Ich or Velvet?

[LBReefer]

So my beloved clown fish has come down with something. He is struggling to swim, but is eating heartily. I have already lost three Anthias which showed no outward signs of disease, but have disappeared over the course of the last two weeks.

I did make the mistake of introducing a PBT a few months ago and believe that I am now paying the penance.

 

[furam28]

velvet for sure. check your other fishes. they should all start showing velvet sign within a day or two. you need to act fast. velvet wipes out all fishes within matter of days. take them out, put in hospital tank, treat with copper. My fight with velvet last year, i was able to save most of my fishes.

 

[Humblefish]

More likely brook: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brooklynella.247938/

 

[LBReefer]

Much appreciated advice I have reef rally already. Do you recommend a dip or treatment in qt?

More likely brook: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brooklynella.247938/

 

[Humblefish]

Much appreciated advice I have reef rally already. Do you recommend a dip or treatment in qt?

I would do a 5 min FW dip and then a 90 min Rally bath. Then transfer the fish into a clean/sterile QT to prevent reinfection.

You may have to repeat this process if symptoms return. However, dosing metro in the QT is a good idea to prevent reinfection: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/metronidazole.298762/

 

[rkpetersen]

More likely brook: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brooklynella.247938/

Educate me; why does that look like brook to you? I'm seeing multiple white dots of varying sizes in the op's pic. I'm not seeing any skin sloughing.

Also, although brook is common in clowns, op recently added a tang.

 

[DancingShark]

I could have sworn that was velvet.

 

[Humblefish]

Educate me; why does that look like brook to you? I'm seeing multiple white dots of varying sizes in the op's pic. I'm not seeing any skin sloughing.

Also, although brook is common in clowns, op recently added a tang.

It would be unusual for a clownfish to show symptoms of ich or velvet; however their skin is very susceptible to Brooklynella.

Also, look at the larger white dots mixed in with the smaller ones. And how some of it looks like clumps.

However, as an insurance policy the OP could treat with copper + metro in the QT to cover all 4 external parasites: ich, velvet, brook & uronema.

 

[Big G]

Educate me; why does that look like brook to you? I'm seeing multiple white dots of varying sizes in the op's pic. I'm not seeing any skin sloughing.

Also, although brook is common in clowns, op recently added a tang.

Maybe this will help a bit. Check out this pictorial of fish diseases posted by @melypr1985
Scroll down to the section on Brook. Take a look at the first picture in that section of a tang heavily infected by Brook. Yikes! Kinda looks like really bad Ich/Velvet doesn't it? Brook does a very good effort masking itself as Ich/Velvet.

 

[Humblefish]

@LBReefer What happened to the PBT? If the fish died, did it show any symptoms before dying??

 

[LBReefer]

@LBReefer What happened to the PBT? If the fish died, did it show any symptoms before dying??

The PBT and anthias have all disappeared without symptoms. I added carbon this weekend to see if I could soak up any undesirable contaminants in the water that may be stressing the fish.

I also did a panel of tests to confirm my parameters:
Salinity .024
PH 7.8
NH3 0
NO3 0
NO2 0
Phosphate .16

Do I need to remove the four remaining fish? They are asymptomatic.

 

[LBReefer]

I went ahead and removed the three now remaining fish. They are now in copper treatment as a prophylactic approach.

Root cause analysis has found a faulty heater as the likely culprit. I’ve ordered two new Eheim 150w heaters along with a inkbird controller. I ordered the same setup for home aquarium as well.

I feel very stupid for not identifying this earlier. This explains the fish deaths, the suffering of my anemones, and stunting in my corals.