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