't seem to be nearly as bad on one side of the fish

 

[Sebastiancrab]

My bet is brooklynella because it looks like a mucus covering but I wish Jay (the resident staff marine biologist doc) would give his wisdom if he gets on tonight. I have never seen a fish that was covered that much. If it is brooklynella, first choice is formalin but you can also use Ruby Reef Rally Pro. The latter or Hydroplex is also good to use for a 10 minute saltwater dip to immediately kill the bugs with low stress for the fish. But other medicine still will be needed for all of your fish in a hospital tank. Depending on timing for you to get your hands on meds, I would purchase copper and the previous mentioned ones. I have a stocked medicine cabinet at all times (if you don't already). If Jay thinks it's bacterial, you will need something different.

 

[PrattysReef]

Will definitely be having to make a trip to the store where I picked it up from.
Would a 40 litre tub be OK for the hospital tank? Will throw in a cycled sponge filter and heater maybe an airstone as well

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Yes, I think that would be fine. Make sure you run an airstone with whatever medicine you go with and monitor your ammonia with a good test kit. A start up bacteria can be used to get your hospital tank going. If it is Brook, you will need to take your tank fallow and treat all of your fish.

 

[Jekyl]

#fishmedic

 

[Sebastiancrab]

I have a 40L running right now with two new clowns in quarantine.

 

[LaloJ]

I think you may have Brookynella or Velvet, I'm not sure but formalin may be the option, if I had your problem I would put a hospital tank right away and treat the fish with ruby rally pro since I can't get formalin, I just had a maroon gold stripped clownfish that developed a kind of whitish circle, not sure if i misidentified it as velvet but I guessed so i treated the fish with cupramine in the hospital tank and I was successful, however you are going to need a fallow period .

 

[PrattysReef]

Just called the store that I purchased the pair from, they said I could bring my fish in for them to treat them there. Was reading a 20-30 day fallow period would be OK?

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Just called the store that I purchased the pair from, they said I could bring my fish in for them to treat them there. Was reading a 20-30 day fallow period would be OK?

That is a good store. Yea! Here is Jay's thread for fallow periods:

45 Day Fallow periods

I've been doing some research into the "76 day fallow period". I never heard of that prior to coming to Reef2Reef this past summer. I had always used 32 days as the maximum time for a tomont to remain viable under tropical conditions, and then I would round up to 45 days to help ensure that...

www.reef2reef.com

Also, check out Bulk Reef Supply's video(s) on Youtube. That have ones that cover fish diseases.

 

[LaloJ]

Just called the store that I purchased the pair from, they said I could bring my fish in for them to treat them there. Was reading a 20-30 day fallow period would be OK?

This fallow period is only for trematodes, my recommendation is that you will need 90 days, since that is the exact quarantine period for new fish in case they present any symptoms of Cryptocarion, if they don't present any type of disease then they are clean IME. So, velvet and brook are more aggressive than Cryptocarion so 90 days is a reasonable amount of time.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

--

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Jay recommends 6 weeks per this earlier thread this week:

Brooklynella

What’s the best course of action to treat my eel tank? the occupants are a jewled moray, snowflake, banded moray, humu trigger, Singapore and flame angel and coral grouper. The grouper is showing pretty bad signs of brook @Humblefish

www.reef2reef.com

 

[PrattysReef]

Then 6 weeks it is. I was so excited to finally be able to add some fish to this tank but back to fishless for now. I appreciate all the help

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Glad to be able to help! I have been thru it too and know how agonizing it is. Keep the faith!

 

[LaloJ]

Hello again, I will only talk about my own anecdote when I tried to go a little further in the maintenance of reef fish, I was always a lover of angelfish and butterflyfish, so when I had little experience I tried to keep them together, without quarantine and adding 3 or 4 fish to my tank and all I got was a velvet plague that killed them 3 weeks later. So I had no experience with quarantine and just did a 90 day fallow period, maybe a bit longer and added fish again with the same result because velvet hadn't left, after that did another 120 day fallow period and i got the same thing so I decided to uninstall the tank and start from scratch sometime later. I don't want to sound like I want to contradict someone just this was my experience and I hope it helps a little, I didn't have any quarantine tank and even though I bought fish that looked clean on the outside maybe they weren't at all and why that my fallow periods did not work, that is a possibility, so I always highly recommend quarantine that for me now is essential.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Then 6 weeks it is. I was so excited to finally be able to add some fish to this tank but back to fishless for now. I appreciate all the help

Sorry, I was offline overnight. 6 weeks is my general suggestion for minimum time for Brooklynella, but timing this is NOT an exact science. Longer is always safer.
Do you know the history on these fish? We’re they wild caught? How long had the dealer had them? It just seems really quick for Brook to show up like that. Good that the dealer is helping you on this, many wouldn’t do that!
Jay