Please help with illness

Rob M

Rob M

Reefing newb
I am at the point of getting frustrated. I have lost several fish recently and not sure why/why. Each time they seemed 100% healthy before lights out and the next morning dead or dying and looking horrible. the latest was a paor of tak bred clown fish baought two weeks ago. The were active eating and looked awesome last night and today cannoteven find one and the other looks terrible. Whitish looking stringy stuff coming off fins(almost looks like peeling) and overall poor health. When I think of ich i think of slowly appearing distintive white spots I can see white spots but very small, I would say more of a fungus looking. What can hit so fast and deadly. I attached a picture of the one clown still alive which i have in a hopital tank right now sorry for bad quality but he is not turning the way i want i will try to get better shots. Parameter
nitrate, nitrite, amonia 0
SG1.025
phosphate .25
temp 76.5 All stable
I have cleaner shrimp, 3 green chromis, nassirus snails turbo snails, sand shifter starfish anda pipefish that have been doing great for months. I also have a sailfin tang doing great he has been in tank for over a month. He actually recovered from an injured eye recently and is very healthy and eating great.
I run a sump with a skimmer and chaeto. The only other thing i did recently is run some Kents Phosphate sponge in sump to reduce phosphates about a week ago.

I had a flame and dottyback come to exact same fatesrecently. Please suggestions
 
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In case yor are wondering, I think I found out what it could be, Brooklynella?? All signs indicate this. Very nasty parasite I did a lot of reading on it which isn't really very much. The only thing that appears to work is Formalin but this is very hard to get in stores. I have found Quick Cure which contains Formalin but not as strong since it contains other medication. I now am going to take remaining fish out and hospital all of them and run my tank fallow for 6 weeks. The only thing that perplexes me is why the three green chromis and tang did not suffer same demise , perhaps they will at a later stressful time or just strong enough and are carriers. The later scares me since this would prove that even quarrantining fish DO NOT guarantee anything unless you specifically treat for Brooklynella in your quarantine period which i will do in th future.The chromis have been alive for months and probably are carrying it so how would anybody who received these fish seen anything in a quarrantine tank. Just a rambling thought
 
Here is one article. I am 100% convinced this is it. After reading so many common forum threads on multiple sites. I am seeing some common elements (doing my own research though peoples posted experience). I strongly believe this is probaby one of those illnesses that cause many people to quit the hoppy before they even know what has caused there frustration. Since it is often referred to clownfish disease, people think it only effects clownfish or damsels but it is effects almost all fish but I believe some fish (very few) are very strong combators of the illness. For one, I noticed several people referenced that all fish are dying except their Green Chromis. Ah, same as me. Therefore, are they (GC) strong enough to live through it all but still carry it. Not sure, but it sure sounds like it. I will be a person who quarantines fish in the future which will probably catch 95% of sick fish before they enter the tank but there will always be the doubt since it is my belief that some fish can just be carirers and never really show the signs which would then be introduced to the tank after QT. I am trying Quick Cure for now but consensus is that Formalin only is the only ting that works. BTW, Tang not looking so hot right now and I am struggling to catch him, he will be the last except the Green Chromis who are still zipping around. As an update on parameters all still the same as noted above and very stable. I would not wish this parasite on worsrt enemies. I am really hoping my tang makes it. he has been my favorite, eats a ton, always comes to greet me at glass, and follows me around. Need to make a fish trap.
http://www.animalfacts.lv2lvu.com/clownfish-3/
 
I feel for you, and hope your fish make it. I too recently had my tank wiped out (2 clowns, a firefish and a red banded goby) in that order from the very same symptoms you are describing. One day they were great the next both my clowns were dead with that white mucus all over them, next day firefish was dead 2 days later my goby. I had those fish in my tank for well over a year before that happened. Not sure what it was or how it started. I left my tank fish less for a solid month after that before adding anything. My two current fish (a flame angel and a six line wrasse) have been in there for over 2 months now and couldn't be better. I feel your pain mate and wish you the best of luck. Please continue to share your experience s as to help other aquarist such as myself have a better understanding of how to prevent and treat this disease.
 
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Thank you for the support fyi, so far i removed fish and have them in HT icaught the green chromis in fish trap (homemade) the tang i needed to empty half the tank and a rock or two then caught him with net ihave been treating them with Quick Cure for 4 days and pkan to treat 1 more day then put in QT it looks like rhe tang has cleared up nicely but the only issue i have is that the pipefish and GC never showed signs so i hope they were treated long enough. I plan to put all in QT tank for 6 weeks and if tang starts toshow signs again then i will know it was not enough but hopefully i will not have to retreat. snails and cleaner shrimp will be alone in display tank till February. Keep you posted
 
Update, Display tank has been fallow for 3 weeks now. The quick cure has worked on the tang which is still in QT right now with GC and they look great and eating well. Tang has never looked better. He is a strong one, he battled this vecious parasite and won I believe any medication (furan or quick cure) would not work if the fish isn't particularily super strong to begin with. A couple more weeks to go. It has been a battle to keep amonia and nitrites down in the QT tank. Water changes galore an getting expensive. I am basically trying to get the QT cycled as fish are in it while waiting for fallow period to end. One unexpected problem with the display tank - as soon as removed fish from the display tank I had a bloom of bubble algae. I had a small amount on a duncan coral for the longest time and removed twice but very odd it exploded at same time. I am not sure if it the tang helped keep it under control when he was in the DT or just all the distruption of the tank when I needed to catch the tang. Never know but keep plugging along. Wife thinks this is so crazy since all I do is spend time checking water parameters, water changes etc. BTW, I put in 2 emerald crabs in DT to HOPEFULLY help Bubble algae but as expected didn't touch the bubble algae but one is hanging on one of the Duncan coral heads and if I see any damage to the coral I will flip.
 
My clowns had Brooklynella, ended up killing everything in the tank. The only thing i found that would kill it was Formalin dip. This stuff is very powerful and dangerous but its the only known cure for brooklynella. I ended up keeping my clown after the dip in a hospital tank for a month and moved it back to display and he got it again. I had to let my tank sit fallow for 3 months before i could introduce anything back into the tank.
 
Greenman,
Thank you for sharing your experience. Your touch on a topic I have been struggling with - How long to go fallow for. I was going to wait 6 weeks but felt my impatience was driving this. 3 months seems so long but at least it gives more assurance. I am sure you were crushed when they came down with it again. How long have your fish been back in tank and are they doing well? I know and read much about formalin, however, time was of the essence and I could not wait for it to come in mail so I purchased Quick cure which as formalin in it but much less of a concentration. It seems to have worked since they fish look awesome right now. Also, I read somewhere that tangs maybe more sensitive to formalin and may do more damage to them so in end it may have worked out for best. Either way i guess I will have at leat 2 more months to watch out for him in the QT. Pleae let me know how things are going know, I need some reassurance
 
At the 7 week mark, tang and green chromis doing well greeting much harder to be patient especially as bubble algae getting hard to control without tang in display tank
 

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