clownfish not eating and has white stringy feces

[icecube]

Hi everyone,
i got 2 perculas about 5 days back and they havent been eatin anything, i tried flakes, frozen artemia, live BBS, frozen prawns, sinking pellets but still they havent been eating and appeared to have small pin sized white dots which disappeared after the bath . yesterday i observed stringy white poo from both the clowns so i treated them with metrogyl(metronidazole) @ 1ml per liter( i got liquid form of metrogyl) i gave them a bath in metrogyl water for 30min and a fresh water dip(after which the white pinhead sized dots disappeared) and then put them back in the display tank, they mostly swim in one location and hardly move. Tried searching for prazi-pro as i suspect they have internal parasites but it aint available.
here are my tank specs
95ltr FOWLR
1-yellow belly sebae
1-yellow tail damsel
1-club anemone
hermits, turbos, trochus,
all of these are doing good.

nitrates-0
nitrites-0
ammonia-0
ph-8.3
SALT MIX-red sea

I moved the perculas to a 10gal QT, and added a thermostat heater at 28C, in doubt on what med to add to the tank as most of the meds mentioned on the web arent available here. Could only get my hand on lab grade copper and metrogyl and the regular methylene blue.

I just wish that my clowns start eating soon.

[leebca]

Sorry to hear about the problems. You are taking the right general approach and that is to try and kill off internal parasites. Not eating the medication is the biggest problem, since consumed medication works great. Yet the internal parasite can cause the fish to stop eating. It's a vicious circle.

You need to obtain a praziquantrel containing medication or praziquantrel that can be added directly to the QT water. You are in the USA, so fortunately for you, the medication is available on the Internet. However, it comes in rather large quantities only and you need a small amount. Not sure if anyone reading this can share some with you or not, assuming you'll pay for it and shipping.

Search the Internet and see what you can find.

It isn't really the kinds of food you are offering, it's whether or not the fish is wanting to eat. Keep trying a variety -- anything to get them started. Even if by some chance they do start eating, get the medication into their food and inside of them. Have you read through this post yet? Strange Excrement from Fish -or- How to be a Super Pooper Snooper

It may help some.

[icecube]

@lee

thanks for the reply, i just read ur "pooper snooper" thread :-)
the thing is i dont reside in the US or in a place where i get prazi, if i order online from US it will take atleast a month till i get the meds and i doubt my clowns will make it till then(will anyway be ordering for further use), i just wanted to know if i use metronidazole in liquid form how much should i be dosing in the water as the fish arent eating, also if i use fenbendazole what quantity to be used in water? I had success using fenbendazole in my FW shrimp tank to get rid of hydra and other nasty inverst but not even the new born shrimplets were harmed, so can i use fenbendazole in salt water and what dosage to be used??
any help would be greatly appreciated.

[leebca]

I understand the challenges of trying to get products that we have available here in the USA. I cannot help much with 'alternative' medications since the ones I use and recommend do in fact work and found here.

Fenbendazole is a product used primarily for dogs and cats. It found its way into freshwater usage, but I have never heard or known it to be used in salt water. Thus, I can't even imagine the proper use/dosage of this.

Metronidazole is one of those medications used in the ornamental marine fish hobby. It is used specifically for dinoflagellate infections (of the intestine). One product is Flagyl, we use in the USA. But this is not in liquid form. I don't know how to dose it in the form you have, especially not knowing how strong a solution of it you may have, its stability in that form, and whether or not it has the same efficacy in that form.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[icecube]

thanks for the help lee, will keep you posted on the perc's
atleast u took the time to reply back and try to help in someway,
currently i dosed the QT tank with half a tablet of albendazole(alternative of fenbendazole we get here)
will keep this thread updated about the clowns,