Fish Sick

[newatthis]

I bought 2 true percula clownfish who refused to eat as long as I had them (6 days). Finally one started fading and was almost dead. I went ahead and removed it so it would not sit in my tank all night dead. Woke up the next morning and my other t.p.c was dead. The one I removed was very lethargic, but the 2nd one seemed fine other than not eating. My concern is that I have a yellow tang and 2 mandarins left. They seem fine even though I see one white spot on one side of the tang, but I dont know if it has been there all along. The tang and mandarins are eating like crazy (normal). Like a typical new aquarist, I did not quarantine the fish. Lesson learned!!! Any ideas??? And I know all about the mandarins eating and so forth.

[newatthis]

I forgot to add water parameters are perfect. All 0s

[tmkx3]

How did you acclimate your fish??? Try soaking your food in garlic

[Steven Pro]

Were these wild-caught or captive bred? Most true percula's are wild-caught and all wild-caught clownfish are particularly prone to Brooklynella.

[smidoid]

I have to stop myself making a crack about fish being "not native New Yorkers" but Steven has a good point here.

Brooklynella is highly contagious too.

Pet Warehouse has this description if it helps: "A grayish-white film will be noted on the skin of the fish, and is especially apparent on the eyes or darkly pigmented areas of the affected animal. Swollen gills and ulcerated areas may be noted in advanced cases. Such fish will generally tend to hang either at the waters surface or at the bottom of the tank."

[newatthis]

My fish did not have any visible symptoms except the one had stringy poop one time toward the end. They did hang out at the bottom of the tank. Everything I read sounded like brooklynella. My concern is for the yellow tang and the mandarins.

[newatthis]

and i acclimated them be floating the bag and then splashing some water in the bag

[newatthis]

and they are wild

[smidoid]

Uh oh. This is (another) reason to get tank-bred fish.

I doubt it's an acclimation problem, the clowns are tough little fellas as a rule. If you did the same for the other fish and they're OK, then that's unlikely to be an issue.

There are treatments for Brooklynellla, but you have to be sure that's what it is - most (if not all) are highly toxic to inverts.

For the benfit of those more knowledgeable than me, can you give us all a run-down of the following:

• Your tank tests (ammonia, nitrate and nitrite, PH and SG).
• What stock you have in there. All of it!
• How long the system has been running.
• Size of tank.
• What sort of filtration you have (skimmer, Live Rock, sump, etc. etc.) The devil is in the detail here.
• Your maintenance regime (water changes and the like).

The more detailed you can be, the easier it is to picture your system and get a handle on what can be done. If it IS brooklynella, something probalby needs to be done quite quickly; but if you dose the wrong thing, you'll only make matters worse and cost yourself time, money, livestock and heartache.

Incidentally, if ALL your tests are 100% 0 across the board I would be wondering about the tests! A running system should have a measurable amount of nitrate at the very least.

Good advice from Scott Z!

"I just want to note that is you treat your fish with any medication, NEVER do it in the display tank. Move the fish to a temporary tank and perform any treatment."

[Steven Pro]

The best course of treatment for Brooklynella is a formalin bath. Remove some water from the display into a bucket. Add the appropriate amount of formalin based upon the directions on the bottle as well as the amount of water in the bucket. Aerate the formalin/water mixture for 15-30 minutes. Catch the fish and place them into the bucket for 30-60 minutes. Watch carefully for any adverse reactions and be prepared to remove the fish just in case. At the end, discard the formalin water and mix new to fill the display.

The yellow tang should be fine but the mandarin might not like the treatment.

[newatthis]

I have a 125 gallon tank with 100 or so lbs of live rock. 2 green mandarins, 6 turbo snails, live sand, 1 yellow tang, 4 small hermit crabs, 2 cleaner shrimp, and 1 bubble tip anenome. wet/dry sump system. yellow tang is still doing good. eating whatever I put in there and munching off the live rock. mandarins are still doing their hunting and pecking like normal. thank you for all the help.

[newatthis]

From what I have been reading on brooklynella my tang would be dead or dying by now.

