Could use some help with an ID here. I have 2 of them in the tank, the other is healthy as well as the Dragonet in the background.






I don't currently have the means to set up a quarantine tank..

What are my options?

-Increase temp to 82 to speed up the life cycle of the parasite (parasites will erupt from the skin into the water column)
-Skim wet (partially removes parasites from the water column)
-Soak mysis in Selcon (HUFA), vitamin C, an garlic 5 minutes before feeding (bolsters fish's immunity if he is still eating)
-25% water changes every day (removes more parasites from the water column)

Those in combination have worked for me. Just beware, increased temp will speed up the metabolism of all organisms in the tank, leading to increased oxygen depletion as well increased waste output. The life cycle of the ich parasite is about 10 days. After the parasites erupt into the water column, they seek out fishes with compromised immune systems (diseased, stressed, malnourished) as a host. They will die within 24 hours without such a host. As they erupt you can take them out of the water column and over a period of time, you can beat the life cycle. Hence, the aforementioned methods are aimed at a multi-faceted approach to treatment. I'm not a fan of Kickich or Maracyn or anything like that in reefs. Take a look at Herbtana, I haven't personally used it but have read rave reviews about it. You can do what Frankenreef did, put him in a 5g bucket with a powerhead and a heater and treat with IO Lifeguard. Hope that helps

1 black clown down, 1 black clown & 1 dragonet with the parasites left

I feed with nothing but Selcon-soaked food, mysis, Rod's & blood worms (for a dragonet in the tank).

Anyone else got advice?

Do you add garlic? It boosts their immune system.

I do add garlic, yes. Do I have to worry about my inverts?

Also, the Dragonet isn't moving but only breathing and the Clown is looking pretty bad, like he has leprosy. Is there a last ditch dip or something I can try? These guys are gone within the day.

I don't know what caused this, tank was/is stable with no water problems, everyone was happy and healthy. The only thing I did was get a shipment of cleanup crew from reef cleaners, could that have introduced the parasites?

The disease is brookynella hostilis (most likely) I would extract them, then quarantine them in a copper dosed tank. I've saved fish this way before with the same disease. Good luck.

How long will I have to quarantine them for?

I think 2 months would be good.
Brook is a very fast acting disease,
I'd try to treat the fish quickly.

A QT is some that can be from walmart or petco,
a 10 gallon, a small powerhead, cheapo heater,
some flower pots or pvc pipe for them to hide in and you're set.
You might spend $30 but QTing every fish is worth it.
Heck a trashcan could work with a power head since the power head would heat the water up some.

If I am not mistaken,
dragonets are sensitive to copper.
Might want to see if you can use it and if not what can be used.

For the clowns,
I'd use copper as quickly as possible,
unfortunately it may be to late but it's worth trying/

you can quarantine them as long as possible. I go for about a month. Some go for a week.

If I can't use copper on the Dragonet, I just let him die?

Personally, if the only given options were to let him die or try out the meds and hope for the best, I'd try the meds.

Dragonet dead. Between this and a jumping goby I'm down from 4 fish to 1 in a week. Setting up quarantine tonight, going to give formaldehyde dip then copper treatment in tank..

Ugh... more years than I can count in freshwater, 2 in SW and I've never had parasites before. This sucks.

Sucks to have this. To me this looks more like crypto than brook (tends to have more slime production that the picture suggests and over time the body legions will grow) but both are parasitic and will likely kill your fish unless an aggressive treatment is used.

To my knowledge there are only a few ways to treat. Malachite green or copper sulfate (I prefer seachem "cupramine" though for copper treatments) are good to use. The other option is using a hyposalinity treatment. Quickly lower your salinity to aroung 1.010 or so. The hypo is probably easier on the fish short-term, but it's harder to do since you have to really keep your eye on the tank. The medications you just dose once and leave it there.

As far as introducing the parasite, I've never heard of it affecting invertebrates such as snails, though I suppose there's nothing to stop them from helping to transport the parasite, possibly it somehow got into the same water the snails were in? Did you dump the water the snails were in into the tank? Often times we don't think about QT'ing our inverts, however it's always a good idea to QT anything and everything that you add to your tank.

A simple QT should run you no more than $25-$30 to set up. Good luck!

Here's an article that you might be interested in:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/10/aafeature1

Ok, did 25 min in 1.10 water, then did a blue methyl dip for 10 seconds, he's in a quarantine tank being treated w/ malachite green. Will post back with updates..

I do have a question though. I had a cleanup crew built for 4 fish being fed daily, should I be feeding the empty tank a little?

Ok so here is my question. You take the fish out of the host parasite tank. Then you treat them in a Q tank for a month or so. Then you put them back in the tank with the parasite. Makes alot of sense. IF and I said IF that was my tank I would do a 90% water change.Then I would do another 50% water change a few days later before I put him back in.

The parasite will die without a host within a short while. Quite cocky.

LMAO Quite cocky. They parasite will die without a host shortly. What is shortly? 1 week 2 weeks or 3 months?Q tanks are over rated. I would pull that fish out do a 90% water change and put it right back in. But what do I know I am just cocky and you sir are a A*s.

I forgot to add that I would freshwater dip that clown then put it back in after a 90% water change.Then a few days later do another 50 % water change. I don't like the idea of treating fish with chemicals. Freshwater dips always work for me. Feed them feed them feed them and do water changes and a strong fish will pull through.

Unfortunately I have never seen any evidence that doing any % water change will help rid a tank of a parasitic infestation. Since parasites have different stages you can't do that. Even 100% FW dips are only effective in killing parasites in certain stages.

Take cryptocaryon irritans, or marine ich for example. It's only in the water for a few days. It lives in the host fish's gills for a long time though.

While it is true that most parasites will die within a week if there are no host fish present, IMO it's much better to play it safe and leave the tank free of fish for 30 to 90 days. This also helps the fish out by forcing you to do everything slowly and over a long period of time. The fish can more fully recover.

As has been hinted to, the key to keeping fish alive and beating these infestations is to minimize the stresses put on the fish. Moving them causes a lot of stress. FW dips are stressful as are chemicals. IME the best thing is to choose the simplest effective treatment and stick with it. Running multiple treatments at the same time or right after another probably causes too much stress and in many cases can do more harm than good.

Finally, bumblebee, good call on the QT tank. IMO the 1.010 dip and the blue methyl dips were probably excessive. If the fish is still alive though, focus your efforts on keeping the tank as stable as possible and minimizing stresses on the fish. Make sure the QT has plenty of hiding places and I prefer to keep the QT more dimly lit to give the fish the feeling that he's hiding. Good luck keep us posted!

He's in the QT now for about 3 days, he's had 3 days treatment of the green and he still has the same level of parasitic infestation. I've been doing a 25% water change daily prior to the dosing as per the directions on the bottle.

Any thoughts? He acts very healthy but so did the other clown up until he just up and died. The only evidence of the infestation is he looks just like the guy in the pic does with the white stuff where he didn't before. The Dragonet on the other hand definitely was way more lethargic and had a slower death.

Ugh, not looking good. See above where he looks like a normal clown with white spots? Now he has less spots but he looks like a zombie fish, hard to explain. He's also lethargic. I fear we may be near the end here.