Sick percula(s) -- long

[socalkris29]

Got a mated pair of A. perculas 2 weeks ago. Ate at lfs -- both looked great. Put them in a 20L w/whisper filter, cpr bakpak, lr/ls. Ate small amount of Prime Reef flake. Decided not eating as well as they should -- switched to thawed frozen prime reef -- still not eating voraciously. Tried Artemia nauplii thinking maybe they needed live food -- ate pretty well -- but the nauplii are TINY compared to what they probably need...

Decided nauplii weren't that great of an idea. Tried feeding thawed frozen enriched adult Artemia -- still not feeding that great. In fact, male not feeding at all now. Mostly take food in, then spit it back out over and over again. In the meantime, noticed stringy, white feces from both fish. Read faqs from Bob Fenners site (wetwebmedia.com) for about 3 hours last night and then decided to give them a FW bath -- both tolerated bath well (15 min).

This morning, female looks well. Still has white, stringy feces, but ate a few enriched BS. Male not eating at all and now pec, pelvic and caudal fins frayed. Pec fins look a little cloudy.

All water quality params are fine. Zero Amm., trites, trates. Ph 8.2, temp 79. Invert tankmates all doing great. In fact, larger L. amboinensis has eggs ready to be released.

Sorry for the super long post -- but does this sound familiar to anyone? I don't want to medicate unless it's really warranted. And if I do, what should I use? Metronidazole? Formalin? Copper?

:confused:
Kristin

[MFR]

Metronidazole- you can get some foods that have it or hospital tank your fish. Keep away from inverts/live rock etc. Best thing i have tried for stringy feces. if that seems too bold, try soaking food in garlic extract.

MFR

[Morgman]

Kristen,

You most likely have two issues here. One, your clowns and most clowns commonly come in with brooklynella and two your clowns have internal worms/parasties.

Brook symptoms--- white sloughing skin, rapid breathing, laziness, no appetite, head up tail down swimming.

Internal parasites symptoms---- white stringy feces


To treat this you need to do two things.
For the brook you need to treat with fomalin baths or run fomalin in a quarantine tank. For the internal parasites you should feed with pipzine in your foods. If your clowns aren't eating you have to treat the water with pipzine.

A freshwater dip will help with ich issues.


Best of luck

[socalkris29]

Hey, thanks so much for the quick replies.

I was pretty much figuring on going the metrozidanole/pipzine route, but thought the frayed/cloudiness looked suspiciously like brook. And don't know how to treat simultaneously.

They're not feeding well, so I'm gonna need to Tx through the water. Could I run metronidazole or pipzine AND formalin at the same time?

Or should I give them a formalin dip and then place them in the QT tank w/metro or pipzine?

Thanks!

[Morgman]

I would start with the formalin bath first and into a QT.
Then treat with pipzine when your clowns start eating again.

[socalkris29]

Okay -- I placed the male in a formalin bath (SW) for 30 min.

Placed both the male and female into a 10 gal hospital tank with pipzine in the water. Female is still eating.

When I put the male into the tank (out of the formalin bath) he was "white-washed"-looking. But within a few minutes, his color brightened and now he's swimming alongside the female -- but he's still clamping his fins a bit.

Will leave them alone for the rest of the day and try feeding tomorrow...

Thanks for all the help. :D

[socalkris29]

Just wanted to say thanks again for the advice.

Gave the male a 30min formalin bath (which he tolerated quite well) and then put both fish in a 10g hospital tank w/pipzine.

This was all on Monday. Today (Wed.) the male is eating again -- very well actually!!

Don't wanna jinx myself, but I think he's on the upward slope.

Gonna leave them both in the tank for observation for at least another week or so...

Kristin