Ocellaris protentional internal parasite.

[Skylar.Hale]

Hello all,

I purchased 2 Ocellaris Clownfish from my LFS. One of them I believe has an internal parasite. He is breathing heavily, is lazy (swimming very little and sometimes on his side), and also has white stringy goop poo. I have been reading forums on how to treat this internal parasite and I am honestly a bit overwhelmed. He is not eating which makes mixing medications with foods difficult. Can someone please give me some guidance on this situation and how I can start treating this little guy before it is too late? I currently have him set up in a little quarantine I created.

Thanks,



Skylar

 

[Spare time]

You could try prazipro in tank or in qt. It's fine either way. If you want to treat the fish in qt only, you could also use api general cure

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello all,

I purchased 2 Ocellaris Clownfish from my LFS. One of them I believe has an internal parasite. He is breathing heavily, is lazy (swimming very little and sometimes on his side), and also has white stringy goop poo. I have been reading forums on how to treat this internal parasite and I am honestly a bit overwhelmed. He is not eating which makes mixing medications with foods difficult. Can someone please give me some guidance on this situation and how I can start treating this little guy before it is too late? I currently have him set up in a little quarantine I created.

Thanks,



Skylar

Can you post a video under white light?
Do you have access to a treatment tank?

The rapid breathing is more a symptom of an external problem, so it may have multiple issues.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Agree rapid breathing is external and can be flukes, brook and others.
Before assuming white poop is a parasite, often when feeding mysis shrimp and/or Brine shrimp, the oppop mimics white poop issue. If youre feeding both, that may be what you are seeing

 

[Skylar.Hale]

Can you post a video under white light?
Do you have access to a treatment tank?

The rapid breathing is more a symptom of an external problem, so it may have multiple issues.

Jay

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Oh, that fish is really skinny and swimming wrong (the video seems slowed down, so i can't judge its breathing rate). How long have you had it? I would contact the store if you've had it less than a few days, as that would mean it had issues when you bought it.

About all you can do for it now is to dose with with metronidazole in a treatment tank (Metroplex or General Cure).

Jay

 

[Harold999]

Oh, that fish is really skinny and swimming wrong (the video seems slowed down, so i can't judge its breathing rate). How long have you had it? I would contact the store if you've had it less than a few days, as that would mean it had issues when you bought it.

About all you can do for it now is to dose with with metronidazole in a treatment tank (Metroplex or General Cure).

Jay

Yeah this is not something from a couple of days, this fish hasn't eat well for weeks if not months.
Maybe a freshwater dip could give him some relief for his rapid breathing? Looks like gill (and internal) flukes.

 

[Skylar.Hale]

Update: Unfortunately after coming home today from my LFS to purchase medications I found the poor guy laying on the bottom of my QT tank. I am going to continue to monitor my other livestock to make sure nothing was passed to anyone else. Thank you everyone for all of the support and recommendations.

 

[Skylar.Hale]

Update #2: I just spotted my second Ocellaris with the white stringy poo. I am going to pull him and put him in the QT and start treatment with a general cure and paraguard. Any other suggestions?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Update #2: I just spotted my second Ocellaris with the white stringy poo. I am going to pull him and put him in the QT and start treatment with a general cure and paraguard. Any other suggestions?

Personally, I would skip the Paraguard. It just does not have a good track record in marine systems. It is basically an aldehyde and malachite green - and that is a good FW anti-protozoal, but for some reason, it falls short with marine tanks. And then, it is for external protozoans, and these fish have either an internal protozoan or a bacteria.

General Cure plus an antibiotic would be a good course of action in this case.

Jay