Last chance - Please help me save my clown!
 

911...A disease has wiped out my entire tank! Lost 5 fish in total. Created a QT tank and it is fully cycled. Only remaining fish is my female clown. The first fish I ever got!

I removed her from the DT tank to treat for white spots which, I believed to be ICH. After she was in the QT for a month I decided to add another clown for her to pair with in the QT for an additional month.

Somehow the small clown caught something and yet again I thought it was ICH. I treated with Kordon Ich Attack but he passed away within 2 weeks of being in the QT. It spread to my female and it has been a battle since.

She is covered and I am almost certain it is Marine Velvet. Where Im at now is it has been 4 days since she ate. She is hovering by the power head gasping but fighting. I put copper (Mardel coppersafe) in the tank yesterday. I followed the directions to a T to avoid poisoning the fish.

Is there anything else I can do? Im almost certain she will not make it based on her not eating and her sunken in stomach. Any help is really appreciated.:sad1:

Sure it's not brooklynella. I treated mine with formalin dips. Pics might help

Hi Ryeguy,

Thanks for the reply. I am not sure what it is. I did the copper treatment as this seems to be the treatment for a lot of things. A picture is attached. She is really in rough shape this morning. Really upset about it.

I read a little about brooklynella and it might be just that. It seems that there is slime being produced. Any advice on a treatment here? My only concern is if I were to do a FW dip it may really stress her out bad.

Any advice would help!
http://i1244.photobucket.com/albums/...psockctiag.jpg

looks like you've been bitten by the 'photobucket pay if you want to post' bug, unfortunately we can't see you pic...

If it is brook you're going to want to start treatment with formalin right away. I highly doubt it's velvet since you said the 2nd clown you added died within 2 weeks if it was velvet he would have died a lot faster than 2 weeks.

You just added copper a couple of days ago so I'd give that a 1 or 2 more days and see if there is any improvement. If there isn't any then I'd start a formalin treatment right away.

Shoot! Thank you TJM. It looks like she has like a slime on her thats why I think its Brook now. Im all so new to the disease game and learned my lesson that diagnosis is key! I have to identify what it is before treatment. I will try and load another pic later today.

In the mean time Im going to take your advice let the copper rock for a couple days, if she survives, than do the formalin dip.

If she doesnt survive, how should I go about making sure my QT isnt contaminated? My DT is ready to go and I want to start adding fish but refuse to do so until I can use the QT.

I've seen people use imgur for hosting pics - or install tapatalk on your phone and I think you can post pics easily from there. Hopefully you can get a pic up and some help!

good luck, clowns are tough fish from my experience.

Hi all,

Let me know if this pic works....

https://i.imgur.com/SCRtwax.jpg

https://imgur.com/SCRtwax

Kordon ich attack is a worthless snake oil that would does not cure ich. Ich requires copper (or hypo) to be completely killed. Why were you using this product in a qt?

From the picture, it looks like ich. Fish is producing a lot of mucus which makes it look like velvet or brooks. But those 2 kills a fish in few days.

You might want to dip it in freshwater as a relief and then use copper based medication. But a fish that stopped eating is generally closer to death than being cured. It is still worth trying though.

Tripod, thank you for the response. The LFS gave me the Kordon and said to place the fish in QT with that stuff. Sounds like they didnt know what they were talking about!

I appreciate the input. Sounds like the only thing I didnt try is a FW dip. Might be too stressful for her but im willing to try anything.

That does not look like ich to me at all. Unless it is the pic. If ich it is completely covered. I would have expected a few more pronounced white dots.

Does the fish look like this pic?

http://photobucket.com/gallery/user/...MjA2OQ==/?ref=

No, it is not really white dots. Thats why I suspected velvet but there seems to be a lot of mucus being created now.

Pretty bummed she ended up passing away today. Im still not 100% sure what it is. I guess my next question is in the clean up. What do I need to do to my QT tank now that she passed away in there?

Will any remanence of the disease be present in the tank like on live rock or in the HOB?

Do I take everything out and clean the tank?

Let everything dry for several days.

Sorry for the loss. Disinfect everything: qt tank, pump, nets etc with bleach/water solution and let air dry fully.
Let your main tank run fishless for 6-8 weeks to get rid of any parasites in it and then start over with new fish and qt each one. I personally recommend tank transfer method.
Also I always keep certain medications on hand in case of emergencies specially when bringing in new fish. They include:
Formalin
Furan2
Metro
Copper
General cure
Prazipro
Prime.
Also I recommend that next time don't add a new fish to the qt when you already have a fish in the middle or end of qt process. It resets the clock and the first fish has to go through the whole process over again and rush being exposed to new parasites, disease or stress.

Lagatbezan,

Thank you for the great info. Do I need to get rid of my live rock and anything that was used to cycle the tank? My LFS gave me a piece of live rock and a single Bio ball to get the QT cycled. Should I get rid of that stuff as well?

I wouldn't risk using the rock that was in the qt again unless you disinfected and clean it with a bleach solution. Then let it dry fully under the sun, rinse with fresh water and then put it in your main DT, let the tank run fallow (fishless) for a min of 72 days. This way it will be live for you to use again and parasite free.
Also throw away the bio ball. not needed.
always qt anything wet.

sorry to hear lost everyone