fin rot or ich or....???

[rck329]

Hi gang,
I have a pair of clownfish and a pair of banggai cardinals that have been in QT for 6 weeks. I was originally going to just do prazipro and observation. At about the 3-4 week mark I noticed some white spots on one of the clowns on his body. They were really hard to see, in fact I could only see them when they faced me head on or tail on. In any case I decided to treat with Cupramine. I attempted to bring it up very slowly dosing 1/4 dose every other day. By the 3rd dose, nobody was eating and one of the cardinals was pretty listless (I did check level with Seachem test kit, never got to 0.5 ppm). I did a 50% water change and put a Cuprisorb filter in the HOB. I lost the one cardinal, but within a day everyone was back eating and energy picked up.
So I decided to move to chloroquine phosphate. So far so good, but the one clown's fins look a little rough, and he also has the weakest appetite.

I gave him a freshwater dip last night - no flukes came off that I could see.

Here are some pics below. Any thoughts?

 

[Robink]

@Humblefish , @melypr1985

 

[Maritimer]

With clownfish especially, Brooklynella is always a possibility . . .

Take a scroll through Humblefish's article on the topic here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brooklynella.247938/#post-2913287

~Bruce

 

[4FordFamily]

Agree. You may be dealing with brook. Thoughts after reading the thread?

 

[rck329]

Agree. You may be dealing with brook. Thoughts after reading the thread?

hmmm, I'm not seeing that kind of white formation on his body but I'm not sure. What I see currently are some white spots, but it's weird. You can't see them from a straight side shot. You have to be sort of looking down the body head to tail.

I can see white spots on his fins - I think you can see them in the pictures too. I thought maybe flukes on his fins hence the freshwater dip, but nothing came off.

Would ich parasites on the fins make them ragged like that?

 

[Maritimer]

I haven't normally seen that sort of raggedness with ich - but seem to recall having seen some form of tattering with more advanced cases of velvet. Are the white spots of medium size, like grains of salt, with perhaps a bit of oblong shape to them, or are they smaller and more numerous, like someone spilled sugar, and more round in shape?

~Bruce

 

[rck329]

I haven't normally seen that sort of raggedness with ich - but seem to recall having seen some form of tattering with more advanced cases of velvet. Are the white spots of medium size, like grains of salt, with perhaps a bit of oblong shape to them, or are they smaller and more numerous, like someone spilled sugar, and more round in shape?

~Bruce

I'd have to say they are more medium sized and oblong. I'll have to see if I can capture a photo of what's on the body. As a size perspective these fish are pretty young - about 1.5" long.

He seems to be eating a little better. Oddly, he seems more interested in Sustainable Aquatics pellets than frozen LRS.

 

[Maritimer]

Medium sized and oblong is good news - that describes ich, rather than velvet.

~Bruce

 

[Josh Kraft]

Doesn't CP cover all 3 anyway?

 

[rck329]

Doesn't CP cover all 3 anyway?

I think so. Mine are 8 days in to a 30 day treatment and doing well now. I gotta say, I don't know if I have a bad batch of Cupramine or what, but I have had horrible luck with it. So far this CP has been a breeze (knock on wood). We'll see how it all pans out.