My tank might be going down… flukes, now brook? Help!

[bitstream]

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[Sharkbait19]

Correct - too many treatments at one time is tough on the fish. I wish there was a single medication that actually works against Brooklynella and ich, but there is none.

Maybe I’m making this up, but I remember seeing that chloroquine phosphate works for both, any thoughts on that?

 

[bitstream]

One clown was struggling mightily and clearly the end was near, so I did a freshwater dip. Fish is back in the DT and breathing but not moving.

Looking at the dip water, there were 100% flukes in there.

The other clown is still swimming and eating. Now I’m debating whether to do a freshwater dip on it or if that’s adding more risk.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Maybe I’m making this up, but I remember seeing that chloroquine phosphate works for both, any thoughts on that?

Could be, it is a pretty strong anti-protozoan drug - I've never had a chance to try that on Brooklynella. For as common as that disease is here, I have not seen a case of it myself since I stopped buying wild caught clowns 20+ years ago.

Here is my article on chloroquine:

Aquarium Fish: Chloroquine: A “New” Drug for Treating Fish Diseases

While not a panacea or miracle drug, chloroquine is experiencing resurgence in popularity for use in fish-only aquariums and quarantine systems to treat a variety of problems ranging from Cryptocaryon to Aiptasia anemone infestations.

reefs.com

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I had no choice but to throw some caution to the wind. I dosed Rally yesterday at 5:00pm and this morning, sadly, the remaining fish are clearly demonstrating the same behavior as before due to flukes. They’re spazzing and flashing like crazy. So, I threw some PraziPro in the tank this morning.

There appears to be less mucus on their coats, but still some white spots. One clown appears to be losing parts of its fins. The other is swimming full speed into the flow of a 1000gph power head.

All I can do at this point is cross my fingers and hope for the best.

That fin damage is usually caused by another fish picking at it, although in rare cases, I suppose if it got its tails caught in a pump intake, that could cause the same thing.

 

[iReefer12]

Could try H202 dosing. I suspected I had Velvet or brook in my tank, h202 dosing has helped me fwiw. It takes patience to see it work, for me I saw the situation improve bit by bit over the course of 3 weeks of dosing.

Here’s more: https://humble.fish/community/index.php?threads/peroxide-h2o2-dosing-for-parasites-in-reef-tank.725/

 

[bitstream]

That fin damage is usually caused by another fish picking at it, although in rare cases, I suppose if it got its tails caught in a pump intake, that could cause the same thing.

There are two very young clowns in the tank that have been paired up for months and the one with the fin damage has been struggling at the bottom of the tank for several days. I’ve never seen an ounce of aggression.

And there is no pump intake here, just a slow flowing wier since the tank is an AIO.

Possible it’s damage from flashing. That’s my guess.

 

[bitstream]

The clown treated to the FW dip didn’t make it. Clearly too little too late. The one remaining fish is spazzing likely due to flukes and swimming into the power head again.

It’s clear the Rally does jack for flukes despite claiming on the label that it treats them, and I’m not sure if these are Prazi resistant or if eggs recently hatched.

I’m thinking about setting up a QT though all I have is a 5 gallon with no filtration or anything. And even then, I’m not sure it buys me much if I’m bringing parasites along for the ride. Could try a FW dip or just bring the fish over and do copper, but that’s totally new to me.

Or I can let this fish fight on and hope for the best. Really not sure what else to do at this point. This hobby is way or stressful than I ever imagined.

 

[bitstream]

Woke up to this little guy laying motionless on the bottom of the tank barely breathing and thought he was a goner. Its mouth area was very pale. An hour later he’s swimming again though for the first day ever, not eating. It’s got more white stuff on its skin than I have ever seen too, so I dosed the tank with yet another round of Rally.

But not eating worries me. The other two fish were dead within 48 hours of their last meal.

 

[iReefer12]

Did you read about h202 dosing, a 6 pack of 1L bottles will cost you $10 on Amazon, worth a shot at this point.

I don’t rate ruby reef at all (imo), would rate h202 higher than those kinds of treatment. Over 100 pages documenting h202 dosing on HF.

 

[bitstream]

Did you read about h202 dosing, a 6 pack of 1L bottles will cost you $10 on Amazon, worth a shot at this point.

I don’t rate ruby reef at all (imo), would rate h202 higher than those kinds of treatment. Over 100 pages documenting h202 dosing on HF.

I have not read much about it, but at this point I already have two chemicals in the tank. And I’ve had bad luck with h2o2 harming corals, so there’s that.

 

[bitstream]

And then there were none.

Last night the remaining fish looked like it had shed the brook but had a decent amount of what I believe is ich. This morning the fish seemed clear of everything but its color had faded badly and it was struggling to swim upward. I left for an appointment and when I came back a couple hours later it was gone to fish heaven.

I’ll give this tiny little clown credit… he was a fighter until the bitter end. I really thought he was going to pull through but it wasn’t to be.

The corals in the tank aren’t super pleased about their chemical bath. Whether they’ll bounce back remains to be seen.

I did a big water change, put a UV sterilizer in there, and guess it’ll be small water changes every week until the chemicals are out.

I’m really not thrilled about having a tank sit fallow for 2.5 months. It’s like having a nice car sit in the garage unusable, which kinda defeats the purpose of having it in the first place. But what choice do I have outside of a total tear down, dry out, and replacement of the sand, followed by a startup cycle?