Ocellaris protentional internal parasite.

Skylar.Hale · Feb 26, 2022

Hello all,

I purchased 2 Ocellaris Clownfish from my LFS. One of them I believe has an internal parasite. He is breathing heavily, is lazy (swimming very little and sometimes on his side), and also has white stringy goop poo. I have been reading forums on how to treat this internal parasite and I am honestly a bit overwhelmed. He is not eating which makes mixing medications with foods difficult. Can someone please give me some guidance on this situation and how I can start treating this little guy before it is too late? I currently have him set up in a little quarantine I created.

Thanks,

Skylar

Spare time · Feb 27, 2022

You could try prazipro in tank or in qt. It's fine either way. If you want to treat the fish in qt only, you could also use api general cure

Jay Hemdal · Feb 27, 2022

Skylar.Hale said:
Hello all,

I purchased 2 Ocellaris Clownfish from my LFS. One of them I believe has an internal parasite. He is breathing heavily, is lazy (swimming very little and sometimes on his side), and also has white stringy goop poo. I have been reading forums on how to treat this internal parasite and I am honestly a bit overwhelmed. He is not eating which makes mixing medications with foods difficult. Can someone please give me some guidance on this situation and how I can start treating this little guy before it is too late? I currently have him set up in a little quarantine I created.

Thanks,

Skylar

Can you post a video under white light?
Do you have access to a treatment tank?

The rapid breathing is more a symptom of an external problem, so it may have multiple issues.

Jay

vetteguy53081 · Feb 27, 2022

Agree rapid breathing is external and can be flukes, brook and others.
Before assuming white poop is a parasite, often when feeding mysis shrimp and/or Brine shrimp, the oppop mimics white poop issue. If youre feeding both, that may be what you are seeing

Skylar.Hale · Feb 27, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
Can you post a video under white light?
Do you have access to a treatment tank?

The rapid breathing is more a symptom of an external problem, so it may have multiple issues.

Jay

Jay Hemdal · Feb 27, 2022

Oh, that fish is really skinny and swimming wrong (the video seems slowed down, so i can't judge its breathing rate). How long have you had it? I would contact the store if you've had it less than a few days, as that would mean it had issues when you bought it.

About all you can do for it now is to dose with with metronidazole in a treatment tank (Metroplex or General Cure).

Jay

Harold999 · Feb 27, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
Oh, that fish is really skinny and swimming wrong (the video seems slowed down, so i can't judge its breathing rate). How long have you had it? I would contact the store if you've had it less than a few days, as that would mean it had issues when you bought it.

About all you can do for it now is to dose with with metronidazole in a treatment tank (Metroplex or General Cure).

Jay

Yeah this is not something from a couple of days, this fish hasn't eat well for weeks if not months.
Maybe a freshwater dip could give him some relief for his rapid breathing? Looks like gill (and internal) flukes.

Skylar.Hale · Feb 27, 2022

Update: Unfortunately after coming home today from my LFS to purchase medications I found the poor guy laying on the bottom of my QT tank. I am going to continue to monitor my other livestock to make sure nothing was passed to anyone else. Thank you everyone for all of the support and recommendations.

Skylar.Hale · Feb 28, 2022

Update #2: I just spotted my second Ocellaris with the white stringy poo. I am going to pull him and put him in the QT and start treatment with a general cure and paraguard. Any other suggestions?

Jay Hemdal · Feb 28, 2022

Skylar.Hale said:
Update #2: I just spotted my second Ocellaris with the white stringy poo. I am going to pull him and put him in the QT and start treatment with a general cure and paraguard. Any other suggestions?

Personally, I would skip the Paraguard. It just does not have a good track record in marine systems. It is basically an aldehyde and malachite green - and that is a good FW anti-protozoal, but for some reason, it falls short with marine tanks. And then, it is for external protozoans, and these fish have either an internal protozoan or a bacteria.

General Cure plus an antibiotic would be a good course of action in this case.

Jay