Came home to sick fish

[Aquadiva]

Spent a few days in Maine. Came home to this? Any idea if this is ICH or something else? Any ideas what to do? Thanks in advance.

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[nunofs]

Is that only on the mouth? If it's a whitish film then it may be brooklynella, pretty difficult to cure if not caught very early and often fatal

Nuno

 

[Member No. 1]

Sorry to see your fish like that. And again sorry I can't be of help.

But on the bright side, it would make a great pic! "Got Milk?"

 

[skyedolphan]

Linda so sorry to see this. cant offer any help as it has me clueless, but I will follow to learn

 

[Aquadiva]

Is that only on the mouth? If it's a whitish film then it may be brooklynella, pretty difficult to cure if not caught very early and often fatal

Nuno

The white stuff is only on their mouths....both have it. Their color looks pretty blotchy, too. Hippo and three chromis show no signs of anything. These guys have been in the tank for over a year. Does brooklynella just "show up?"

 

[~Flighty~]

Someone has been eating frosting again. Seriously, this is too bad. I would post in the fish diseases section of reefcentral (and maybe clownfish forum?) and see if you can get some expert advice.

 

[One Eye]

Looks kinda like Al Jolsen.....MAMMY!

 

[Casino]

How is your waters chemistry, especially amonia? I think its Lymphocystis, in which case there's no treatment but it's usually non-fatal. Maracyn-Two is a good choice to treat this. Large water changes and carbon will help. I hope its not BROOK. Heres some nice info I found so you can diagnose what your clowns have.
While I think Brooklynella is most likely, it would be best to eliminate Amyloodinium as the cause by performing oama?s Freshwater Dip Test. Dip just one fish (that is showing signs) and if it has Amyloodinium you will see a fine powdery substance in the bottom of the dip water. The substance is the parasites that have dropped off.

Brooklynella can be treated with formalin baths. You will probably have to treat all the fish. Start with the sickest one and make sure that you see some improvement after the bath. If you do, treat the other fish.

Amyloodinium can be treated with Cupramine?, but treatment must be performed in a separate tank.

 

[_Eric_]

Sorry to hear about this Aquadiva. Casino has some great advice for you. I am not sure if I am able to do this (Post links) http://www.marineaquariumadvice.com/formaldehyde_friend_or_foe.html
If I step over my bounds please tell me.

 

[NateHanson]

The link to the article is fine, but no reef-links in your signature please. (You've got a Private Message.)

Thanks, Nate

 

[Aquadiva]

Eric,

Nice link, thanks...

Casino,

Thanks for all the info, too....

I am more confused, however. You guys are both leaning toward a disease, but the clownfish folk, on RC, seem to think it is from the clowns cleaning their first nest. I am not sure about that, but they ARE fighting like cats & dogs. One is defininetly more aggressive toward the other.

The fish disease folk on RC are silent on the matter. Not sure what to do here. I don't want to stress them out by dropping them into a FW dip if this is normal, but I don't want to find them dead if I need to be treating them.

Opinions? Please......

 

[~Flighty~]

I would personally err on the side of doing nothing and seeing if they get better, but thats just me.

 

[Casino]

I too dont like the treatments or options we have when treating our sick fish. We dont know if this will only stress the fish more. The thing is I also like to wait and see what happens, see if its normal or if they are just going throu a cold, but this is where we sometimes fail, we wait to long. These diseases dont take long to claim a life. I would closely monitor the fishes, anything weird or out of whack. Only you can know this since you see your fish everyday and know how they act. Only you will know when to take action. I must warn you, it can take days for a fish to react to a disease and then die, or it can be fine and seem to be doing great on its own, and then suddently it dies, as I have learned in the last couple of days.

 

[NateHanson]

If it's any help, my majestic angel often has that sort of whitish discoloration around his mouth and face, from biting stuff of the rocks (at least that's my explanation). He's always had it, and it changes from one day to the next. He's always been in very good health.

I'd also err on the side of inaction.

 

[Reef55]

Typically a disease such as brook or similiar if visible will affect the entire body, not just the mouth. Cleaning a nest out is a possibility, or it could be they decided some coral in your tank was tasty (might have had food stuck on it), and they burned themselves on the coral. I would also wait and see.

 

[Aquadiva]

thanks guys....I appreciate all the help. There is obviously something going on with those two. They are in places I have never seen before. Behind the rocks, inside caves they have never wandered into. Still eating like pigs. No signs of resperatory distress. They are darting about the tank this am. Still beating the crap (can I say that?) out of eachother, though.

I put the quarantine tank up last night......but for now, I am going with the wait and see approach.

Thanks again.

 

[starrfish]

I definitely agree with the wait and see approach. I recently acted too quickly on a new fish in QT who was "scratching" - gave him Rid Ich and then he died a week later. My new approach is wait and see - only act if the fish is showing obvious signs of distress. Good luck with your clowns Linda.

Daire

 

[montec24]

I had a clownfish that had what I think was "hole in the head disease" basically it was like 3 holes in its head with white stuff coming out. I could find no treatment so just made sure I fed her a varied diet "with lots of garlic" and did lots of water changes and kept up the water quality. took about 3 weeks but it went away and she is doing well now. back to laying eggs and everything. Hope it all works out for yours.

 

[Clam Man]

update any better?

 

[Aquadiva]

Same, Same.....

They're eating like the little piggies they have always been... No sign of distress, or rapid breathing, either.
Beatin' on eachother still, too. I am definitely leaning toward the two of them duking it out to decide sex. This is brutal. They better decide soon.