Help! White slime on a clownfish. Is it brooklynella? (1 Viewer)

[Maga]

PROBLEM SOLVED
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Hi,

just purchased a pair of clowns a couple hours ago that were supposed to be completely healthy. They looked OK in daylight in the bag, but at home I immediately noticed white string sort of attached to all their fins, on photos looks like a slime.

I do not have formaldehyde or malachite green - should I try freshwater bath? The fish most affected already seem stressed and not eating.

All advice welcome, never saw brooklynella before, just photos on the web, but both fish do not look normal, had many clowns before, some very small, never so something like that.

I am trying to attach photo, not sure if it worked

 

[Maga]

please find pic attached below

 

[Reefahholic]

please find pic attached below

Welcome to the jacked up world of Brooklynella. Treat with Formalin MS or Acriflavine MS. I would personally go with Acriflavine and do a lot of dips. Then place the fish back in a tank with Formalin bath. The Acriflavine will turn your water yellow, but works well. The Formalin is clear and is better to do the bath in because the fish can be observed. Just do dip to bath..dip to bath. Discard 100% of dip water. Changing bath water and redosing Formalin every 2-3 days would be wise.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Reefahholic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j7gAu3VjrM

 

[Maga]

Hi Jared, thank you for quick answer! I was reading that Formalin is best, but do not have on hand, based on what I have read on the net, this cannot wait till the morning, especially the fish that is more affected, not eating and transparent

Based on what I was reading, I am preparing FW bath, with temp and PH as in my tank, and will put fish there, closely observing, for about 3mins. I also have Furan-2, revive, etc, but they seem useless for brook? Clowns were not looking good at my home, so I put them in QT immediately, but put lawnmower blenny, that was looking OK, just stressed from transport in a small bag, to my DT Catching it will probably be a nightmare/whole night. I do have a beautiful healthy black ice in that tank. From what I was reading, it could be Brooklynella as well as uronema How important is to remove blenny from DT?

 

[The Reef Whisperer]

I am the ones who sold the clowns to her and up to the moment clowns left my house, they had dark coloring and nothing coming from their bodies. They ate this morning and were swimming in and out of the anemone. If I would had seen anything remotely wrong, I would had called off the sell.

As you can see in the attached pictures, taken yesterday afternoon, the clowns were swimming in and around their anemone and had very vibrant colors. I fed them Omega One Mini Pellets w/ garlic on a daily basis. Never had the fish not eaten and in fact, they would eat out of my fingers.

My question is if this brooklynella, wouldn't we both had seen this before she took them from my house? I had them both with the anemone in a small tank so she could see them swim. I always do this with any fish so the buyer can see what they are buying before they walk away.

One request I ask is to see pics of both fish, of their whole bodies, because as I always have and always will, I am willing to make the situation right if I am in the wrong. I did not look at these Snowflakes and the anemones just as animals, I looked at them as my pets and I care for my pets as I do my son.

 

[Reefahholic]

Hi Jared, thank you for quick answer! I was reading that Formalin is best, but do not have on hand, based on what I have read on the net, this cannot wait till the morning, especially the fish that is more affected, not eating and transparent

Based on what I was reading, I am preparing FW bath, with temp and PH as in my tank, and will put fish there, closely observing, for about 3mins. I also have Furan-2, revive, etc, but they seem useless for brook? Clowns were not looking good at my home, so I put them in QT immediately, but put lawnmower blenny, that was looking OK, just stressed from transport in a small bag, to my DT Catching it will probably be a nightmare/whole night. I do have a beautiful healthy black ice in that tank. From what I was reading, it could be Brooklynella as well as uronema How important is to remove blenny from DT?

Do a freshwater dip for 5 minutes. Hyper-oxygenate the water and make sure to Temp and SG adjust.

It's brook man...100% sure. I know Uronema and Brook well and it's not Uronema. I have both meds you need at my house and you're welcome to come get them at 7:45 am when I get home from work.

Was the Blenny in the same bag water and now in your display? If already in your display you'll need to catch him and leave the display fallow for 6 weeks.

I need to do rounds... be back later. Do the dip. Don't worry if the fish lay on their side in the FW dip. It's normal.

 

[Maga]

Do a freshwater dip for 5 minutes. Hyper-oxygenate the water and make sure to Temp and SG adjust.

It's brook man...100% sure. I know Uronema and Brook well and it's not Uronema. I have both meds you need at my house and you're welcome to come get them at 7:45 am when I get home from work.

Was the Blenny in the same bag water and now in your display? If already in your display you'll need to catch him and leave the display fallow for 6 weeks.

I need to do rounds... be back later. Do the dip. Don't worry if the fish lay on their side in the FW dip. It's normal.

Hi Jared, thank you for your very kind offer, can you please text me your address to 409-771-0181? I did FW dip with a lot of flow, got all slime of them, clowns recovered quickly and now seem quite happy and now that the slime is gone colors look normal again. Is there any chance that the slime was from being transported in the same bag with their anemone? My ride home was almost an hour.

