Brooklynella

[Eag808]

What’s the best course of action to treat my eel tank? the occupants are a jewled moray, snowflake, banded moray, humu trigger, Singapore and flame angel and coral grouper. The grouper is showing pretty bad signs of brook @Humblefish

 

[Fishjunkie]

Brooklynella hostilis

What You Need To Know:

* This is most often seen in clownfish, but it can afflict any fish. The fish’s skin will appear to be peeling or sloughing off, oftentimes causing excessive white mucous to form around the affected area(s).
* Treatment of choice is a 45 minute formalin bath (e.g. Quick Cure), followed by transfer into a new/sterile QT.
* The fallow (fishless) period for starving Brook out of a Display Tank is 6 weeks.

Early stages:

More advanced stages:

Additional Information​

Brooklynella hostilis is a ciliate parasite with a direct life cycle: It lives, feeds and reproduces directly on the fish (no encysted stage). However, there always exists the possibility that parasites can drop off into the water column and infect other fish. Having no encysted stage makes this pathogen easier to eliminate, but do not underestimate how fast killing Brook can be. Especially with clownfish.

Treatment Options – Formalin is the most effective treatment for Brook, but using Ruby Reef Rally is another good option. Both are best applied via bath treatment, and more information on this can be found in the links below.

Formalin (45 min bath) https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/formalin.290925/

Rally (90 min bath) https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/acriflavine.282887/

Post bath, transfer the fish into a clean/sterile QT to prevent reinfection. It is a wise course of action to dose Chloroquine Phosphate once (60 mg/gal) or metronidazole every 48 hours for 10-14 days thereafter. This is an “insurance policy” to ensure all of the parasites have been eliminated.

A 5 minute freshwater dip may provide temporary relief if you are unable to locate any of the aforementioned medications right away. Some even claim total eradication of the disease is possible just by performing multiple freshwater dips on the fish. Again, transfer the fish into a new/sterile QT following each freshwater dip to prevent reinfection.

My clowns have brook is this formalin good and if so how do I go about dosing bc im sure it doesn't say on the bottle and do I dose one qt tank high and another with a low dosage or should they be fine just with the high dosage trying to save my clowns they have started showing all the signs they are still eating and moving around acting like they are spawning almost so I'm trying to nip this In the butt while I can

 

[Tchung23]

Are certain fish more prone to brook??

 

[LAReefer4Life]

D'oh! I forgot you were asking in the Brooklynella thread.

Unfortunately, you will need to go fallow for 6 weeks in the DT to starve brook out of there.

#fishmedic @vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal could you just treat the display with ruby reef rally to eradicate brook vs puling into bath, placing in QT and running fallow?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I

#fishmedic @vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal could you just treat the display with ruby reef rally to eradicate brook vs puling into bath, placing in QT and running fallow?

I don’t suggest that except in cases where the fish can’t be pulled and treated with formalin. @vetteguy53081 has seen better success with that though.

Jay

 

[nereefpat]

Google says the ingredients are acriflavine, aminoacridine and formalin. Those look like topical antiseptics to me, so might work well for a dip for fish. I don't like the thought of any of those ingredients in my display tank. I haven't used RRR myself.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Google says the ingredients are acriflavine, aminoacridine and formalin. Those look like topical antiseptics to me, so might work well for a dip for fish. I don't like the thought of any of those ingredients in my display tank. I haven't used RRR myself.

The ingredients are well known to work on Brook, the trouble is the dose - they don't really say what their dose is.....and formalin needs to be dosed very specifically for time and temperature.

Jay

 

[nereefpat]

The ingredients are well known to work on Brook, the trouble is the dose - they don't really say what their dose is.....and formalin needs to be dosed very specifically for time and temperature.

Jay

Formalin at a known concentration would be better then, right?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Formalin at a known concentration would be better then, right?

Well, unless the products creates a 25 ppm dose, the problem is that we have no way to know if it does or not (most likely it is much lower).
What about the rumor that they removed/reduced the formalin in their product in order to meet EU regs?
Jay

 

[alvinj1114]

Had my only clown pass away from Brook about 4 weeks ago, since then the DT has been in fallow and I treated it (only 20 gallons) with ruby reef rally pro. Any chance the treatment took care of the brook or should I continue to fallow?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Had my only clown pass away from Brook about 4 weeks ago, since then the DT has been in fallow and I treated it (only 20 gallons) with ruby reef rally pro. Any chance the treatment took care of the brook or should I continue to fallow?

Brooklynella doesn't have a "resting phase" like ich does, but the clearing time for Brook is just a guess, no studies have been done (that I know of). IMO - I'd go a full 6 weeks, just to play it safe.

