What disease did I have? (both fish died)

[reef tank 2.0]

Not sure if anyone read my posts about the days leading up to my clown fishes demise, but I will summarize what I witnessed, and then ask for the "what was it"

Prior to getting the clowns, they were at the pet store for a minimum of 2 weeks, where they were in a low copper QT.
After getting the two designer clowns home, they went into the quarantine. It was mainly for observation. I did not medicate the water, at first.
(QT consisted of bare tank, uncycled, HOB filter, heater, powerhead, air stone for Prazipro, and PVC hide outs. 1-2 gallon water changes each night to remove uneaten food. water temp 78, salinity 1.025)

First few days, they were both fine. Eating, yo-yo'ing, etc etc. Shortly after one of the clowns pectoral fins had a huge chunk taken out. Looked like a roundish chunk that could been from a bite. maybe? I chalked that up to clown aggression, at least I hoped. The clowns stayed at opposite sides of the tank for a day or so. The injured clown had white poop but I thought that could have been due to stress. He stopped eating, had a hard time breathing, and the pectoral fins started deteriorating shortly after. I tried frozen, pellet, and flake foods....nothing worked. During this span, the other clown started to show the same signs as well. I decided to treat the water with Prazipro. The first clown died the next day. Couple days went by, I did another 75% water change, and monitored the second clown. He stopped eating, but managed to live for about another 3 days.

There was no mucus coating, no spots, no discoloration, NOTHING. Other than the fins, struggling to breathe, inflamed gills, and not eating, these were the symptoms I saw.

I googled fish diseases but didn't really see one that matched my symptoms. I have a feeling that this could have been internal parasites, but I am not sure.

I don;t have pictures, but from the description above, can anyone tell me what disease they had, and what I should have medicated the water with? I will be buying another clown pair, but not doing high dollar fish anymore. I'll play it safe from now on. I've never lossed a fish like this before, it definitely pops your balloon

 

[Jay Hemdal]

reef tank 2.0 Welcome to the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Forum!

The #fishmedic team and other knowledgeable members of our community will do our best to help you resolve your questions. Please provide as much of the following as you are able:

• Brief description of the issue you are observing and answers to the following questions:
  • How long have you had the fish with the condition?
  • Did you quarantine with medication when you first acquired the fish? (If Yes, which medication?)
• Current water quality measurements
• Clear photos of the issue taken using WHITE light and/or a short video of any behaviors (post in your response or on YouTube).

If you can help us by providing as much of the above info as possible, it will make diagnosing and providing recommendations for treatment MUCH easier! The Fish Medic team will get back to you as quickly as possible. In the meantime, other members of our community may also share their experience with similar situations and advice that they may have regarding your situation.

You may also feel free to provide a more detailed description of the condition if you wish to share more info than the above list.

Additionally, these links may be useful while you await a response:

• CURRENT QT PROTOCOL LINK
• HOW TO ASK FOR DISEASE DIAGNOSIS HELP LINK

 

[vetteguy53081]

Not sure if anyone read my posts about the days leading up to my clown fishes demise, but I will summarize what I witnessed, and then ask for the "what was it"

Prior to getting the clowns, they were at the pet store for a minimum of 2 weeks, where they were in a low copper QT.
After getting the two designer clowns home, they went into the quarantine. It was mainly for observation. I did not medicate the water, at first.
(QT consisted of bare tank, uncycled, HOB filter, heater, powerhead, air stone for Prazipro, and PVC hide outs. 1-2 gallon water changes each night to remove uneaten food. water temp 78, salinity 1.025)

First few days, they were both fine. Eating, yo-yo'ing, etc etc. Shortly after one of the clowns pectoral fins had a huge chunk taken out. Looked like a roundish chunk that could been from a bite. maybe? I chalked that up to clown aggression, at least I hoped. The clowns stayed at opposite sides of the tank for a day or so. The injured clown had white poop but I thought that could have been due to stress. He stopped eating, had a hard time breathing, and the pectoral fins started deteriorating shortly after. I tried frozen, pellet, and flake foods....nothing worked. During this span, the other clown started to show the same signs as well. I decided to treat the water with Prazipro. The first clown died the next day. Couple days went by, I did another 75% water change, and monitored the second clown. He stopped eating, but managed to live for about another 3 days.

There was no mucus coating, no spots, no discoloration, NOTHING. Other than the fins, struggling to breathe, inflamed gills, and not eating, these were the symptoms I saw.

I googled fish diseases but didn't really see one that matched my symptoms. I have a feeling that this could have been internal parasites, but I am not sure.

