Sick ClownFish covered in white something

[PapaReefer]

Today we noticed that our Clarkii ClownFish is covered in some white stuff. Yesterday he was perfectly fine, colorfull, shiny and lively.
Today he still swims around kinda normally but all covered in white something. (see pic and videos)

Background: he is our first fish in the newly setup tank. He is with us fo around 3 weeks and everything was good. Water parameters: Ammonia - 0, Nitrates -5ppm, Nitrites - 0.

What is it and what do we do?

 

[ccombs]

That appears to be brook, let me get you some resources quickly.

 

[ccombs]

Brooklynella

Brooklynella hostilis What You Need To Know: * This is most often seen in clownfish, but it can afflict any fish. The fish’s skin will appear to be peeling or sloughing off, oftentimes causing excessive white mucous to form around the affected area(s). * Treatment of choice is a 45 minute...

www.reef2reef.com

@HotRocks
@Big G
@ngoodermuth

 

[ccombs]

I would follow the advice in the link above as far as treatment goes. You will want to treat the fish in a tank away from everything else in your system. Petco and Petsmart often run sales on 5-10 gallon tanks so you can set up a basic medication system for relatively cheap.

 

[PapaReefer]

Also noticed some white stuff covering my wave pump and pipes. Probably it is everywhere but clearly visible on black plastic. Is it related?

.

 

[ccombs]

Since this parasite has no encysted stage, I am going to say unrelated.

 

[Big G]

Brook can be a very fast killer. Freshwater dip will give you time to setup a QT for treatment.

Freshwater Dip

Freshwater Dip What It Treats – Provides temporary relief for a wide range of diseases: 1) Marine Velvet Disease (Amyloodinium ocellatum) 2) Brooklynella hostilis 3) Uronema marinum 4) Flukes (Monogeneans) 5) Black Ich (Turbellarians) Can be used to confirm the presence of Flukes (see video...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[vetteguy53081]

White stuff is likely dust from new sand and associated with a recent setup

 

[PapaReefer]

OK, since it is 11PM now and no way I can get formaldehide anywhere nor find another tank I guess I am gonna try freshwater dip now.

Question - since I don't have Qt tank, what do I do with him after dip? back to infected tank? or make him saltwater in the bucket?

 

[PapaReefer]

White stuff is likely dust from new sand and associated with a recent setup

Nope, no sand was added recently. No white stuff appeared before few days ago

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nope, no sand was added recently. No white stuff appeared before few days ago

Other possibility is residue from recent water change (calcium)

 

[PapaReefer]

Question - since I don't have Qt tank, what do I do with him after freshwater dip? back to infected tank? or make him saltwater in the bucket?

 

[vetteguy53081]

You can set up a rubbermaid tub as a temporary QT system or a 10 gallon starter kit from Walmart
By the time you place a pump, heater etc in a rubbermaid tub, a starter tank may be cheaper

 

[PapaReefer]

So I did freshwater dip yesterday and put him in makeshift QT tank for a night. This morning he is barely moving and totally covered in white stuff, so I am not sure he is gonna make it while I am looking for formalin.

Now what do I do with the tank? Tank was freshly cycled with clownfish first and only inhabitant so far.
I know that die off period for Brook is 6 weeks, but since there is no other fish in the tank,
is it possible to speed it up (big water change or some treatment)?

 

[AcroNem]

No way to speed it up really, the period of 6 weeks is waiting for it to die off without a host. Now you just need to wait, and make sure everything is clean before it goes into the display. I know it sucks but that's the safest way to do it for your future inhabitants.

 

[PapaReefer]

Little guy did not make it... Freshwater dip did not help much and by morning he was gone We are so bummed. He was our first saltwater fish ...

Also I learned that apparently there is no way to get Formalin anywhere here in Canada. Only order online probably...

Oh well. Moving on. But I still have questions (to make sure if we made some mistake we dont repeat them):

• How could he get sick? He has been with us for 3 weeks and all was good. No other fish or anything was added to the tank. Only thing I added was brand new Tunzee in-tank Skimmer.
• Are all things which I used to handle him are now contaminated? What do I do with them to sterilize?

 

[Big G]

Sorry for your loss

Sterilizing tools and equipment: Bleach, rinse, rinse, rinse, and thoroughly dry.

The tank can go fallow (no fish) for 76 days to starve out parasites. Stir the sand a bit during the fallow period to avoid anaerobic areas that may harbor dormant parasites.

 

[AcroNem]

I'm sorry about this. It's a pretty fast killer. Formalin is very good at killing it in a bath, freshwater just doesn't cut it a lot of the time. Fish getting sick is something a lot of people in the hobby struggle with, and I usually say to treat every single fish like it has every single disease. A lot of them do, I've never seen a wild fish that didn't come in with something. Even if your clown was captive bred it likely was housed with wild fish, and it takes a little bit of stress for a fish to succumb to a parasite or infection.

As for your equipment, you know the fallow period for the system, so that will die off in time. Some people will just dry equipment, some will use vinegar, the best thing to actually sterilize equipment is a bleach bath for ten minutes and a soak in sodium thiosulfate to neutralize. Or rinse as much as you can or use prime in water to neutralize.

 

[PapaReefer]

Thank you everybody for help and quick responses!

 

[Greg P]

As you're stuck in Canada with me and all the rest of us without access to many meds, I've seen some info on treating Brook, Uronema and Velvet using peroxide dips;

Hydrogen Peroxide bath

Hydrogen Peroxide bath (updated 1-31-23) What It Treats: Provides temporary relief for Marine Velvet Disease and Brooklynella. After a 30 minute H2O2 bath, the fish should be transferred into a Quarantine Tank (QT) for followup treatment. How To Treat: (The following is needed) 3% Hydrogen...

humble.fish

Hydrogen Peroxide

** This information was originally posted here: https://humble.fish/community/index.php?threads/hydrogen-peroxide.21/ ** Hydrogen Peroxide *** The information contained here is subject to frequent changes as I experiment and learn more about the usefulness of H2O2 *** What It Treats – Provides...

www.reef2reef.com

This mentions to also treat MI but I believe that's not true. It does show some used it to successfully treat Brook

Reefing The Australian Way Forums • View topic - Use of Hydrogen Peroxide as a disinfectant treatment