Jay

 

[OutColdCRNA]

How long does brook take to advance stages to ultimately demise? I have a pair of clowns as the only inhabitants of the tank. The larger of the two sometimes display the dusty appearance of the mucus but sometimes it goes away. No noticeable mucus. Just a slight during and generally seems to be in one side more than the other. I first noticed this over a week ago and nothing has advanced. Both eat well and display the normal behavior they always have. No rapid breathing. The clowns have been in the display for almost two months at this point.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

How long does brook take to advance stages to ultimately demise? I have a pair of clowns as the only inhabitants of the tank. The larger of the two sometimes display the dusty appearance of the mucus but sometimes it goes away. No noticeable mucus. Just a slight during and generally seems to be in one side more than the other. I first noticed this over a week ago and nothing has advanced. Both eat well and display the normal behavior they always have. No rapid breathing. The clowns have been in the display for almost two months at this point.

That may not be Brooklynella. However, there is no set progression for Brook time-wise. In weak fish, it progresses rapidly. In fish that are stable, it could run for some time as a chronic issue.

If you can post a video under white lights, I might be able to assess it better.

Jay

 

[OutColdCRNA]

 

[OutColdCRNA]

That may not be Brooklynella. However, there is no set progression for Brook time-wise. In weak fish, it progresses rapidly. In fish that are stable, it could run for some time as a chronic issue.

If you can post a video under white lights, I might be able to assess it better.

Jay

Color corrected a good bit with aquarium cam app. Trying to adjust whites to get a better video.

Clown brook diagnosis

youtube.com

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Color corrected a good bit with aquarium cam app. Trying to adjust whites to get a better video.

Clown brook diagnosis

youtube.com

I can see some cloudiness on the fins, but you’re right, their behavior looks pretty good, both fish are attentive and interested in what you are doing filming them.
I wonder Ruby Reef Rally Pro is safe to use. It isn’t my first pick for Brook, but it is safe and these fish aren’t acting sick…..
Jay

 

[OutColdCRNA]

I can see some cloudiness on the fins, but you’re right, their behavior looks pretty good, both fish are attentive and interested in what you are doing filming them.
I wonder Ruby Reef Rally Pro is safe to use. It isn’t my first pick for Brook, but it is safe and these fish aren’t acting sick…..
Jay

Thank you so much for your time and expertise jay! I will treat the tank with ruby and monitor. The larger has displayed this cloudiness for about two weeks. So was hesitant to add any new fish. I did have a clown wrasse that appeared to die from the unknown neuro disease you have written about. Would I treat the display with ruby reef?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thank you so much for your time and expertise jay! I will treat the tank with ruby and monitor. The larger has displayed this cloudiness for about two weeks. So was hesitant to add any new fish. I did have a clown wrasse that appeared to die from the unknown neuro disease you have written about. Would I treat the display with ruby reef?

Yes, that is mostly safe to do as long as the tank is stable and the corals/inverts are thriving.
Jay

 

[professorquacker]

I believe I may have a brook infection in my DT. I've had 4 clowns die over the past 4 weeks~, both times introduced as pairs and both died quickly after introduction. While its hard to know for sure, it seems like brook was present on all of the clowns prior to death. They had white mucous looking skin and rapid breathing. Would Brook kill that quickly? With the first pair 1 last 3 days and the other about a week. With the second pair both were gone within 2 days.

However throughout that same time period I've had a Benghai Cardinal and a Yellow Watchman Goby that have been doing just fine. If I want to rule out Brook completely, can I move the Cardinal and YWG to a QT and treat for Brook before trying to reintroduce clowns again? I didn't QT the last clowns, but will definitely do that from now on. The only other thing I can think of is a acclimation shock, maybe from salinity raising too quickly from the LFS. I didn't check the salinity in the bag, it just didn't cross my mind. I acclimated all the clowns as well as the YWG and cardinal the same way, 20 minute float and 30 minute drip. Are clowns more sensitive to salinity swings than others?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I believe I may have a brook infection in my DT. I've had 4 clowns die over the past 4 weeks~, both times introduced as pairs and both died quickly after introduction. While its hard to know for sure, it seems like brook was present on all of the clowns prior to death. They had white mucous looking skin and rapid breathing. Would Brook kill that quickly? With the first pair 1 last 3 days and the other about a week. With the second pair both were gone within 2 days.

However throughout that same time period I've had a Benghai Cardinal and a Yellow Watchman Goby that have been doing just fine. If I want to rule out Brook completely, can I move the Cardinal and YWG to a QT and treat for Brook before trying to reintroduce clowns again? I didn't QT the last clowns, but will definitely do that from now on. The only other thing I can think of is a acclimation shock, maybe from salinity raising too quickly from the LFS. I didn't check the salinity in the bag, it just didn't cross my mind. I acclimated all the clowns as well as the YWG and cardinal the same way, 20 minute float and 30 minute drip. Are clowns more sensitive to salinity swings than others?

Tough to say without a video/pictures, but the clowns dying and the other fish being o.k. does tend to lean towards brook.

Fish dying from acclimation stress will be mostly immediate - they will be very stressed from the second they are put into the new tank. If they looked o.k. and ate well at first, and then died, it was something else. Salinity shock is the most common acclimation issue - when going from lower to higher.

I would stick with just the cardinal and the goby for 45+ days, just to ensure any disease has settled down. then, avoid wild caught clownfish, try to get them direct from the breeder. Quarantining new fish is always best.

Jay