[newatthis]

I forgot tanks been up about 2 1/2 months, no protein skimmer. I know somebodys going to say something about the mandarins so I will add that I regularly add copepds and am starting to harvest them to add to the tank.

[newatthis]

cant get it all in one post, all levels are 0, ph is around 8.4. dont know what sg stands for. thanks

[smidoid]

cant get it all in one post, all levels are 0, ph is around 8.4. dont know what sg stands for. thanks

You can always edit the post (refresh the page and the edit button pops up).

Steven Pro is a professional fishkeeper of some repute, so take it from me, if he suggests something it's worth taking note of!

SG = specific gravity; the amount of salt in your water essentially. Ph sounds about right. I expect your SG is within range or the other critters would be suffering, so I wouldn't sweat it.

I'm concerned that your nitrate is 0. It's just that bit too good. Can you get your LFS to verify the results?

You're a little short of the guidline amount of LR, you should have 125 to 190lbs in total but the bioload is quite small if you're feeding correctly and the live sand might compensate.

You probably should have a skimmer, but again, that doesn't really account for this problem (unless by some miracle of nature the other fish are used to the amount of DOCs in your system!).

Here's some instructions on using Formalin dips:

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/ich...brooklynel.htm

Other evidence I've read suggests this is primarily a disease of clownfish and damsels [again Steven Pro and others will confirm] which may explain why the other fish are not symptomatic. It's also reported that a stressed fish is far more likely to suffer than a happy one - no prizes for guessing which fish were stressed.

The question that remains is this: are any of the protozoans that cause brooklynella still present in your tank. I think it's likely there are - and I'd have to defer to someone else as to your next step. It may be nothing more than waiting for them to die off naturally.

[Steven Pro]

Brooklynella is not nearly as contagious/infectious as most other marine parasitic diseases.

[newatthis]

I am cursed I tell you!!! I had a power outage that lasted about 45 minutes nad when the power came back on I noticed that the tang had a white streak down its side. 3 hours ago it was not there and I dont know if maybe the tang scratched itself while the power was surging or if it is the disease spreading. I am starting to see why people say saltwater tanks can be expensive. Should I expect the fish store to replace these fish. Thanks again. By the way the fish store uses the same type of test kit I use and they got the same results as of 5 days ago. Duh on the sg!!! sg is 1.023. By the way what are DOCs???

[newatthis]

You are all going to think that I am crazy but the white streak is gone. Apparently the tang was not getting enough something when the power was off. Any suggestions??? I am considering a standby generator more and more everyday especially with hurricane season approaching.

[smidoid]

Dude! Stop worrying - you'll live longer.

DOCs are dissolved organic compounds - these are the nasties your skimmer (arhum, if you had one) would be removing; along with any plankton too, unfortunately. That's another story altogether...

We don't get hurricanes where I am so I can't say if you need a genny or not. The most important thing short-term is temperature and 125 gallons of water isn't going to cool down in 10 minutes (although the ambient temp has a lot to do with that.)

How long do you expect these outages to last - and if you are w/o power, what do you do for heat in your home? Remember, the tank can't get any cooler (one of the thermodynamic laws) than the room it's in (unless you are using a chiller - which would be off anyways).

I doubt the reef would be happy, but I expect most of the fish would survive the drop to a warm room (20-21 degrees C) for a short time. Plus, the closer the room is to your tank temp, the longer the tank will take to settle.

Some of the more bio-science based folks could probably advise on how cold you can go - and for how long. (It's basic biological fact that you can recover from extreme cold but not from extreme heat - your proteins cook and denaturalise! I expect the same applies to fish.)

[newatthis]

Smidoid, dont speak so soon as I recall a tropical storm was headed that way last year. The power outage issue is hopefully resolved. I dont think the temp would have went down. A/C stays at 75 during the day, tank is at 79-80. Would it have something to do with gunk in the tank when the wet dry is not working? Guy at the fish store said he lost his tangs during hurricane last year when power was out for 3 hours!!! I may just stick with a snail and crab tank!