Percula getting worse...

[Clownfish_Dawn]

My perc had fungus. I treated with melafix and it seems to be gone, but there is still something very wrong with this fish.

He wedges himself betweem rocks, and stays there all day. The only movement he makes is his gills. When the is nothing to wedge himself into, he lays on the bottome like dead. Every morning I expect him to be dead, but he isn't. I know it may be too late to save him, but I really need to know what it is so I can save my other perc. He has also lost alot of his colour, so he looks like he is a pastel orange with white....

 

P.S. He swims upside down when he swims, so I thought it was swim bladder, but he has been like this for two weeks, so I figure if it where that, he would be dead as a doornail by now.

He is isolated, so it doesn't matter what kind of med...

 

Dawn

[MKramer]

When you say he had fungus before, how so? Do you mean external, cottony growths?

 

Do you ever feed the clown raw seafood?

 

Does it have any other skin abnormalities besides the paling? Spots, blotches, skin/scale loss, ulcers, fin rot?

 

Is the paling all over, or in patches?

 

My first guess, if he's pale all over, had a popeye or cottony type external fungal infection originally, and especially if you've ever fed raw seafood in the past 3 months, is that it's an internal fungal infection. Specially, Ichthyophonus. I hope not, as internal fungal diseases are very difficult to treat.

 

If you haven't fed him raw seafood, then it could be some other type of fungus, hopefully less serious.

 

According to Joyce Wilkerson, the best treatment for Ichthyophonus, while not super-succesful, is to soak the food in a 1% solution of phenoxyethanol. However, by the time the fish is completely pale, I would suspect the internal organ damage is beyond repair. The stuff can be hard to find, though, as it is more commonly used in commercial fisheries.

 

Otherwise, I would try treating with chloramphenicol. I know one brand name it's sold as is chloromycetin. But it's probably found in most marine fish antibacterial medications. It's good for internal fungus and bacterial infections, which should cover most of the other possibilities.

 

Good luck, and if you can provide more info, maybe we can narrow it down further.