Mayday! Clowns look terrible

[BCOrchidGuy]

Brooklynella should look like a thick whitish mucous coat. The fish will exhibit signs of rapid breathing loss of appetite and open mouth gasping. They will also have fading body colours in advanced stages.

15 Min Full Freshwater dip, (ensure pH and temp are similar if not exact to the tank). 4 Drops of Formalin/gallon and follow the treatment outlined on the package.

Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) often infects fish in a cycling aquarium or aquariums with fluctuating temperatures. Ich looksl ike small distinct salt like white dots that can be seen with the naked eye.

Decrease salinity to 15ppt or 1.011 for a week.

Amyloodinium or Oodinium ocellatum, or velvet or coral fish disease etc etc is extremely difficult to recognize until the advanced stages. The individual parasites (trophonts) are to small to see with your naked eye. Dinospores are prone to attatch to fishes gills and you will see your fish swimming face on into a power head or filter device to help with the irritation. Look for rapid respiration, swimming into water currents, and scratching like you'd see with Ich. Clowdy fins, or excess mucus on various parts of the skin all could be indicitive of Amyloodinium.

A 5 Min freshwater dip will help but if the fish has the excess mucus the parasite may be protected from the dip. Decrease SG to 1.011 Make sure the tank is Bare Bottom, Vacuum the bottom a few times a day. After 2 days of lowered Salinity then add copper or Cupramine at the recommended dosage and slowly bring the tanks SG back up to 1.018(do this change over about 3 days). Do daily water changes to replace water you are removing with the vacuuming and add copper etc as needed to maintain your dosage. The stuff you clean off the bottom will still be alive so make sure you bleach the water before you dump it down the toilet or you'll be introducing a parasite into your home water environment. Bleach the bucket and rinse it before you add water back to your tank.

Doug

[OCDP]

So would this more than likely be velvet?

Or could still be ich, right? It looks like the fish have been dusted in flour or something, not so much individual spots like ich?

I can't diagnose , just trying to help.

[adidas]

Originally Posted by outtafocus

I also just ran an ammonia test. I have never even seen this colour before.
1.0 ppm. ouch

is 1ppm that bad? you should see mine..was at 8.0ppm the other day

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I was under the impression not to use any copper-based meds on clowns. Every time I've done it, they died. Read the Copper-Safe bottle & it states not safe for clowns.

[Chad]

just a note on the ammonia issue - for sure you should use a larger QT. 10 gal min.

Q: I'm using Cupramine™ and my ammonia test kit is showing ammonia off the scale. What is going on?
A: Ammonia test kits can not distinguish ammonia from the amine based complex present in Cupramine™ and will therefore give a false high reading for ammonia while using Cupramine™. Our Ammonia Alert™ and MultiTest: Free & Total Ammonia™ test kit do not suffer from this problem as they utilize a gas exchange technology that can distinguish ammonia from amines.

[outtafocus]

Sadly the clowns did not make through the night. Both were dead this morning. I'm sad.

I believe it was brooklynella, as the symptoms match what was posted above. Colour had faded alot, black strips were a light brown, the orange looked pale. They also had a nasty film on them.

As for the 2gal QT. I had posted in a previous ich thread if a 2gal Qt would be ok to use. I was told it would be ok. They would have been in a 10gal, but a friend borrowed it as a temporary home for her turtle.

It was a rookie mistake to not even think about some kind of biological filter. The entire quarentine process was such a knee jerk reaction for me that I must have just let that bit slip.

I will be waiting a long time before I buy any further fish. I feel I have more research to do. I thought I had enough knowledge to safely buy a fish or two, but this shows I have a long way to go.

When I do decide to buy fish again, they will be going straight into a 10gal QT, however, what should be used as a bio filter? The copper solution will kill anything on live rock.
Suggestions?

[Johnny Reefer]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

I was under the impression not to use any copper-based meds on clowns. Every time I've done it, they died. Read the Copper-Safe bottle & it states not safe for clowns.

I QT'ed 2 Amphiprion ocellaris last month using Copper-Safe with no adverse effects. When I saw this post I ran to my bottle of Copper-Safe. (Say it ain't so!). Couldn't find the warning about clowns and Copper-Safe you speak of.
It is Mardel's Copper-Safe you are refering to?

Cheers,

[Johnny Reefer]

Originally Posted by outtafocus

When I do decide to buy fish again, they will be going straight into a 10gal QT, however, what should be used as a bio filter? The copper solution will kill anything on live rock.
Suggestions?

Start QT with 5gal. from your main tank and 5gal. new water.

No live rock. Just a BB tank with a few things for hiding. eg: PVC pipe.

Simple filter, (I use an Aquaclear 150 on a 20g QT), no carbon, no other media. Just foam. You could even just go with one of those internal foam filters.

Primary dose with Copper-Safe twice. First week and second week.

Test for ammonia frequently. It will begin to spike right away. Should test for this at least every other day.

Do a 2gal. water change (20%) every day for the entire QT period. This will help keep the ammonia at reasonable levels.

Supplementary dose enough Copper-Safe (enough for 2gal.) every day to compensate for Copper-Safe removed due to the 20% water changes.

It wouldn't hurt to test for nitrites and nitrates as well, IME. (I lost a $100 Flame Angel 2 days before QT was to end because I didn't think to test for nitrates and they were off the chart). Doh!

QT duration? Some say 2weeks, some say 3.

If your fish show signs of disease, continue QT for 2 weeks past the time symptoms dissappear.

At the end of QT, when the fish is/are transferred to the main tank, shut your QT tank down. Clean it all up and just let it sit empty until you need it again.

The above is the advice this rookie reefer was given by my LFS and everything went perfectly except for the nitrates thing, and that was my fault. I did two QT's back to back without shutting the tank down and starting again with a fresh batch of QT water. Thus the water had cycled into exceptionally high nitrates by the end of the second QT.

Cheers, ,

[BCOrchidGuy]

I've always been a fan of Cupramine, it's safe, it's effective and it's always in my cabinet.

Doug

[danny zubot]

what should be used as a bio filter? The copper solution will kill anything on live rock.
Suggestions?

Right now in my Q-tank (20 gallons) I have an aquaclear 200 and a powerhead for added circulation. I have carbon in the filter but I'm not using copper. I went to Wai's and bought a few pounds of LR rubble for bio filtration. At such a low salinity (10ppt) I imaging the bacteria in the LR will die off somewhat, but then, it will end up in my sump afterwards anyway.