Blenny was not in the same bag as clowns, and as I was afraid, catching him without removing everything from my DT seems impossible, since clowns are looking good and I am horribly tired, I think I will give up soon, I am afraid I can kill other stuff, have a lot of corals, shrimp, conch etc. Blenny is looking OK and runs away fast, I guess a sign of health.

Is it consistent with brook that slime can be removed completely? I watched your uronema and other sick fish video, my clown never had balance or breathing problems, just slime and what I though were faded colors on one of them, but now actually back to normal. Still hoping it could be something else, especially since they look back to normal now. The only potentially source of slime would be anemone, but never saw it and had 10+ clowns and 4 anemones ... Hopefully things would no go downhill over night.

PS Clowns have 65G with many hiding places and nem to themselves, lowered salinity a bit, have to research how low I can go with anemone. I understand anemone also should stay in QT?

 

[Reefahholic]

Well that changes things. From what I see in the pictures it definitely appears to be brook, but if what you said is true...It's hard to believe it could be. I need better pictures now given this new information. I have seen clowns survive brook for a long period of time, but they never "look good" see my brook video. They always appear "washed out" and have a lot of mucous hanging off them at times like you see in these pics. My first thoughts were internal parasites, but after looking closer, you can see the mucous hanging from the fins. Internal parasites will make the fish have white stringy poop.

How long have you had the clowns and where did you purchase them?

I am the ones who sold the clowns to her and up to the moment clowns left my house, they had dark coloring and nothing coming from their bodies. They ate this morning and were swimming in and out of the anemone. If I would had seen anything remotely wrong, I would had called off the sell.

As you can see in the attached pictures, taken yesterday afternoon, the clowns were swimming in and around their anemone and had very vibrant colors. I fed them Omega One Mini Pellets w/ garlic on a daily basis. Never had the fish not eaten and in fact, they would eat out of my fingers.

My question is if this brooklynella, wouldn't we both had seen this before she took them from my house? I had them both with the anemone in a small tank so she could see them swim. I always do this with any fish so the buyer can see what they are buying before they walk away.

One request I ask is to see pics of both fish, of their whole bodies, because as I always have and always will, I am willing to make the situation right if I am in the wrong. I did not look at these Snowflakes and the anemones just as animals, I looked at them as my pets and I care for my pets as I do my son.

 

[Reefahholic]

So what your describing now and the new information we learned from Reef Whisperer, I'm gonna say it's only the slime from the Anemones. I've never seen the washed-out color or excessive mucous completely go away when a fish is infected with brooklynella. So after hearing both of you guys explain further...I believe things are gonna be just fine.

You don't need to QT the anemones. Just transfer as little water as possible when you move them to the DT. After I acclimate mine..I try to drain them on a screen before they go into my display.

Hi Jared, thank you for your very kind offer, can you please text me your address to 409-771-0181? I did FW dip with a lot of flow, got all slime of them, clowns recovered quickly and now seem quite happy and now that the slime is gone colors look normal again. Is there any chance that the slime was from being transported in the same bag with their anemone? My ride home was almost an hour.

Blenny was not in the same bag as clowns, and as I was afraid, catching him without removing everything from my DT seems impossible, since clowns are looking good and I am horribly tired, I think I will give up soon, I am afraid I can kill other stuff, have a lot of corals, shrimp, conch etc. Blenny is looking OK and runs away fast, I guess a sign of health.

Is it consistent with brook that slime can be removed completely? I watched your uronema and other sick fish video, my clown never had balance or breathing problems, just slime and what I though were faded colors on one of them, but now actually back to normal. Still hoping it could be something else, especially since they look back to normal now. The only potentially source of slime would be anemone, but never saw it and had 10+ clowns and 4 anemones ... Hopefully things would no go downhill over night.

PS Clowns have 65G with many hiding places and nem to themselves, lowered salinity a bit, have to research how low I can go with anemone. I understand anemone also should stay in QT?

 

[Maga]

So what your describing now and the new information we learned from Reef Whisperer, I'm gonna say it's only the slime from the Anemones. I've never seen the washed-out color or excessive mucous completely go away when a fish is infected with brooklynella. So after hearing both of you guys explain further...I believe things are gonna be just fine.

You don't need to QT the anemones. Just transfer as little water as possible when you move them to the DT. After I acclimate mine..I try to drain them on a screen before they go into my display.

Hi Jared and Reef Whisperer,

Clowns continue to do well, checked on them both in the morning and during lunch break. I also lean towards thinking it was a slime from an anemone - perhaps it spitted out the undigested food during the transport?

I was surprised that I was able to blast off the slime of the clowns completely during FW bath, so far there is no sign of it re-appearing.

It did look like brook photos online, though, and knowing additionally that a yellow tang from the same system had a mysterious ailment, I thought some parasitic infection is likely and I knew in case of brook or such I have to take action immediately.

