What is wrong with my fish?

[Derek8c]

Tank is 1.5months old with 2 clowns in it. The bigger one will randomly jerk or twitch like its uncomfortable, and it's not out of submission to the other smaller clown. She has started having stringy white poops and one of her eyes is starting to cloud. And both clowns have a very faint white hue on some parts of their bodies.

Both eat no problem and swim normally other than the random panicky twitching from the bigger clown.

I had an explosion of copepods in my tank recently, that's what all the white spots are on the glass.

 

[Big G]

Internal parasites and perhaps flukes (the twitching)

A freshwater dip would confirm or eliminate the flukes from the potential problems.

Flukes – General Guidelines

Many thanks to "Newsmyrna80" for writing this. Reposted with her permission. Some facts: Flukes are not true flukes. They are actually parasitic flatworms belonging to the class of Monogeans. There are 13 families of flukes. However, only three families infect saltwater fish. 1...

www.reef2reef.com

Treat the internal parasites by feeding the clowns General Cure + food + focus.

Here's more info: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/internal-issues.267419/

 

[huckjai]

Definitely have internal parasites. I would treat with Metroplex and prazipro. Soak the food in it with Focus and feed them. Do you have inverts in your tank? Metroplex is not safe for them. Better to quarantine them if possible. Faint hue suggests malnutrition usually.

 

[huckjai]

Treat the internal parasites by feeding the clowns General Cure + food + focus.

General Cure is good as well, as it contains same ingredients as Metro and Prazi.
Good luck!

 

[Derek8c]

Definitely have internal parasites. I would treat with Metroplex and prazipro. Soak the food in it with Focus and feed them. Do you have inverts in your tank? Metroplex is not safe for them. Better to quarantine them if possible. Faint hue suggests malnutrition usually.

Yes a peppermint shrimp and a bunch of snails. Dont have QT tank, is there any other methods that are invert safe? What are the chances it goes away by itself?

 

[MichelereefsBF]

Yes a peppermint shrimp and a bunch of snails. Dont have QT tank, is there any other methods that are invert safe? What are the chances it goes away by itself?

Something like herbtana, something all natural. However, I feel the holistic approach is more preventive than anything else. All natural cures have never saved any of my fish, if anything they got worse because I had to turn of my skimmer to use them...don't know the science behind that but the proof is in my dead fish..

Pull them out and put them in a ten dollar tank from Walmart of LFS with a pump and airstone...or a cheap filter with no chems and of course a heater, then apply meds as mentioned above?? I've always just used the water from my current tank plus new water 50/50 to get it started quick...this won't cost you much...

 

[Derek8c]

That's what I'll do then. Couple of questions though.

Do the internal parasites need a host to survive?
Reason I ask is because I ordered 2 more fish that arrive Thursday. Is it ok to put them in the main display without getting infected, while my other 2 are In quarantine? If not how long would it take for them to die.

Also how long should I treat them for?

 

[huckjai]

That's what I'll do then. Couple of questions though.

Do the internal parasites need a host to survive?
Reason I ask is because I ordered 2 more fish that arrive Thursday. Is it ok to put them in the main display without getting infected, while my other 2 are In quarantine? If not how long would it take for them to die.

Also how long should I treat them for?

Your two other fish won't get the internal parasites from the clowns unless they eat their poop I think. But they can possibly have internal parasites themselves. That's why I treat my fish in a QT before going to main.

Treat them until you see their poop is normal brown. Faster if the food is soaked in the meds.

 

[vetteguy53081]

general cure (Formalin) AND Also Prazi Pro as I see white stringy poop - an indicator of internal parasites

 

[Derek8c]

Update: so I wasn't able to find any general cure or prazi pro at any of my LFS's so but was recommended a product called "bifuran +". Was scared to use it at first because i only put half the dosage in and it turned the water a medium yellow colour.

After 12 hours my fish were noticably better. And 36 hours they were both completely back to normal. I kept them inside the quarantine tank for a full 3 days just to be sure and they are doing great now. No stringy white poops, random violent jerking, cloudy eye was gone very quickly, and they both have brighter colors now.

 

[BeejReef]

Nice job!

 

[KyRo]

How much did you dose into your tank and how many times? My clown has the white stringy poop and I may need to do the same.

 

[Derek8c]

How much did you dose into your tank and how many times? My clown has the white stringy poop and I may need to do the same.

It says to use a cap full for every 10 gallons and do a 25% water change daily and with each water change your supposed to add another cap full gradually increasing the strength day by day but this seemed like extreme overkill to me so I used half a cap instead, and only dosed it once in the 3 days and didnt do a water change the whole time and my results were great.