Ocellaris Clown Death Question

[ConnorD42]

Hey everyone, for starters I have a 20 gallon high with only 1 fish (Firefish goby). After some time (month and a half) had passed after setting up the tank, me and my girlfriend decided to add an ocellaris clown from the local petco. Yay! All seemed well after acclimation, and introduction. It's worth mentioning I did not quarantine this fish, dip it, or anything besides acclimation. I know what you're going to say, and I now have a 10 gallon quarantine tank setup lol. I had the fish for roughly 4 or 5 days when I noticed a white/faded spot near the tail, it got progressively worse and spread slightly on the other side of the fish. After quarantining and dipping the fish and medications, I lost the clownfish about 3 days later. I know brook and oodinium are relatively quick killers, and it definitely didn't look like ich, and it didn't really resemble velvet. As a matter of fact, it MOST resembled oodinium, but the fish lasted too long I feel like.. Any thoughts?? Water parameters stayed in check the entire time with ammonia staying below 0.5ppm. Thanks in advance!

 

-Connor

[Euphylin me]

with no pictures it is hard to say...i would recommend a fallow period (fishless) for two months just in case it was a parasite. it does sound like oodinium but oodinium is pretty rare in clownfish since it kills quickly and most are captive bred now, but again, hard to give a definitive answer on that. how old is the tank in total? like i stated previously. do a fallow period for two months before adding fish. you can still add corals if your parameters are stable

[Aurortpa]

Aw sorry to hear. Was there any film like mucous strands on the clown?  Is the firefish still a tank resident—doing ok?  

 

Good job on getting a quarantine setup, doing better than me lol.

[ConnorD42]

1 hour ago, Euphylin me said:

with no pictures it is hard to say...i would recommend a fallow period (fishless) for two months just in case it was a parasite. it does sound like oodinium but oodinium is pretty rare in clownfish since it kills quickly and most are captive bred now, but again, hard to give a definitive answer on that. how old is the tank in total? like i stated previously. do a fallow period for two months before adding fish. you can still add corals if your parameters are stable

I'll try to add some pictures today or tomorrow of what I could get! In total I'm not positive.. I got it used from a guy who broke down his 55g. I have had it up and running though for roughly three months. Hasn't been an issue with the firefish so I don't know how likely it is that the pest was already there? Sounds great to me though.

[Euphylin me]

okay, and yea could have been in there or could have been in the water from the lfs and the stress from transporting stressed the fish out to where its immunity was lower...who knows? but yea i would do the fallow period...maybe use this time to get some soft corals as long as you have the lighting and proper perameters

[ConnorD42]

1 hour ago, Aurortpa said:

Aw sorry to hear. Was there any film like mucous strands on the clown?  Is the firefish still a tank resident—doing ok?  

 

Good job on getting a quarantine setup, doing better than me lol.

Thanks! There was only one day that the spot appeared to have mass to it, but it was not mucousy, at least it didn't strike me as mucousy.. and yeah I left the firefish in the tank and he seems to be doing fine, but I'm watching him like a hawk with binoculars. I also dipped and medicated him to be cautious assuming that the parasite hadn't had time to encyst(? correct my word choice if i'm wrong, I can't seem to be able to find the stage again, oops) and treated the tank with metronidazole for 3 days no carbon in hopes it might help any potential issue. 

[ConnorD42]

I feel like it was the transport-induced stress that did him in. I know it couldn't have helped at least. I'm going to monitor the firefish for a while I guess and just go from there. If fallow period is the final verdict then fallow the tank shall go!

[Clown79]

6 hours ago, ConnorD42 said:

Thanks! There was only one day that the spot appeared to have mass to it, but it was not mucousy, at least it didn't strike me as mucousy.. and yeah I left the firefish in the tank and he seems to be doing fine, but I'm watching him like a hawk with binoculars. I also dipped and medicated him to be cautious assuming that the parasite hadn't had time to encyst(? correct my word choice if i'm wrong, I can't seem to be able to find the stage again, oops) and treated the tank with metronidazole for 3 days no carbon in hopes it might help any potential issue. 

A lot of medications are not reef safe.

 

Treating a fish should be done in a qt 

 

https://www.seachem.com/support/forums/forum/general-discussion/1024-is-metronidazole-a-reef-safe-medication

[ConnorD42]

6 hours ago, Clown79 said:

A lot of medications are not reef safe.

 

Treating a fish should be done in a qt 

 

https://www.seachem.com/support/forums/forum/general-discussion/1024-is-metronidazole-a-reef-safe-medication

Metronidazole has not hurt my corals as far as I can tell, and was dosed about 5 days ago. Otherwise treatment was carried out in my qt.

edit: then a 30% water change was done and carbon media replaced

[Clown79]

2 hours ago, ConnorD42 said:

Metronidazole has not hurt my corals as far as I can tell, and was dosed about 5 days ago. Otherwise treatment was carried out in my qt.

edit: then a 30% water change was done and carbon media replaced

Meds can cause long term issues. Rocks and sand absorb the meds. You don't know what it may do in the future.

 

 

There's a reason Seachem themselves don't state its reef safe.

 

 

It's supposed to be used in food and carbon in the tank to remove any small traces that enter via the food.

 

 

[ConnorD42]

Oh gotcha! I don't know why that didn't occur to me. I know for next time at least I guess. 😥

[ConnorD42]

I knew that metro-plex was  to be used in food, however, I couldn't find it at any chain store (dedicated LFS is about 45 minutes away) so I started reading active ingredients on the backs of other medications and found one that contained metronidazole also so just used that instead. Although that doesn't make the other one reef safe either based on ingredients alone. I just didn't connect the dots for some reason or another. Stupid mistake.