Help needed to identify disease

[Keijo]

Hello,

I have two young clonwfishes and the other one has been suffering from some kind of disease for a week or so now. Could you please help me identify what is this disease, so I could do the proper medication etc. I do not yet have a qt tank, but I will set up one asap if needed. The fish eats (pellets) fine as always, but does not move around much. Does not need to be suffering much either, but something is definitely wrong.

I have had this fish for about two weeks and my quess is brooklynella, based on googling. But I want to be sure before I start any treatments. I have tried to catch the fish for freshwater dip, with no luck. I have to remove my rock and corals before catching the fish as now I have only managed to break some of my corals..

Here is link for a short video of the fish
It has some white "stuff"on its left side, on its left fin and also around mouth.

Thanks!

 

[Elliott Comans]

If you don't have a qt and you have coral and inverts you can dose the tank with triplesulfa. I use it as a precaution when adding new fish.

When treating diseases like that or ich I treat at 1 tablet per 30litres 3 days in a row. Then do a 40% water change. It is a strong antibiotic that wipes out bacteria(including the good bacteria in your tank- hence the heavy change to clear out the ammonia.)

I use blue planet brand so check brand against brand to ensure safe dosage.

When new fish 1tab per 40l just once.

 

[Keijo]

If you don't have a qt and you have coral and inverts you can dose the tank with triplesulfa. I use it as a precaution when adding new fish.

When treating diseases like that or ich I treat at 1 tablet per 30litres 3 days in a row. Then do a 40% water change. It is a strong antibiotic that wipes out bacteria(including the good bacteria in your tank- hence the heavy change to clear out the ammonia.)

I use blue planet brand so check brand against brand to ensure safe dosage.

When new fish 1tab per 40l just once.

Thank you, will look into it!

 

[ngoodermuth]

I personally wouldn’t risk medicating the DT. Plus, if it’s brooklynella... Triple Sulfa won’t likely treat it. How many fish do you have in the tank?

You’ll want either acriflavine (ruby reef rally, my preference) or formalin, and a clean QT dosed with metroplex at 2 scoops per 10 gallons.

You shouldn’t use anything from your current DT to start the QT, all separate equipment and bottled bacteria (Bio-spira)to manage ammonia between water changes. You’ll dose metro after a water change every 48 hours, for 14 days.

 

[Keijo]

I personally wouldn’t risk medicating the DT. Plus, if it’s brooklynella... Triple Sulfa won’t likely treat it. How many fish do you have in the tank?

You’ll want either acriflavine (ruby reef rally, my preference) or formalin, and a clean QT dosed with metroplex at 2 scoops per 10 gallons.

You shouldn’t use anything from your current DT to start the QT, all separate equipment and bottled bacteria (Bio-spira)to manage ammonia between water changes. You’ll dose metro after a water change every 48 hours, for 14 days.

There are three fishes in the tank; two clownfish and one yellow goby, also still juvenile. It's a 75 litre nano tank.

I bought Waterlife Octozin and I will medicate the DT, lets see what happens. If this does not help, then QT is the next step. I could not find any brand of triplesulfa in any of the web stores here (Finland). But this Oxtozin should help with brooklynella and it should be reef safe, so I will give it a go.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Can you get acriflavine? I’d still give the clown a bath, if possible. The active ingredient in that medication is dimetridazole, which is similar to metronidazole against protozoans, so should work against brook... but the acriflavine bath prior to treatment would helpful.

I also am skeptical about how “reef safe” it actually is... so if you are going to dose right into your display I would be extremely cautious, and have a large water change and carbon at the ready in case of a negative reaction.

 

[Keijo]

Can you get acriflavine? I’d still give the clown a bath, if possible. The active ingredient in that medication is dimetridazole, which is similar to metronidazole against protozoans, so should work against brook... but the acriflavine bath prior to treatment would helpful.

I also am skeptical about how “reef safe” it actually is... so if you are going to dose right into your display I would be extremely cautious, and have a large water change and carbon at the ready in case of a negative reaction.

I did dose it into the DT already. Immediate reaction from torch and hammer corals were that they closed almost fully, but that was expected. The torch however started to extend its polyps already. I have carbon and rodi water ready, but good point to mix the salt water ready in case things go wrong. The medicine is dosed once per day for three first days and then a 50% water change on day 8. I did find some older threads where this medicine successfully cured clownfish disease/brooklynella and also all invertebrates and corals were ok after the treatment...but fingers crossed.

The problem with any bath is/was that I could not catch the fish as it is as lively as ever and there are too many places to hide. I would have had to strip the whole tank down, remove rock and corals. Plus the other two fishes most likely have or would have had the same disease, so they are now also getting the treatment. But if this thing does not work, then that is the next step.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Yes, if you would catch to treat in QT - you would have to catch ALL fish for treatment and allow the display a 6 week fallow period.

Please do keep us updated with the results, I know Metroplex is questionable at best... so I’d be interested to hear how everything fares.

 

[Keijo]

Yes, if you would catch to treat in QT - you would have to catch ALL fish for treatment and allow the display a 6 week fallow period.

Please do keep us updated with the results, I know Metroplex is questionable at best... so I’d be interested to hear how everything fares.

Hello,

So I came back from 8 day trip yesterday and I was bit concerned about my fish & coral, but all is fine. I did the big (~40%) water change on day 6 after starting the medication, so bit earlier than supposed. But the clownfish does not have any white spots of fungus in him anymore which is great! All fish and corals (mostly softies) survived the treatment just fine. Actually I think that the initial closing for all the polyps of the LPS was more because of the amount of "flakes" flying around in the water due to the medication and not the medication itself.

I can recommend this Waterlife Octozin, at least it is reef safe as it states and the (assumed) brookynella has gone away