Female clown looking beat up

SallyWho · Nov 2, 2020

I noticed today that my female clown has a jagged dorsal fin and what looks like a wound on her cheek. You know how when you accidentally cut yourself at an angle and the skin sticks up in a flap? Kinda like that. Hard to catch with a cell phone but every time I pull out the actual camera, she hides. There's also some dusty looking stuff around her ripped fin. Hopefully not velvet? They were QT'd with CP, TTM, and watched for 76 days, so it had better not be velvet!

She seems to be eating okay and still bossing the male around, so she *ought* to heal on her own, right? What should I watch for in terms of infection? The only other fish are a cowardly firefish and a large foxface. I suppose he could have bullied her. Any ideas how to minimize bullying? I'll be adding some more fish in the coming months which should help with that.

fishguy242 · Nov 2, 2020

hi,i would hold off on new fish for the moment ,let's see what is going on with mama clown first

let's call the DR. @Jay Hemdal

SallyWho · Nov 3, 2020

fishguy242 said:
hi,i would hold off on new fish for the moment ,let's see what is going on with mama clown first let's call the DR. @Jay Hemdal

No worries, there! The new guy will be in quarantine. And if this little lady needs quarantining for any reason, I have another tank to put her in.

SallyWho · Nov 5, 2020

I think she's looking a little worse. Still swimming and eating fine, and no signs of trouble with the other fish. But there's a little less fin and a little more discoloration.

SallyWho · Nov 5, 2020

Tried to get a quick vid. They seem to catch it better than photos.

fishguy242 · Nov 5, 2020

@Jay Hemdal #reefsquad ..help will come,best wishes

Jay Hemdal · Nov 5, 2020

Good news/bad news.... I don't see Amyloodinium (velvet) here. However, if this were a wild clown, I would say that it has Brooklynella. The only saving grace is that this is a captive raised clown and its respiration rate does not seem too elevated...both of those point away from that diagnosis. I'm looking more at the white cloudiness on dorsal side of the fish. I'm hoping it is just excess mucus production resulting from some injury. As long as the fish is eating well, bossing the male around and holding its fins erect, I would just try to wait it out.....

Jay

SallyWho · Nov 5, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Good news/bad news.... I don't see Amyloodinium (velvet) here. However, if this were a wild clown, I would say that it has Brooklynella. The only saving grace is that this is a captive raised clown and its respiration rate does not seem too elevated...both of those point away from that diagnosis. I'm looking more at the white cloudiness on dorsal side of the fish. I'm hoping it is just excess mucus production resulting from some injury. As long as the fish is eating well, bossing the male around and holding its fins erect, I would just try to wait it out.....

Jay

Thank you! If she deteriorates (gets lethargic, stops eating), I'll remove her to a QT. What would be the best thing to treat her with? I've got a few meds around here.

Jay Hemdal · Nov 6, 2020

If you decide to move and treat, I would do a 5 minute FW dip and treat with a full dose of copper, and if things look really dire, a treat with API General Cure as well.

Jay

SallyWho · Nov 21, 2020

My clown isn't acting any worse but she LOOKS worse. That dusty look on her dorsal area is more pronounced, the spot on her cheek is bigger, and now she may have a spot on her forehead. I'm stumped. I QT'd her last year with CP and general cure, one additional dose of prazi, and a few weeks observation, and the only recent addition to the tank was a cleaner shrimp about a month ago. I mean, she's still chasing down food, swimming around energetically, and bossing the male around. What do I do with her? I don't want to wait until she's on death's door before taking action.

SallyWho · Nov 21, 2020

Relevant: No visible blemishes on either the male clown or the foxface. Hard to tell with the firefish, which hides in the rock work for all but the two seconds he takes to dart out for food.

Jay Hemdal · Nov 21, 2020

Well, I think we can be confident it isn't Brooklynella or Velvet - the fish wouldn't have kept stable and alive this long if that was it, plus the other clown would start to show symptoms. I'm going back to the idea that it is excess mucus production. I would call it "idiopathic" which is a fancy term for "darned if I know why".

I can *sort* of see some rapid breathing, but that could just be a function of the fish's activity level and/or water temperature. She is still feeding normally? The only thing I can suggest is the FW dip, but then, move to a QT and dose with an antibiotic. However, that is just a shot in the dark, I really don't see an active bacterial infection here....

Jay

SallyWho · Nov 21, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Well, I think we can be confident it isn't Brooklynella or Velvet - the fish wouldn't have kept stable and alive this long if that was it, plus the other clown would start to show symptoms. I'm going back to the idea that it is excess mucus production. I would call it "idiopathic" which is a fancy term for "darned if I know why".

I can *sort* of see some rapid breathing, but that could just be a function of the fish's activity level and/or water temperature. She is still feeding normally? The only thing I can suggest is the FW dip, but then, move to a QT and dose with an antibiotic. However, that is just a shot in the dark, I really don't see an active bacterial infection here....

Jay

Thanks for the input! Yes, she's still super excited at feeding time, and horking it down as usual. I'm running short of quarantine tanks at the moment (two new fish in separate tanks, with one moving to a third in another 8 days)- if I put her in the tank I use as a frag QT, do you know if antibiotics will hurt the frags/inverts?

I just had a random thought. My foxface is a bit of a....rectal orifice and he tends to hang out not far from the anemone where the clowns stay. Could he have gotten her with his venomous spines and this is the piscine version of a rash from a bee sting?

Jay Hemdal · Nov 22, 2020

SallyWho said:
Thanks for the input! Yes, she's still super excited at feeding time, and horking it down as usual. I'm running short of quarantine tanks at the moment (two new fish in separate tanks, with one moving to a third in another 8 days)- if I put her in the tank I use as a frag QT, do you know if antibiotics will hurt the frags/inverts?

I just had a random thought. My foxface is a bit of a....rectal orifice and he tends to hang out not far from the anemone where the clowns stay. Could he have gotten her with his venomous spines and this is the piscine version of a rash from a bee sting?

Foxface have been implicated in stinging other fish. I've never seen it myself. In the cases I've heard of though, the people thought the result was puncture marks, not a diffuse slime like this. Also, Foxface use their spines more to keep them from being swallowed by other fish, not as a defensive weapon like a tangs scalpel.

Jay