Clownfish is sick

[Zarharsha]

I've had a gladiator clown for over 4 months, he was eating, swimming, being a regular clownfish. I had an ich outbreak recently, and I had to order medication online. It took a while to arrive. I managed to get it under control. My clown was fine until two days ago when he stopped eating and started acting weird. Today he had strings coming off his top fins. He shed them later today, but now he's swimming weaker and has this strange orange pattern.(You can barely see it at the top of his middle white stripe. I pulled him into quarantine today and I'm asking for some advice/answers.

Main tank Parameters:

Ammonia 0.25
Nitrate and Nitrite 0
pH 8.2
Salinity 1.023

 

[Idoc]

I'm surprised this didn't get any responses sooner!!! Clowns are very susceptible to Brooklynella and this looks like it might have the signs of that with the changing of the skin coloration on the back. This disease usually kills pretty quickly, though. Did the fish pull through this?

 

[Zarharsha]

I'm surprised this didn't get any responses sooner!!! Clowns are very susceptible to Brooklynella and this looks like it might have the signs of that with the changing of the skin coloration on the back. This disease usually kills pretty quickly, though. Did the fish pull through this?

Thanks for the response! Unfortunately, after a hard fight, he died two days later.

 

[Zarharsha]

Is there anyway to prevent this from happening in the future?

 

[gabrieltackitt]

Never had to experience brook specifically but from reading and knowledge of other similar things, a freshwater dip and straight into copper would be your best bet for brook. It is extremely fast killing so not a lot of time to ramp up anything.

 

[Manuel935]

Is there anyway to prevent this from happening in the future?

Formalin dips and medications such as metro found in medications such as API general cure can help cure this disease, but you should check out the fish disease forum as @Humblefish provides a great explanation on how to cure pretty much every disease out there.

 

[Idoc]

Is there anyway to prevent this from happening in the future?

Yes, it can be prevented.

If you get another clown, it is strongly advised to quarantine the clown first to ensure it doesn't have this particular disease, especially since clowns are very prone to having this particular disease. When in quarantine, for prophylactic treatment (if showing no signs and just wanting to make sure it is not on the new fish prior to going into your DT) -- Treat the water column with Metronidazole 500mg per 20-40g water every 48hrs for 10-14 days...for the first few doses, go lighter to ensure the fish doesn't show signs of distress (500mg per 40g) and then ramp up to the higher concentration (500mg per 20g) for the remainder of the treatments.

But, if you have a Clown already showing signs of Brooklynella, then the following is a better and faster treatment option (since this disease usually kills in a few days):

A Freshwater dip will provide some temporary relief while you obtain the following meds... Best treatment is a 45min bath in Formulin. This medication is a carcinogen, so be careful with it. Due to this, some people will do the next best treatment of a 90min bath in Ruby Reef Rally (acriflavine). After treatment, transfer the fish to a clean quarantine tank and then run the Metronidazole treatment listed above for 10-14 days.

But right now...Sadly, if it was Brooklynella, your DT now has this disease in it and any new fish or other fish in the tank are susceptible to catching it as well. Other fish should probably be treated. To eradicate it from your DT completely (since these meds are not safe to use in a DT), all fish would need to be removed to quarantine tanks (which you would be doing anyhow to treat them) and the DT would need to remain fallow for 6 weeks to starve out the disease and let it die out naturally without any hosts to live on!