Maroon Clownfish Ich Damage

[sawrip]

I have had an outbreak of ich in my fowlr tank which sadly claimed the life of my Blenny. I did emergency hyposalinity over 36 hours and the tank is stable and visually ich clear - this will continue for another four weeks.

My female Maroon Clownfish sadly was badly infected with ich and when I dropped the salt level she took on and new lease of life, unfortunately this was short lived. All the visable spots have cleared but it seems like she is stuck to the bottom of the tank and is refusing food, she also got very aggressive with her partner and even the Lionfish - just very odd behaviour really.

She is currently in my qt tank for observation.

Could the ich have damaged the swimbladder at all causing her to stuggle to maintain postive bouncacy or explain this odd behaviour? Video attached.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Lower salinity water is less dense, so fish will tend to sink in it. Normally, the fish can just swim harder to compensate for that, but clowns often just sit on the bottom.
The not eating but still being aggressive is odd, I can’t explain that….fish don’t eat when they are sick and sick fish aren’t actively aggressive, so that’s confusing to see both issues at the same time.
Jay

 

[sawrip]

Lower salinity water is less dense, so fish will tend to sink in it. Normally, the fish can just swim harder to compensate for that, but clowns often just sit on the bottom.
The not eating but still being aggressive is odd, I can’t explain that….fish don’t eat when they are sick and sick fish aren’t actively aggressive, so that’s confusing to see both issues at the same time.
Jay

Thanks for the reply, that makes sense. She's not struggling to stay upright or going upside down etc just seems drawn to the bottom.

The aggression started after I dropped the salt, almost all of directed to the other male but it seemed to subside a little as time went on.

I'll keep trying small amounts of food in the hope she starts eating.

 

[Weeb]

I'll keep trying small amounts of food in the hope she starts eating.

I hope your Clownfish starts eating. I think it will. Clownfish are omnivores and need both meaty foods and algae. Check out the Fish Nutrition post when you can.

 

[sawrip]

I hope your Clownfish starts eating. I think it will. Clownfish are omnivores and need both meaty foods and algae. Check out the Fish Nutrition post when you can.

Thanks, I'll have a look over there. I think just because of the near death experience with ich that it's stressed her too much, fingers crossed for the future, I'll keep this thread posted.

 

[sawrip]

Thanks, I'll have a look over there. I think just because of the near death experience with ich that it's stressed her too much, fingers crossed for the future, I'll keep this thread posted.

So the latest on this is she fully survived hypo at 8 weeks @1.009sg and made a good recovery.

I am probably now paranoid about ich but she does have two spots as shown in the image. My view is that they are rather large and would be suprised if they could appear five days after hyposalinity?

My view is monitor and see how things develop, I feel confident with hypo now but would run a shorter peroid of four weeks - as per the recommendation on this site. I struggled a little with bacterial infections during eight weeks.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

So the latest on this is she fully survived hypo at 8 weeks @1.009sg and made a good recovery.

I am probably now paranoid about ich but she does have two spots as shown in the image. My view is that they are rather large and would be suprised if they could appear five days after hyposalinity?

My view is monitor and see how things develop, I feel confident with hypo now but would run a shorter peroid of four weeks - as per the recommendation on this site. I struggled a little with bacterial infections during eight weeks.

Those spots do look too large to be ich, but watch them just in case; ich spots will come and go every few days, while generic mucus spots may linger or may just go away, but rarely come and go in different locations on the fish.
Jay

 

[sawrip]

Those spots do look too large to be ich, but watch them just in case; ich spots will come and go every few days, while generic mucus spots may linger or may just go away, but rarely come and go in different locations on the fish.
Jay

Thanks Jay I will monitor closely, if it is ich it will have survived hypo and CP treatment on this fish. I do believe one of these spots appeared in the last week in hypo which makes me suspect there's a chance it's not.

 

[sawrip]

So the latest update on this is that the spots appear large and still mostly in the same place. I have included two pictures three weeks apart which I'm monitoring closely. Any thoughts from yourself

 

[Jay Hemdal]

So the latest update on this is that the spots appear large and still mostly in the same place. I have included two pictures three weeks apart which I'm monitoring closely. Any thoughts from yourself

Yep, that’s not ich. There aren’t any other highly communicable diseases that cause spots like that, so these are probably just damaged scales/broken fin rays. They could be microsporidian xenomas, but are really too small.
Jay