What killed my two clownfish at the same time? velvet?

[katsreef]

*pictures of dead fish below*

My tank is fairly new. I have had a cleanup crew: turbo snail, nassarius snails, hermits, blood shrimp that have been in the tank for a few months. November 17th I purchased two clownfish. I acclimated them and my parameters have not strayed since the day I got them.

The first few days they swam towards the wavemaker, but would take breaks and hang out somewhere else so I didn't think much of it. They would pick at the food pellets but not entirely eat them or they would hold the pellet in their mouth and swim around with it until they eventually dropped it. I ended up crushing them in half and they would eat a bit more. A week later I began to notice a bit of white on the one clownfish. It wasn't much and I wasn't sure if it was sand or something else. They were acting fairly normal to me. At the beginning of December the white got a little bit more noticeable. One of the clownfish I would see rubbing against my zoas and at the time I thought it was trying to be hosted but now I am not sure.

Anyways, December 13th I woke up to my one clownfish dead and the other one died a few minutes later. All of my inverts and corals are good. Nothing was sprayed in the room, nothing was put in the tank, my equipment was functioning, and my parameters were good.

I've been fallow since December 13th so I just want opinions on what it was so I know how long to go fallow for. Right now my guess is velvet and I am planning on waiting 6-7 weeks.

Please help I'm pretty bummed that my first two fish in my reef tank went out like this. Didn't even have them for a full month.

 

[KING KONG]

*pictures of dead fish below*

My tank is fairly new. I have had a cleanup crew: turbo snail, nassarius snails, hermits, blood shrimp that have been in the tank for a few months. November 17th I purchased two clownfish. I acclimated them and my parameters have not strayed since the day I got them.

The first few days they swam towards the wavemaker, but would take breaks and hang out somewhere else so I didn't think much of it. They would pick at the food pellets but not entirely eat them or they would hold the pellet in their mouth and swim around with it until they eventually dropped it. I ended up crushing them in half and they would eat a bit more. A week later I began to notice a bit of white on the one clownfish. It wasn't much and I wasn't sure if it was sand or something else. They were acting fairly normal to me. At the beginning of December the white got a little bit more noticeable. One of the clownfish I would see rubbing against my zoas and at the time I thought it was trying to be hosted but now I am not sure.

Anyways, December 13th I woke up to my one clownfish dead and the other one died a few minutes later. All of my inverts and corals are good. Nothing was sprayed in the room, nothing was put in the tank, my equipment was functioning, and my parameters were good.

I've been fallow since December 13th so I just want opinions on what it was so I know how long to go fallow for. Right now my guess is velvet and I am planning on waiting 6-7 weeks.

Please help I'm pretty bummed that my first two fish in my reef tank went out like this. Didn't even have them for a full month.

Probably Brooklynella(mucous coat). Brooklynella is originally known as clownfish disease. This is often seen in clownfish. You can refer this https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brooklynella.247938/

 

[katsreef]

Probably Brooklynella(mucous coat). Brooklynella is originally known as clownfish disease. This is often seen in clownfish. You can refer this https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brooklynella.247938/

I never saw mucus type stuff unless it is in these pictures and I just don’t know what it looks like. Can they still get white dots?

 

[KING KONG]

I never saw mucus type stuff unless it is in these pictures and I just don’t know what it looks like. Can they still get white dots?

They appear asymptomatic for months/years, but then brook comes back following a "stressor event

 

[Reef and Dive]

Brook to me

 

[vetteguy53081]

*pictures of dead fish below*

My tank is fairly new. I have had a cleanup crew: turbo snail, nassarius snails, hermits, blood shrimp that have been in the tank for a few months. November 17th I purchased two clownfish. I acclimated them and my parameters have not strayed since the day I got them.

The first few days they swam towards the wavemaker, but would take breaks and hang out somewhere else so I didn't think much of it. They would pick at the food pellets but not entirely eat them or they would hold the pellet in their mouth and swim around with it until they eventually dropped it. I ended up crushing them in half and they would eat a bit more. A week later I began to notice a bit of white on the one clownfish. It wasn't much and I wasn't sure if it was sand or something else. They were acting fairly normal to me. At the beginning of December the white got a little bit more noticeable. One of the clownfish I would see rubbing against my zoas and at the time I thought it was trying to be hosted but now I am not sure.

Anyways, December 13th I woke up to my one clownfish dead and the other one died a few minutes later. All of my inverts and corals are good. Nothing was sprayed in the room, nothing was put in the tank, my equipment was functioning, and my parameters were good.

I've been fallow since December 13th so I just want opinions on what it was so I know how long to go fallow for. Right now my guess is velvet and I am planning on waiting 6-7 weeks.

Please help I'm pretty bummed that my first two fish in my reef tank went out like this. Didn't even have them for a full month.

There is more than just a mucus coat which they already have to determine brook. They suffer from secondary bacterial issues also they look quite thin. If you were feeding flakes and pellets exclusively, may have been an inadequate diet. Its hard to tell from dead fish especially after two hours of perish.
Any signs you noticed such as lethargic behavior, loss of appetite, heavy breathing, flashing ?
I see in tank pics what may be cyano or dino - can you post a couple pics of tank under white lighting ?

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Looks like brooklynella. I suggest you go fallow for 6 weeks minimum, 8 is better. Set up a quarantine tank and follow Jay Hemdal's thread for the QT procedures in the future.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Sorry to see. The fish in the video does look thin. It was breathing fast, but not as fast as velvet usually causes. Both fish dying at nearly the same time can be of velvet though.
The skin discoloration does tend to point to Brooklynella though.

