Intestinal parasites? Flukes? Both?

[Blopple]

Hello everyone. Slightly bummed to be posting in this forum, but as I have not run a QT I figured it was inevitable. May have to re-evaluate that stance now.

Tank is just over a month old. 2 ocellaris clownfish and 1 midas blenny.

Salinity 1.026
Ammonia/Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Phos 0.01

First day with clowns I noticed some stringy poop from one and monitored and it resolved ( I attributed it to diet at LFS). Both were happy, active, eating, exploring. ~3 weeks later my larger 'female' started to hang out by her overflow more, and was only nibbling at food, I also noticed another stringy poop clear/tan. As of yesterday she had stopped eating completely and was becoming increasingly lethargic near her overflow. I also noticed increased rate/work of breathing. I am thinking this is either intestinal parasites or potentially flukes. 'Male' clown is 100% fine, no lethargy, eating well, no stringy poop.

Midas blenny hid for about a week and has been out and active ever since and remains so as we speak. I did at one point notice a small white 'flap' on his lower jaw. This went away within a day. About a week later I noticed a small, white/cloudy diffuse patch on his R pectoral fin. Based on activity I figured he had scraped it on a rock. I've literally seen him cram his head into a tiny crack and wiggle super hard to squeeze himself in. Scrape didn't seem out of the realm of possibility. I have also noticed him flashing one or twice (always the same corner of the tank right at the glass, almost looked like aggression towards reflection). Unfortunately it's about a week later and the spot is stable, has not spread, has not improved. I am now concerned this is a fluke (too large/diffuse/isolate to look like ich to me).

As the clown is not eating it looks like prazipro or tank-dosed general cure is my best bet. Because I wanted to treat the blenny for potential flukes as well I elected to dose the DT with prazipro instead of setting up HT for clown/blenny and doing general cure. I didn't feel a FW dip was necessary on the blenny because I was going to treat anyway.

Dose 7.5mL of prazipro into DT with actual water volume of ~30 gallons. Adjusted return nozzles to point at surface to increase oxygenation. Removed carbon. Monitoring for cloudy water/bloom.

Planning to do a water change and re-dose in ~9 days.

Have I missed anything major? Did I make the wrong decision? Anything else I should try or watch out for?

In hindsight I wish I would have acted sooner. Hopefully the clown pulls through. Once (hopefully) stabilized I am considering pulling all 3 fish and running them through a late QT and letting the tank fallow. From what I understand 'fluke fallow' is pretty brief.

Would love to hear what you all think.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello everyone. Slightly bummed to be posting in this forum, but as I have not run a QT I figured it was inevitable. May have to re-evaluate that stance now.

Tank is just over a month old. 2 ocellaris clownfish and 1 midas blenny.

Salinity 1.026
Ammonia/Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Phos 0.01

First day with clowns I noticed some stringy poop from one and monitored and it resolved ( I attributed it to diet at LFS). Both were happy, active, eating, exploring. ~3 weeks later my larger 'female' started to hang out by her overflow more, and was only nibbling at food, I also noticed another stringy poop clear/tan. As of yesterday she had stopped eating completely and was becoming increasingly lethargic near her overflow. I also noticed increased rate/work of breathing. I am thinking this is either intestinal parasites or potentially flukes. 'Male' clown is 100% fine, no lethargy, eating well, no stringy poop.

Midas blenny hid for about a week and has been out and active ever since and remains so as we speak. I did at one point notice a small white 'flap' on his lower jaw. This went away within a day. About a week later I noticed a small, white/cloudy diffuse patch on his R pectoral fin. Based on activity I figured he had scraped it on a rock. I've literally seen him cram his head into a tiny crack and wiggle super hard to squeeze himself in. Scrape didn't seem out of the realm of possibility. I have also noticed him flashing one or twice (always the same corner of the tank right at the glass, almost looked like aggression towards reflection). Unfortunately it's about a week later and the spot is stable, has not spread, has not improved. I am now concerned this is a fluke (too large/diffuse/isolate to look like ich to me).

As the clown is not eating it looks like prazipro or tank-dosed general cure is my best bet. Because I wanted to treat the blenny for potential flukes as well I elected to dose the DT with prazipro instead of setting up HT for clown/blenny and doing general cure. I didn't feel a FW dip was necessary on the blenny because I was going to treat anyway.