I don;t have pictures, but from the description above, can anyone tell me what disease they had, and what I should have medicated the water with? I will be buying another clown pair, but not doing high dollar fish anymore. I'll play it safe from now on. I've never lossed a fish like this before, it definitely pops your balloon

Please furnish updated pictures

 

[reef tank 2.0]

don't have pictures, the fish were disposed of a couple days ago.
I tried to give details in the OP

 

[Sharkbait19]

Did you ever check parameters - specifically ammonia?

 

[reef tank 2.0]

Yes, I checked for ammonia daily. Always at 0ppm

 

[Reef By Steele]

Going to be harder to say without pictures. However you talked about the tank. You say uncycled. I do not believe that would affect fins, but the inflamed gills and heavy breathing, were you testing for ammonia? Anytime I QT I use seachem ammonia badges (others may say they aren’t accurate enough) then test if they show any color change.

White poop would lead to thinking internal parasite. Treatment with prazipro may have just been too late?

By no means an expert, but lack of eating and white poop would suggest that this was at least one possible issue. Maybe compounded with an infection which could be the cause of the fin rot?

 

[reef tank 2.0]

For my QT, I always use the ammonia test strips. Which is why I did partial water changes each night....to avoid ammonia spikes

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Not sure if anyone read my posts about the days leading up to my clown fishes demise, but I will summarize what I witnessed, and then ask for the "what was it"

Prior to getting the clowns, they were at the pet store for a minimum of 2 weeks, where they were in a low copper QT.
After getting the two designer clowns home, they went into the quarantine. It was mainly for observation. I did not medicate the water, at first.
(QT consisted of bare tank, uncycled, HOB filter, heater, powerhead, air stone for Prazipro, and PVC hide outs. 1-2 gallon water changes each night to remove uneaten food. water temp 78, salinity 1.025)

First few days, they were both fine. Eating, yo-yo'ing, etc etc. Shortly after one of the clowns pectoral fins had a huge chunk taken out. Looked like a roundish chunk that could been from a bite. maybe? I chalked that up to clown aggression, at least I hoped. The clowns stayed at opposite sides of the tank for a day or so. The injured clown had white poop but I thought that could have been due to stress. He stopped eating, had a hard time breathing, and the pectoral fins started deteriorating shortly after. I tried frozen, pellet, and flake foods....nothing worked. During this span, the other clown started to show the same signs as well. I decided to treat the water with Prazipro. The first clown died the next day. Couple days went by, I did another 75% water change, and monitored the second clown. He stopped eating, but managed to live for about another 3 days.

There was no mucus coating, no spots, no discoloration, NOTHING. Other than the fins, struggling to breathe, inflamed gills, and not eating, these were the symptoms I saw.

I googled fish diseases but didn't really see one that matched my symptoms. I have a feeling that this could have been internal parasites, but I am not sure.

I don;t have pictures, but from the description above, can anyone tell me what disease they had, and what I should have medicated the water with? I will be buying another clown pair, but not doing high dollar fish anymore. I'll play it safe from now on. I've never lossed a fish like this before, it definitely pops your balloon

From your description, at first I thought it was simple clownfish aggression, but not with both fish developing symptoms (there is usually a winner in all clownfish fights).

The rapid breathing and not eating is a classic sign of Amyloodinium, Velvet. However, that is really contagious, so if you have other fish in the tank that were not affected, you can rule that out. If the clowns were the only fish in the tank, then I would leave the tank fishless (fallow) for 60 days to cause the velvet parasite to die out due to a lack of any fish hosts.

Jay

 

[reef tank 2.0]

thanks for the replies

 

[reef tank 2.0]

gonna ask a stupid question here. BUT..

if i shut the QT tank down right after the last fish died, and then drained and cleaned with vinegar/water. other than a good rinse after that, is there anything else i should do before filling with fresh saltwater and adding fish?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Even after cleaning, I’d want to give it a bit of time dry (or completely freshwater) to really make sure everything dries off.
Bleach is the way to go to really disinfect.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

i can do that too. it's still empty

 

[Jay Hemdal]

i can do that too. it's still empty

Vinegar is not a strong sterilization agent. Freshwater alone works for a lot of marine parasites, but bleach is best.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

Bleach it is then.

 

[B&CinB.C.]

Vinegar is not a strong sterilization agent. Freshwater alone works for a lot of marine parasites, but bleach is best.

just wondering Jay
What concentration of bleach should be used for that?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

just wondering Jay
What concentration of bleach should be used for that?

The trick now days is finding bleach that is just 5.25% sodium hypochlorite and water. So many of the products now have perfumes and surfactants. I found that the cheaper store brands are usually the best.

100 ppm for 24 hours is standard against protozoans. I do not think that is strong enough for fluke eggs. I use 500 ppm for 24 hours then change all the water, rinse well and use dechlor to neutralize any remainder. That works out to be about a 1% bleach/water solution.

 

[B&CinB.C.]

Thanks very much