Jared, so you are saying that if a slime is not re-appearing, I should just leave the clowns alone, no preventive treatment necessary? Blenny seems OK, too, just running away whenever he sees me, but he has his reasons, as I was trying to catch him most of last night ...

 

[Reefahholic]

Hi Jared and Reef Whisperer,

Clowns continue to do well, checked on them both in the morning and during lunch break. I also lean towards thinking it was a slime from an anemone - perhaps it spitted out the undigested food during the transport?

I was surprised that I was able to blast off the slime of the clowns completely during FW bath, so far there is no sign of it re-appearing.

It did look like brook photos online, though, and knowing additionally that a yellow tang from the same system had a mysterious ailment, I thought some parasitic infection is likely and I knew in case of brook or such I have to take action immediately.

Jared, so you are saying that if a slime is not re-appearing, I should just leave the clowns alone, no preventive treatment necessary? Blenny seems OK, too, just running away whenever he sees me, but he has his reasons, as I was trying to catch him most of last night ...

That's great. Sounds like they are doing well and it was just anemone slime. I've never seen that happen.

So yeah, if they don't appear washed-out or have excessive mucous hanging off the fins, you should be fine. I always QT everything that comes into my system. I like to treat for internal parasites as well as be sure they don't have one of the big 4 parasites. ICH, Velvet, Brook, or Uronema. If you wanna be safe, run some Coppersafe or Chloroquine Phosphate and hit them with some API Quick Cure or Prazipro. Tank transfer is great to do on all new arrivals.

That all depends on how safe you want to be. It's your fish in your system.

 

[The Reef Whisperer]

Awesome news! I kept wondering how they were doing.

As I stated before, I had them for a while and never seen any signs. With feeding them everyday and constantly walking by them, I would had noticed something since the tank is right by my bed and with my medical condition, I do lay down quite often since I am often tired. That is what happened to the yellow tang. The night before he was injured, he looked awesome and, as always, he was right there with the other fish wanting more food. The next morning... he was injured.

The only other thing that kept running through my mind was, since the boys were holding the fish plus the mushroom came up missing, which you ended up finding it later in the car, was maybe the fish were stressed due to the boys keep moving the bag. I know my son has done it. Kids get excited and your youngest absolutely loved that blenny! I am still laughing, because most kids want the most colored shiny item. Not your baby! He wanted the blenny! I wish that was on video to post on the forum because that was adorable! Love to see kids get excited over the hobby!

I am glad this turned out positive! Though I am far from an expert, I have been in the hobby off and on for quite a while and with as much time and money we spend on our tanks, I try to get to know every inch of my tank. Believe me, I know if a clam moved and will sit there until I can spot all four.

One last note: Those clowns will eat out of your fingers once they get to know you. As stated before, I fed them Omega One Mini Pellets w/ Garlic. They are healthy eaters!

Good luck and I hope the clowns (And the blenny) bring your family years of happiness! They are amazing fish!

God Bless,
Michael

 

[Maga]

Hi Reef Whisperer,

I am also so relieved that they seem safe, last night was really tough, and as Jared mentioned these strings of slime hanging out from their fins looked like a textbook brooklynella ... Slime maked also a bigger one (Kids named her SnowBall) to look rather washed color-wise. I have Formula One, got the smaller one (kids call it SnowPufff), to eat, but not the bigger one, but I have only regular sized pellets, will try to crush them. I also wondered how exactly you fed, tried turkey buster and dropping from the fingers, they did not recognize the feeding ring, unlike my other tank-raised clowns.

I would prefer to feed them frozen, but so far I could not get them interested in anything I have, even in Nutramar Ova, that my smaller fish normally love. Tried PE mysis shrimp shavings and chopped brine shrimp from you, the smaller one took them but spitted them out, maybe because he ate 2x yesterday, bigger one still could not see it to eat anything, but since they both look good now, I am not worried. I did not have much time in the morning, will have more time to work on them eating this evening. Did they eat any frozen for you? By garlic you mean the bottled additive?

Since Jared says they could not recover so quickly from brook, we are clear now, these are small things that would get ironed out sooner or later. Blenny started to eat film from the tank walls, I guess a good sign, hopefully will eventually get interested in the small clumps of HA I have that are too small for manual removal, but apparently too big for snails. Kids have not seen him yet, as he got out of the hiding only at noon, when I was checking on clowns during lunch break. Blenny is gigantic in comparison to other fish I have in the tank. so when he moves, they are getting out of the way. What did you feed him? How often?

Nem has been always looking great, except for some slime, that I though he got from clowns, but must be the other way around. I am only surprised that he got into the hiding in the cave at the bottom of the tank, I have T5 on a deep tank, half of them rather weak actinics, PAR is minimal at the bottom, but I decided to let him be and pick the spot he likes.

Thanks for your concern and I hope YT will make it.

 

[Maga]

Problem solved, clowns doing great. Thanks Jared & Michael.

 

[Reefahholic]

Glad to hear all is well!