Dose 7.5mL of prazipro into DT with actual water volume of ~30 gallons. Adjusted return nozzles to point at surface to increase oxygenation. Removed carbon. Monitoring for cloudy water/bloom.

Planning to do a water change and re-dose in ~9 days.

Have I missed anything major? Did I make the wrong decision? Anything else I should try or watch out for?

In hindsight I wish I would have acted sooner. Hopefully the clown pulls through. Once (hopefully) stabilized I am considering pulling all 3 fish and running them through a late QT and letting the tank fallow. From what I understand 'fluke fallow' is pretty brief.

Would love to hear what you all think.

Please post pics of the fish under white lighting and . . . .
Is fish breathing normal or labored?
What foods were you feeding clown?
Any aggression between the two clowns?

 

[Blopple]

Please post pics of the fish under white lighting and . . . .
Is fish breathing normal or labored?
What foods were you feeding clown?
Any aggression between the two clowns?

Will post pics in the morning after work, but I haven't noticed any discoloration, spots, fading etc on the clown.
Breathing is definitely labored. Rate increased.
Clowns have been eating a mix of PE mysis pellets, ocean nutrition prime reef flakes, and gut loaded brine. (I'm sure my diet could use some work).
Only aggression between the two clowns was from the larger, now sick, clown picking a little bit at the smaller one. It has since subsided completely since she started slowing down. And never seen the blenny nip at either of them. They used to all swim laps together in a little school.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Will post pics in the morning after work, but I have noticed any discoloration, spots, fading etc on the clown.
Breathing is definitely labored. Rate increased.
Clowns have been eating a mix of PE mysis pellets, ocean nutrition prime reef flakes, and gut loaded brine. (I'm sure my diet could use some work).
Only aggression between the two clowns was from the larger, now sick, clown picking a little bit at the smaller one. It has since subsided completely since she started slowing down. And never seen the blenny nip at either of them. They used to all swim laps together in a little school.

The larger is likely a female and often an aggressor .
For diet, some good additions are LRS fish frenzy, spirulina mysis shrimp and small plankton

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello everyone. Slightly bummed to be posting in this forum, but as I have not run a QT I figured it was inevitable. May have to re-evaluate that stance now.

Tank is just over a month old. 2 ocellaris clownfish and 1 midas blenny.

Salinity 1.026
Ammonia/Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Phos 0.01

First day with clowns I noticed some stringy poop from one and monitored and it resolved ( I attributed it to diet at LFS). Both were happy, active, eating, exploring. ~3 weeks later my larger 'female' started to hang out by her overflow more, and was only nibbling at food, I also noticed another stringy poop clear/tan. As of yesterday she had stopped eating completely and was becoming increasingly lethargic near her overflow. I also noticed increased rate/work of breathing. I am thinking this is either intestinal parasites or potentially flukes. 'Male' clown is 100% fine, no lethargy, eating well, no stringy poop.

Midas blenny hid for about a week and has been out and active ever since and remains so as we speak. I did at one point notice a small white 'flap' on his lower jaw. This went away within a day. About a week later I noticed a small, white/cloudy diffuse patch on his R pectoral fin. Based on activity I figured he had scraped it on a rock. I've literally seen him cram his head into a tiny crack and wiggle super hard to squeeze himself in. Scrape didn't seem out of the realm of possibility. I have also noticed him flashing one or twice (always the same corner of the tank right at the glass, almost looked like aggression towards reflection). Unfortunately it's about a week later and the spot is stable, has not spread, has not improved. I am now concerned this is a fluke (too large/diffuse/isolate to look like ich to me).

As the clown is not eating it looks like prazipro or tank-dosed general cure is my best bet. Because I wanted to treat the blenny for potential flukes as well I elected to dose the DT with prazipro instead of setting up HT for clown/blenny and doing general cure. I didn't feel a FW dip was necessary on the blenny because I was going to treat anyway.

Dose 7.5mL of prazipro into DT with actual water volume of ~30 gallons. Adjusted return nozzles to point at surface to increase oxygenation. Removed carbon. Monitoring for cloudy water/bloom.

Planning to do a water change and re-dose in ~9 days.

Have I missed anything major? Did I make the wrong decision? Anything else I should try or watch out for?

