Sick clowns in QT

oceanjunkie

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Hey everyone. Getting back in the hobby after many years. Have been slowly setting up main DT (100g) and trying to read as much as possible all the while. The tank has cycled and parameters (I'm checking ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, ph, salinity, temp) are in check. No fish in the tank. I left a sponge filter in the sump for a week and then put it in the filter for a 10g QT tank. The QT tank has a crappy filter, heater, and ammonia alert card. The filter water is about 2" waterfall so it is agitating the water. Filled with water from DT tank. Went to the store and bought a pair of clowns. Got them home and drip acclimated to tank salinity and put them in the QT tank. I didn't measure the salinity of the water they were in, but it was much lower than my tank (which is 35ppt). One of the two didn't look so great, a bit dull coloring, which she kinda had at the store too (maybe a red flag). Neither would eat in the QT, figured too much stress. Next day, dull looking one is keeping her mouth open, which didn't seem good. I tried to feed again using pellets, flakes, and frozen mysis and neither would eat. Did a 20% water change in the DT that night and vacuumed up the uneaten food. Next day, dull one has got some white stuff showing on face/gill plate and not looking good at all. Still mouth open looking like she was gasping. Wasn't sure what to do so I picked up Cupramine that day and dosed at night. Followed their directions of half dose to start because it didn't seem like the fish was going to last long if I stretched out the timeframe to add it as I saw recommended on here. That was last night. This morning she didn't look like she would make it, and sure enough when I got home from work she had passed. I feel bad that I wasn't better equipped/educated to deal with this. Now the other clown is still in QT. He had seemed OK (at least compared to the other one), but still not eating. And today when I got home from work I see that he has a long stringy poop coming out, which I now see could be a parasite which would not be treated by the Cupramine. That's where I'm at right now....no idea how to proceed. The seachem instructions say not to mix medications. Plus there's only a half dose of Cupramine in there at the moment (Seachem says to add the 2nd half after 48hrs, which would be tomorrow night). So do I do a full reset in the QT tank (100% water change and rinse everything) and then medicate this guy with something else? I saw a few of the medications are to be ingested, but this guy isn't eating. Thanks in advance for your help.
 

Jay Hemdal

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Hey everyone. Getting back in the hobby after many years. Have been slowly setting up main DT (100g) and trying to read as much as possible all the while. The tank has cycled and parameters (I'm checking ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, ph, salinity, temp) are in check. No fish in the tank. I left a sponge filter in the sump for a week and then put it in the filter for a 10g QT tank. The QT tank has a crappy filter, heater, and ammonia alert card. The filter water is about 2" waterfall so it is agitating the water. Filled with water from DT tank. Went to the store and bought a pair of clowns. Got them home and drip acclimated to tank salinity and put them in the QT tank. I didn't measure the salinity of the water they were in, but it was much lower than my tank (which is 35ppt). One of the two didn't look so great, a bit dull coloring, which she kinda had at the store too (maybe a red flag). Neither would eat in the QT, figured too much stress. Next day, dull looking one is keeping her mouth open, which didn't seem good. I tried to feed again using pellets, flakes, and frozen mysis and neither would eat. Did a 20% water change in the DT that night and vacuumed up the uneaten food. Next day, dull one has got some white stuff showing on face/gill plate and not looking good at all. Still mouth open looking like she was gasping. Wasn't sure what to do so I picked up Cupramine that day and dosed at night. Followed their directions of half dose to start because it didn't seem like the fish was going to last long if I stretched out the timeframe to add it as I saw recommended on here. That was last night. This morning she didn't look like she would make it, and sure enough when I got home from work she had passed. I feel bad that I wasn't better equipped/educated to deal with this. Now the other clown is still in QT. He had seemed OK (at least compared to the other one), but still not eating. And today when I got home from work I see that he has a long stringy poop coming out, which I now see could be a parasite which would not be treated by the Cupramine. That's where I'm at right now....no idea how to proceed. The seachem instructions say not to mix medications. Plus there's only a half dose of Cupramine in there at the moment (Seachem says to add the 2nd half after 48hrs, which would be tomorrow night). So do I do a full reset in the QT tank (100% water change and rinse everything) and then medicate this guy with something else? I saw a few of the medications are to be ingested, but this guy isn't eating. Thanks in advance for your help.
One big issue we see is fish being held at 1.018 SG at a store and then brought home and acclimated to full seawater. This actually needs to be done over a couple of days, or better yet, matching thebSG of the QT first. That isn’t the sole issue here though.
The stringy poop isn’t causing the acute symptoms, so ignore for now.
Could be Brooklynella, can you post a short video? Copper won’t help with that though.
Jay
 
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oceanjunkie

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One big issue we see is fish being held at 1.018 SG at a store and then brought home and acclimated to full seawater. This actually needs to be done over a couple of days, or better yet, matching thebSG of the QT first. That isn’t the sole issue here though.
The stringy poop isn’t causing the acute symptoms, so ignore for now.
Could be Brooklynella, can you post a short video? Copper won’t help with that though.
Jay
Thanks Jay. Fish store said 30-60min to drip up to my 35ppt would be ok. Oh well. Here are some pics of the second guy. I picked up api general cure and prazipro on my way home. I figured if I don't need them for this guy, I should have these around in the future anyway. Not sure what to do next, but I think it needs to be done soon....
 

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Jay Hemdal

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And here's a video.

Sorry, the video didn't play for me. Visually, from the still photos, it does seem to look like Brooklynella. A 5 minute FW dip and then moving to a treatment tank and treating with formalin is the typical course of action for this. Copper just doesn't seem to work against Brook, I'm not sure why.

Jay
 

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If I had a QT I would definitely not overdose with chemicals, unfortunate this has happened for your clowns, maybe look into your practice , why did you quarantine clowns in 1st instances
 
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oceanjunkie

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Thanks again Jay. Appreciate your help. I'll give that a shot.

Rick, I bought the clowns over the weekend and put them in a qt tank for observation instead of putting them direct into my main tank. I only added meds when I saw the white spot on the first clown. She didn't seem like she was going to make it so I did some quick reading and tried the copper. Guess I went the wrong direction.
 

Rick's Reviews

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Thanks again Jay. Appreciate your help. I'll give that a shot.

Rick, I bought the clowns over the weekend and put them in a qt tank for observation instead of putting them direct into my main tank. I only added meds when I saw the white spot on the first clown. She didn't seem like she was going to make it so I did some quick reading and tried the copper. Guess I went the wrong direction.
Your original post don't mention white spots, I apologize
 
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oceanjunkie

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Sorry, the video didn't play for me. Visually, from the still photos, it does seem to look like Brooklynella. A 5 minute FW dip and then moving to a treatment tank and treating with formalin is the typical course of action for this. Copper just doesn't seem to work against Brook, I'm not sure why.

Jay
Thanks again for your help, Jay. I did the FW dip the day you suggested and then was able to get formalin the next day. But by the time I did the formalin bath he was in pretty bad shape and didn't last too long afterwards. Sucks, but this has been a learning experience for me so hopefully not all for naught.
 
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