Sick clowns?

[MsBean]

2 weeks after moving into the hospital tank, the larger clown is doing great, looks back to normal. The smaller guy less so, still has one or two spots and seems to be clamping his top and bottom fins down. His belly may also be a bit concave, though it's hard to tell under the clamped fins. Just the stress of the treament/recovery, or possibly a different problem? Should I give him another FW or Rally dip, or just leave him be and observe?

Both are eating well - though I've been feeding them less than usual to avoid a spike in parameters.

Meanwhile I ordered some prazi from the US, hopefully it will arrive around the time the 30 days are up.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Pics can help

 

[MsBean]

Here's little Hugo. Yesterday morning he had spots on him, but within hours they disappeared again. I noticed at the same time Copper had dropped to 1.9 ppm, I boosted it back above 2.1

 

[Sharkbait19]

He does look a little thin. Any bullying from the female? Are you sure he’s eating?
I do see some spots on him, can’t tell if it’s ich.

 

[MsBean]

Spent a day researching what it could be - something other than ich? Reaction to the copper treatment? Bullying from the other fish? and wondering what I should do… and then he perked up. No visible spots, fins no longer clamped down. Phew.

My best guess is he was hit by another wave of ich somehow, maybe related to the Cu dropping a smidge below 2.0.

So I guess I either restart the 30 day clock from that point, or treat for 14 more days and then move them to a clean 5 gal bucket so I can sterilize the hospital tank. Leaning toward the latter option, as 45 days in copper seems like a lot to put them through.

Planning ahead, am considering the black molly method to check them and the display tank once the fallow period is over.

 

[MsBean]

Just an update to say both fish made it through copper treatment, a little thinner but spot free. I have moved them to a 5 gal salt bucket for a few days while I disinfect and dry the hospital tank. Will feed some metro and dose prazi to cover all the bases, and hopefully it's back to the DT by the end of the month. (Where they will enjoy a feast of pods which have been gleefully multiplying in their absence...)

 

[MsBean]

The clowns made it through 2 prazi doses and a week of metro soaked mysis shrimp, plus a heater mishap that caused a 24 hour temperature drop but all's well that ends well. Back to the DT in 3 days!

Wanted others to know it is possible, some stories do have happy endings!

 

[MsBean]

Epilogue: I moved the clowns back into the display tank and they are freaking out. Surfing into the current, flashing/crazy swimming, fins of the smaller one clamped down - behaviours that would normally be a red flag for some kind of illness or parasite. But this started within minutes of the transfer; even if my fallow period failed, I can’t imagine it would be obvious that quickly. So for now I am going to assume ( and hope) there are other factors at play, like perhaps:
- small differences in the water parameters between the hospital and display tanks
- stronger flow
- bickering as they re-establish the pecking order in these now unfamiliar surroundings
- a bit of a feeding frenzy, as I know the pod population exploded during the fallow period (I saw the clowns frantically munching them off the glass for the first few hours)

Will keep watching, with fingers crossed that they settle down and that this is NOT a parasite eradication setback…

 

[Sharkbait19]

I’d bet that it’s just them being in a new tank.