Jay

 

[katsreef]

There is more than just a mucus coat which they already have to determine brook. They suffer from secondary bacterial issues also they look quite thin. If you were feeding flakes and pellets exclusively, may have been an inadequate diet. Its hard to tell from dead fish especially after two hours of perish.
Any signs you noticed such as lethargic behavior, loss of appetite, heavy breathing, flashing ?
I see in tank pics what may be cyano or dino - can you post a couple pics of tank under white lighting ?

I don’t have many pics with white lighting so I hope this shows it better. My tank is only a few months old. I was feeding: new life thera+A

They seemed to want the food, they did eat more when I crushed them up though. I didn’t notice any heavy breathing. One time it looked like one was choking on a piece of food and that’s when I began to make them smaller. No crazy behaviour swimming wise, just playing in the wavemaker’s current and the occasional twitching clownfish do.

 

[katsreef]

Sorry to see. The fish in the video does look thin. It was breathing fast, but not as fast as velvet usually causes. Both fish dying at nearly the same time can be of velvet though.
The skin discoloration does tend to point to Brooklynella though.

Jay

I had them for only 3 weeks and fed them every day. I used: new life spectrum thera+A. Can brook take both the same time?

 

[katsreef]

Looks like brooklynella. I suggest you go fallow for 6 weeks minimum, 8 is better. Set up a quarantine tank and follow Jay Hemdal's thread for the QT procedures in the future.

Unfortunately I can’t set up a qt tank. My tank is only 20g anyways. Thanks though, I’m halfway through the fallow period thankfully

 

[vetteguy53081]

I don’t have many pics with white lighting so I hope this shows it better. My tank is only a few months old. I was feeding: new life thera+A

They seemed to want the food, they did eat more when I crushed them up though. I didn’t notice any heavy breathing. One time it looked like one was choking on a piece of food and that’s when I began to make them smaller. No crazy behaviour swimming wise, just playing in the wavemaker’s current and the occasional twitching clownfish do.

The stuff is diatoms and the fish do show signs of Brooklynella in the pics which would have had to be treated with a
formalin solution but temporary relief can also be achieved by giving the fish a FW bath or dip in water same temperature as display tank. Even though this treatment will not cure the disease, it can help to remove some of the parasites, as well as reduce the amount of mucus in the gills to assist with respiration problems.
Treatment is best done in a QT tank using either quick cure (more effective) or Ruby Rally Pro. Ruby takes a little longer and initial treatment generally takes 2-3 days to really start going to work. keep this in mind for the future

 

[katsreef]

The stuff is diatoms and the fish do show signs of Brooklynella in the pics which would have had to be treated with a
formalin solution but temporary relief can also be achieved by giving the fish a FW bath or dip in water same temperature as display tank. Even though this treatment will not cure the disease, it can help to remove some of the parasites, as well as reduce the amount of mucus in the gills to assist with respiration problems.
Treatment is best done in a QT tank using either quick cure (more effective) or Ruby Rally Pro. Ruby takes a little longer and initial treatment generally takes 2-3 days to really start going to work. keep this in mind for the future

Thanks, I'll keep note of that. Is the food I was using good? I fed them the recommended serving of the size of their eye every day

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks, I'll keep note of that. Is the food I was using good? I fed them the recommended serving of the size of their eye every day

I now have 10 clowns. They all get frozen such as :
LRS fish frenzy
Spirulina brine shrimp
mysis shrimp
marine cuisine
chopped krill
small plankton

 

[pshootr]

I agree that it looks like brooke, and I am sorry for your loss. Unfortunately once a fish has Brooke immediate treatment is necessary or they will usually not survive. However many clownfish will have a high resistance even with a poor diet. I'm not advocating that anyone does this but, what I'm trying to say is that some fish are just stronger than others. I'm not proud to say it, but I had a tomato clown that lived through evaporating water to like 50% and just flake food. So some fish are just much more harder than others.

 

[pshootr]

That tomato clown lived for the few years I had it I'm not sure what happened after I left it with someone else. But that fish like I said lived for a good few years with very poor treatment in a tank with a wild caught flounder and did just fine. This is of course not the typical circumstance but just my experience.

 

[katsreef]

I agree that it looks like brooke, and I am sorry for your loss. Unfortunately once a fish has Brooke immediate treatment is necessary or they will usually not survive. However many clownfish will have a high resistance even with a poor diet. I'm not advocating that anyone does this but, what I'm trying to say is that some fish are just stronger than others. I'm not proud to say it, but I had a tomato clown that lived through evaporating water to like 50% and just flake food. So some fish are just much more harder than others.

They did struggle eating the food, not sure if size of the pellet or brooklynella. I thought they were popular pellets people used solely. Either way, I'll do some research on the pellets. Don't want this to happen again

 

[pshootr]

It was a 10 gallon aquarium with only a power filter. No water changes, and flake food. The tank had been set up for about a year with fairly normal routine maintenance. So he had a decent start. I guess what I'm trying to say is in an established tank a healthy fish can endure a lot. But once you have a disease like that you're in trouble.

 

[pshootr]

They did struggle eating the food, not sure if size of the pellet or brooklynella. I thought they were popular pellets people used solely. Either way, I'll do some research on the pellets. Don't want this to happen again

Well unfortunately once a disease occurs there is a low likelihood it will survive. Unless you are really diligent and experienced.

 

[pshootr]

That 10 gallon tank was started with a small piece of live rock and crushed Coral. This was about 30 years ago