Juvenile Clowns with internal parasites... Help

[Dprosser4]

Recently got two very small clown fish for a new IM nuvo 10, tank was fully cycled for 2 months and now only has the 2 clowns in it with live rock and sand. Noticed white stringy poop about a week ago and tried feeding metro+focus but neither clown would eat it. Now one of the clowns stays in the corner on the sand all day and will not eat, the other seems to be doing fine and will eat some food. 4 days ago when the 1 clown stopped eating I dosed prazipro since there’s not really anything in the tank anyway, I pulled the CUC just to be safe and added an air stone . It doesn’t seem to be helping much.

Since they won’t eat the medicated food is it safe to dose Metro straight into the display tank? I don’t have a qt setup right now. Or will metro somehow be absorbed by the rock, or mess with my tank chemistry?

Thank you guys for your help!

 

[Big G]

Welcome to R2R!
The existing biofilm in the DT will react with the Metro causing the Metro to rapidly deteriorate at an unknown rate. Thus the dosage quantities and duration would be skewed. That's why it is recommended to treat in a clean, sterilized, barebottom tank. Metro is somewhat reef safe though. That's why it's ok to mix with Focus + Metro + food in the DT as long as the amount is carefully dispensed.
Consider setting up a temp QT tank/Rubbermaid container, etc. Doesn't have to be fancy or pretty. Just need the basics: filter, heater, powerhead, Seachem Ammonia Alert Badge.

 

[Dprosser4]

Welcome to R2R!
The existing biofilm in the DT will react with the Metro causing the Metro to rapidly deteriorate at an unknown rate. Thus the dosage quantities and duration would be skewed. That's why it is recommended to treat in a clean, sterilized, barebottom tank. Metro is somewhat reef safe though. That's why it's ok to mix with Focus + Metro + food in the DT as long as the amount is carefully dispensed.
Consider setting up a temp QT tank/Rubbermaid container, etc. Doesn't have to be fancy or pretty. Just need the basics: filter, heater, powerhead, Seachem Ammonia Alert Badge.

Thanks for the reply. With the qt tank does it need to be cycled first? I have most of the items to set it up, would just have to grab a spare 5g tank. Petco has there dollar a gallon right and I could get it tonight.

 

[starypotter]

Thanks for the reply. With the qt tank does it need to be cycled first? I have most of the items to set it up, would just have to grab a spare 5g tank. Petco has there dollar a gallon right and I could get it tonight.

You'll likely want a 10 gallon ($/gallon rarely includes 5gal anyway), more water volume means a bit more medication yes, but also more stable parameters which is important in terms of ammonia control. A QT doesn't need to be cycled because in cases of emergency that can't happen. When you go to petco get an ammonia alert badge (My local petcos only have the combo alert with PH so you might just have to get that for now) and a bottle of BioSpira. If you have the time to let it cycle with the biospira that's good, but if you don't just triple make sure you have that badge, add the bacteria, and do a water change if you notice any ammonia readings.
When you do a water change make sure that the water you are adding back to the tank has the medication in it, an easy way to do that would be to mix one batch especially since you're using such a small QT and a lot of the medications have their measurments for 10 gallon standards.
It's super important to realize that a ten gallon tank does not actually hold ten gallons of water. If you measure the water going in, say with a milk jug, or even a water bottle, then it'll be really easy to know the exact volume of water going into the tank. Or take the INTERNAL measurments of the tank and the water level before you add the PVC and anything else in there.