In hindsight I wish I would have acted sooner. Hopefully the clown pulls through. Once (hopefully) stabilized I am considering pulling all 3 fish and running them through a late QT and letting the tank fallow. From what I understand 'fluke fallow' is pretty brief.

Would love to hear what you all think.

Sounds like you put together a good plan. The General Cure has metronidazole in it, and that will be your best bet for treating the clownfish that isn't feeding well....still, that can be a difficult issue to deal with.

Jay

 

[Blopple]

Sounds like you put together a good plan. The General Cure has metronidazole in it, and that will be your best bet for treating the clownfish that isn't feeding well....still, that can be a difficult issue to deal with.

Jay

I appreciate the words of approval. Honestly I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing.

Hopefully the prazi helps. If I can just get her eating again I'd feel better, and have another few options. I really should have started a day earlier at least. Will have to be more decisive in the future regardless of the outcome here.

 

[Blopple]

Just got home from work. Hoping to see an improved, or stable clown.

Instead I found a very dramatically grey fish swimming erratically and breathing very heavily. Gill(plates?) almost seemed permanently fanned out to the sides. Swimming upside down, bouncing off the rockwork. Very clearly unrecoverable. I went to change my clothes then I was planning to get the net and euthanize her. By the time I changed and came back (2 minutes) she had wedged herself accidentally into the underside of my main arch and was no longer breathing or moving at all.

The prazi must have exacerbated her condition. Either from the stress or O2 or for all I know, fluke convulsions.
I think she was on her way out already, and the effects of the prazi polished her off unfortunately. I don't know that I had another option, however. Sad to have lost this fish.

Should have picked up on the behavior earlier and treated sooner. Experience gained, however. I have a post-mortem picture if it would help with diagnosis or course of treatment, but otherwise I won't post it. Aside from very faded color I noticed no mucous or spot or obvious (to me) signs of disease.

I plan to finish out 2 round of prazi. Aside from the remaining fin spot on the blenny both other fish seem completely happy/healthy.

Would you recommend I dose the blenny/clown with metro/focus food as a precaution? Is it worth running a whole 'late' quarantine and tank follow?

 

[Weeb]

There is medicated food from Brine Shrimp Direct if you think that will help. Of course, the fish needs to be eating for it to work best.

Adjusted return nozzles to point at surface to increase oxygenation.

IMO best to have used 1+ air stones.

IF it is a case of flukes/worms (Monogeneans) and if you decide to move the fish and invertebrates (assuming you have no corals) out, then one option is to lower the salinity (1.009) of the DT for 10 days to eradicate the flukes/worms hatchlings. Some species of flukes/worms may require 35 days at the lower salinity.

Photos and especially a video under white light is helpful. You can upload the video to YouTube and then post the link to it here.

I am sorry for the problems you are having. I know all too well the slickening gut feeling when I have an ill fish. I hope things will get better.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Just got home from work. Hoping to see an improved, or stable clown.

Instead I found a very dramatically grey fish swimming erratically and breathing very heavily. Gill(plates?) almost seemed permanently fanned out to the sides. Swimming upside down, bouncing off the rockwork. Very clearly unrecoverable. I went to change my clothes then I was planning to get the net and euthanize her. By the time I changed and came back (2 minutes) she had wedged herself accidentally into the underside of my main arch and was no longer breathing or moving at all.

The prazi must have exacerbated her condition. Either from the stress or O2 or for all I know, fluke convulsions.
I think she was on her way out already, and the effects of the prazi polished her off unfortunately. I don't know that I had another option, however. Sad to have lost this fish.

Should have picked up on the behavior earlier and treated sooner. Experience gained, however. I have a post-mortem picture if it would help with diagnosis or course of treatment, but otherwise I won't post it. Aside from very faded color I noticed no mucous or spot or obvious (to me) signs of disease.

I plan to finish out 2 round of prazi. Aside from the remaining fin spot on the blenny both other fish seem completely happy/healthy.

Would you recommend I dose the blenny/clown with metro/focus food as a precaution? Is it worth running a whole 'late' quarantine and tank follow?

Sorry to hear. Clowns tolerate prazi fine, so something else was going on here.

Skip the metro/focus, it won’t work unless you calculate the dose: you would make up a good mix that is 0.5% metro by weight. Lower than that and it won’t help, higher than that and it is bitter and the fish won’t eat it.

Jay