Qt'd my clown - diagnosis - please help?

[drinkingbird]

Hi all-
I just want to thank you all for all your help over the past couple of months!
This morning my clown (see sleepy clown & the saga continues threads) had white stringy stuff hanging from him (feces?) i took him out ASAP and place him in the QT. I looked on sites to find out what this could be, but nothing matched. can anyone help? Is he sick & how to treat.

Symptoms:
Lethargic
No appetite
teeters while swims
stringy stuff from anus

He was fine 1.5 days ago.

 

[steve-s]

Sounds like Brooklynella hostillis aka clownfish disease. Does the stringy white film come from the fish's body or solely from the fish's anus? If brooklynella it will look more like an excess of white milky body slime.

Best treatment will be <<hyposalinity>> is indeed brook treated in your QT. Any other fish that might have been in the tank will also require treatment at the same time. The main tank will need to remain fallow for 4 weeks.

Cheers
Steve

 

[drinkingbird]

Thanks for yur help, but unfortunately JW the clown died yesterday afternoon.
The white stringy stuff was only coming from his anus & he was not sloughing any milky white mucus. i have a midas blenny , peppermint shrimp & a hermit left in the display tank. should i take the blenny out & dip anyway? what is the recom. SG 1.010? for how long? and how do I bring the SG back up with out fish going into shock?

Any help would be great.

 

[steve-s]

Sorry for the loss

The white stringy stuff was only coming from his anus & he was not sloughing any milky white mucus.

Then it could have been an internal baterial infection which can kill quite quickly or possibley an intestinal parasite.

i have a midas blenny , peppermint shrimp & a hermit left in the display tank. should i take the blenny out & dip anyway? what is the recom.

If a bacterial infection, you will need to treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic for gram negative bacteria that also has an antiprotozoal application in a seperate QT. I would also suggest soaking the foods in it providing the blenny eats well. When you prepare the dosage in a seperate glass of removed QT water, take a few teaspoons after it is properly mixed and add it to the food type it most readily accepts. I would also still treat with hyposalinity to be sure. Any inverts can stay in the main tank, they will not be affected by the fish problems.

SG 1.010? for how long? and how do I bring the SG back up with out fish going into shock?

The salinity should be 14 ppt if using a refractometer (prefered) or 1.009 SG with a hydrometer. The treatment should run for 2 weeks at that level *after the last parasite is noticed on a fish*. You can safely increase/decrease the salinity by 0.002 every 4-6 hrs or so. When increasing the salinity it can be done even slower to be sure not to further stress the animal though. Mabye 0.001 every 6-8 hrs. Make sure the total time in the QT is 4-6 weeks to allow whatever was in the main tank to die off.

Cheers
Steve

EDIT: forgot to include the timeline parameters §

 

[drinkingbird]

Thanks for the advice! Currently the blenny is fine, no spots, no tail or fin rot, no mucus, she has a good disposition and is active & alert feeding well, but I will QT her today, just in case.
Just a couple more questions...
Can I use kanacyn to treat for bacterial infection?

The strange thing... nothing new was introduced to the tank, I had the tank up& running (LR& arragonite sand) for 6 weeks before placing fish in. fish were QT 3weeks. the tank cycled params have been good, not sure how this happened. Fish looked good , healthy & active. I guess I'll have to keep reading. Thanks again for all your help.

 

[steve-s]

It was most likely a bacterial infection then. A better treatment would be Furacyn by the same manufacturer. It contains Nitrofurazone which will be much more effective. Still be sure to do this in a QT. Bacterial infections can be braught on by many things including poor water, improper foods as well as feeding still frozen or old foods. It does not need to be introduced via new fish.

Cheers
Steve