Today my wife noticed a white cotton fuzz in my clownfish, after close inspection I noticed he has what appears to be an area of about 1 cm of a white like fungus near his top fin, but on his body. It is a bit hard to see it, but with indirect lighting as he moves I was able to take a close look at it. It really looks like white cotton, I inspected him completely and I couldn't find other signs of disease, as of now he seems perfectly healthy. I tried taking a couple of pictures but was unsuccessful getting one where you can actually see the white cotton. I have looked at several pictures of brookynella, marine velvet and lymphocystis which are the ones that could possible resemble, in my opinion it looks closer to brookynella than any of the others, but it could also be lymphocystis.
The white cotton is raised, but not as individual dots more like a patch of white cotton. I've had my clownfish for 3 years and he has never shown signs of disease, he is in my 75 with 7 other small fish, none of them show any signs of disease yet at least. The latest addition fish wise was my Flame angel and Tomini Tang, which were QT for 6 weeks, and they were added to the display tank about 4 months ago. The Flame angel did have a similar white cotton at some point that very slowly faded, that one I am fairly certain was lymphocystis, so it is possible the clownfish now has it, however on the clownfish it looks more like a patch, and afaik lymph is more like white cotton dots.
Anyway since the last 4 fish addition 4 months ago, I have only added 2 coral frags from DNA, and just yesterday 5 coral frags from Elos Aquastudios, DNA frags were added 2 weeks ago. None of the water went inside the display, I just Coral rx dipped all of them, and then swizzled around in 2 different containers before putting into the tank. I know Coral rx does not kill any of these diseases, but at least water wise it wasn't transferred, the most likely scenario is that the coral from DNA had eggs on it. it could also be from Elos but it seems a little odd that it would show up so fast the next day. I bought a frag from each of their tanks in their coral section (at DNA), I know these 2 tanks share water, but I believe that water is separate from the rest of their tanks, I know one of their tanks has a wrasse on it, now here is the thing, when I purchased that frag I noticed they had about 3 clownfish on that frag tank too, I though that was odd (and completely unnecessary, I understand the wrasse part because of parasites, but clowns?) and it made me very reluctant to buy it, but unfortunately I gave in and bought it. I believe the clownfish in that frag tank probably had the disease and that's how it ended up in my tank 2 weeks later.
At this point, in my tank I have a flame angel, tomini tang, carpenter's flasher wrasse, pink streaked wrasse, yellow clown goby, purple fire fish and royal gramma, if it is brook I think everyone will get it except the royal gramma, clown goby and purple fire fish... I sold my 29 biocube that I was using as my QT tank about a month ago unfortunately, and I can't even transfer my clown (and all the other fish). I know this is one of the worst diseases, but how fast does it progress?, I've read the fish die within 24 hours, is it really that fast?. I really hope it is not brookynella...
At this point I know I am pretty much screwed, 5 fish will get brookynella (if that is what it is), and they will die in less than a week... planning to stop by petco today to buy a 40 gallon or something big to hold all my fish and try to treat them with formalin, but I've read this disease is almost impossible to treat.. oh well I'll give it a try.
Moral of the story, QT coral frags. If all my fish die, I probably won't feel like continuing at least for a while (I have been i the hobby 3 years and I have never lost any fish), if it is not brook, then I am getting a frag tank. Any other signs of brook that I can look for that distinguish it from other diseases would be helpful.
Worst thing is that I had been doing FOWLR for 3 years until now, and 2 weeks ago I bought my first coral frags, I got bitten on my first purchase
. I always QT fish, but for some reason I though it was overkill on corals, since usually they are not kept with fish, I should not have bought them when I saw those clownfish in that frag tank or I should have QT those frags.
The white cotton is raised, but not as individual dots more like a patch of white cotton. I've had my clownfish for 3 years and he has never shown signs of disease, he is in my 75 with 7 other small fish, none of them show any signs of disease yet at least. The latest addition fish wise was my Flame angel and Tomini Tang, which were QT for 6 weeks, and they were added to the display tank about 4 months ago. The Flame angel did have a similar white cotton at some point that very slowly faded, that one I am fairly certain was lymphocystis, so it is possible the clownfish now has it, however on the clownfish it looks more like a patch, and afaik lymph is more like white cotton dots.
Anyway since the last 4 fish addition 4 months ago, I have only added 2 coral frags from DNA, and just yesterday 5 coral frags from Elos Aquastudios, DNA frags were added 2 weeks ago. None of the water went inside the display, I just Coral rx dipped all of them, and then swizzled around in 2 different containers before putting into the tank. I know Coral rx does not kill any of these diseases, but at least water wise it wasn't transferred, the most likely scenario is that the coral from DNA had eggs on it. it could also be from Elos but it seems a little odd that it would show up so fast the next day. I bought a frag from each of their tanks in their coral section (at DNA), I know these 2 tanks share water, but I believe that water is separate from the rest of their tanks, I know one of their tanks has a wrasse on it, now here is the thing, when I purchased that frag I noticed they had about 3 clownfish on that frag tank too, I though that was odd (and completely unnecessary, I understand the wrasse part because of parasites, but clowns?) and it made me very reluctant to buy it, but unfortunately I gave in and bought it. I believe the clownfish in that frag tank probably had the disease and that's how it ended up in my tank 2 weeks later.
At this point, in my tank I have a flame angel, tomini tang, carpenter's flasher wrasse, pink streaked wrasse, yellow clown goby, purple fire fish and royal gramma, if it is brook I think everyone will get it except the royal gramma, clown goby and purple fire fish... I sold my 29 biocube that I was using as my QT tank about a month ago unfortunately, and I can't even transfer my clown (and all the other fish). I know this is one of the worst diseases, but how fast does it progress?, I've read the fish die within 24 hours, is it really that fast?. I really hope it is not brookynella...
At this point I know I am pretty much screwed, 5 fish will get brookynella (if that is what it is), and they will die in less than a week... planning to stop by petco today to buy a 40 gallon or something big to hold all my fish and try to treat them with formalin, but I've read this disease is almost impossible to treat.. oh well I'll give it a try.
Moral of the story, QT coral frags. If all my fish die, I probably won't feel like continuing at least for a while (I have been i the hobby 3 years and I have never lost any fish), if it is not brook, then I am getting a frag tank. Any other signs of brook that I can look for that distinguish it from other diseases would be helpful.
Worst thing is that I had been doing FOWLR for 3 years until now, and 2 weeks ago I bought my first coral frags, I got bitten on my first purchase
. I always QT fish, but for some reason I though it was overkill on corals, since usually they are not kept with fish, I should not have bought them when I saw those clownfish in that frag tank or I should have QT those frags.