Brooklynella disease...

[bigpfist]

Hello,

I am back into saltwater fish after taking a good 20 years off. I fired up a nano tank about 4 months ago and have now gone through 5 clownfish. They just won't stay alive in my tank. I have been successful, however, with a couple green chromis. The owner of my LFS said to give it 3 months before adding anymore clowns as the tank probably has Brooklynella in it. My question is are green chromis excluded from this infection? Are they susceptible? Is there something else that is killing off the clownfish other than Brooklynella? I know Brooklynella is typically a clownfish disease just not sure about the chromis.

The chromis are doing great! They devour pellets and are way active all day!

All my parameters are good, pH 8.1, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate is just under 5. I do have a little problem with cyanobacteria.

Thanks in advance for any advice...

 

[Crabs McJones]

Without a pic of one of the clowns that died there's no way to 100% be sure. Brook can feed off of the chromis even though they may never show symptoms. I would remove the chromis and run them through a full quarantine, and quarantine any new fish that come in. The main tank has to sit fishless for 76 days to wipe out anything it could have been.

 

[bigpfist]

Thanks Crabs! I was afraid of that...was thinking I may have to pull the chromis out to get rid of whatever is in the tank.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Brooklynella

Brooklynella hostilis What You Need To Know: * This is most often seen in clownfish, but it can afflict any fish. The fish’s skin will appear to be peeling or sloughing off, oftentimes causing excessive white mucous to form around the affected area(s). * Treatment of choice is a 45 minute...

www.reef2reef.com

did you observe anything like this on any of the clowns?

 

[bigpfist]

Oddly enough, I didn't see any signs or symptoms of Brooklynella. The clownies would eat and swim all over the place- they even interacted with the chromis. Then, I'd wake in the morning to find them on the bottom of the tank. Still is kind of a big mystery. Unfortunately, my LFS is not the greatest and the next closest one is a good 45 minutes away!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Oddly enough, I didn't see any signs or symptoms of Brooklynella. The clownies would eat and swim all over the place- they even interacted with the chromis. Then, I'd wake in the morning to find them on the bottom of the tank. Still is kind of a big mystery. Unfortunately, my LFS is not the greatest and the next closest one is a good 45 minutes away!

Only other thing I can think of is maybe the chromis are bullying the clowns?

 

[bigpfist]

Could be...they get pretty wild when it's feeding time; it turns into a big feeding frenzy for the chromis. They often get 90% of the food. They are still pretty tiny. I think I'll go with a bigger size clown in the future to see if that works.

Thanks for the input!