PMing Dr. Amanda

A

Amanda

If you are having trouble with your fish please post in this forum before PM'ing me. I am only checking the forum through the week and not on weekends. I would like to handle all fish illness' here, just so I can keep my Inbox full of "private" messages, LOL!
Thanks!!!!
 
Carol, it sounds like your friends clown has brooklynella. Here is a link with formalin treatment instructions.
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/brooklynella.html

You can also go the fish disease & treatment forum on Reef Central and there is a sticky at the top of the page about brook, also called clownfish disease. This can kill quickly so it is important to act fast.

HTH!
 
OK my first Dr. Amanda question in quite a while.

Of course I have no pics!

This is about my Regal.

There were numerous people who recommende putting "such a delicate fish" straight into the reeef. I think this is nonsense as a) I didn't want the possibility of my reef being affected with anything the Regal had and b) the best place to get them eating aggresively is with no competion in qt. So to make a short story long I have a 29 hex that I use for qt with a HOB powerfilter which I've used for many many years and it makes a great qt. AnywayI put about 15 lbs of liverock that was in my sump that had plenty of sponge and stuff for him to munch on in there in additon to the 4" T PVC pipe I always use. He picks at them but has done so less over the last 2 days and won't eat mussell anymore (never has eaten anything else) that he at least used to nibble at. He has developed a couple white spots on his tail and fins but they seem bigger then Ich (which I've seen plenty over the years). Closer to the size of a small grain of rice but not at the edges like lymph.... Do you think this is Ich? He is also scrathing the PVC pipe inside a little now.

If so should I just take the rock out and start hypo and risk him not eating (dying of starvation).

Or leave the rock in and go hypo. (Would this foul the water with sponge death, etc?)

Or risk the Ich until I can get him eating. The advantage being that the sponges, etc would stay alive the disadvantage of course being I'm not treating the disease and he doesn't seem to be eating anyway.
 
Hey Keith! I really hope this fish does well for you, because I am so envious :wink:

First off, I need pics! It doesnt sound like ich with the size factor, and this is something I know you have seen plenty of. Lymph isn't always at the edges and is usually pretty easy to diagnose. It also doesnt move around like ich does... do the spots remain in the same place or seem to move around? The scratching makes it a tough call though. It could also be a fungus or a bacterial issue. I think you need to provide treatment and get him eating all in sync. Try and get a pic or shoot me a very detailed description (i.e. color, texture, change in size, number of spots, any other symptoms).

You're on top of water quality right? Stable temp, salinity.... The subtlest thing could throw this guy off.

Do not start hypo with the rock in the tank. It will definately foul the water.

Will he eat live brine? If so, it can be enriched enough to get him through a proper hypo or med session with no LR. I can dig up some articles if this is an option for you.
 
Haven't tried live brine yet but will do.

OK I tried to snap some picks. One of the left fin turned out well the rest suck! I'll say the spots on the tail that are hard to see look very close to these. They seem to be not moving which again tends as you say to make me think not Ich. There are a couple spots on the left fin and about 3 on the tail. There is a spot on his body near the tail that is slightly smaller and looks more like Ich in size. It looks very white but almost "cottony". Also he doesn't scratch much. He does however "flick" his pelvic fins quite a bit and does "jerk" his head sideways fairly frequently. Also his dorsal and anal fins will "shivver" ever once in a while. Aren't you glad I'm so technical :)

Ya I'm on top of the water quality. I have a fan and a heater in there. Topoff twice a day, water change everyday, etc and everything is tetsing good!

One more thing. Can hypo hurt anything medicine wise? In other words since the rock will need to come out anyway can I go ahead and drop to 1.009 anyway just in case Ich is there while I treat for other if neccessary? The only reason I was leaving it up was for the rock anyway.

Anyway here you go with the bad pics.

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My Bicolor angel shivers alot, and it seems to be a behavioral trait of the species. I have no personal experience with the Regal so I can't guarantee that it is the same thing, but it is quite likely.

Lots of meds can be combined with hypo. If you end up needing some antibiotics I can help you find something safe to use.

It does look like lymphocystis to me. This isn't a big deal per se, but it is more prevalent in stressed fishes. If you can get him eating anything again, Beta Glucan would be the best way to help this. I will add some articles here this afternoon to help with that.
Do all of the spots look cottony? Lympho is usually more waxy in appearance.

I would also go ahead and lower the salinity to 1.019ish if you are not going to start hypo. Lowering the salinity will keep him body from working so hard and relieve some physical stress. Make sure that any changes you make, you do them very slowly! I am more concerned right now about eating and stress than I am about disease.
 
OK some good news is he ate at least a little bit of mussell today.

I found out today that one of the Georgia Aquarium vets lives in my neighborhood. I called her up and asked if she would stop by and take a look whe she had a minute. She agreed to come by so that was great.

He also had a little cloudiness in his left eye today. No more spots really occured but the big one in the clear pic above has a noticable pinhead sized hole in the middle of the spot.

Given that she of course could not tell exactly what it was but speculated that it was indeed some bacterial disease. I told her I had some Maracyn 2 and she said that should work.

Over the course of the last 2 days I lowered the salinity to 1.019 and took all the rock out. Tonight I started the Maracyn 2 treatment.

I also added some beta glucan and B12 to the food to hopefully also help. I'll keep you posted. My biggest fear is still the eating factor. Tomorrow I'm going to attempt live adult brine enriched with beta-glucan.
 
That is pretty sweet that a knowledge aquarium vet is in the neighborhood. That ought to be worth some hook ups to the aquarium and back stage tours. Also that would be a nice speaker for your local club's meetings. Good luck with the fish. It is my favorite fish in the whole hobby. I know you can keep another troublesome fish to keep which is my second favorite in the hobby, the powder blue.
 
Wll fins have cleared. Now he has some brown nasty stringy stuff sloughing off his eyes. Again probably something bacterial. On the neighbhood fish lady advice was to add Maracyn as well as finish up the 5 days of Maracyn 2.

He's barely eating but I think enough to survive.

I'm leavingthe country tomorrow but my wife is a pro by now! I'll keep you posted,
 
Dr. Amanda,

Sorry I sent you a PM first as I was told then I found this post so I am attaching the addy to where I initially asked about the fish. Please help me.
http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=26083
 
Dr. Amanda,

Could you review this thread and supply any comments you may have?

Thank you for your time.

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=26869
 
Dr. Amanda,

I am having an issue with my Koran Angel. Could you possibly review the following thread and send/post any comments?

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=28857


Thanks,
Frank
 
Hi Dr. Amanda!

Can you review this post and add your input please? I have pics on this post and some updated ones below. http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=31366

I think I am dealing with two separate issues in the same QT tank. Today, I dosed the tank with some Erythromycin. I'm kind of at a loss for what to do and I hope this is better than doing nothing. On a good note for the clown, she looks worse, but seems to feel better. I took her out of the tank and gently ran my wet finger over her chin. Nothing came off, but when I put her in the water the sore seemed to open up and drain. She hasn't swam around in the tank for a couple of days and all of the sudden she has been everywhere. As for the Engineer goby....is this ick that I am looking at? It looks like ick to me, but I'm not the expert. I've been through ick before and that is why I set up the QT/Hospital tank. Please help!!

Thanks!!
 
Well I know Amanda responded on the other thread but I'll respond as best I can in addition.

The engineering goby to me looks like Ich for sure but I agree wiith her thoughts that there is likely a Brook outbreak here as well. This is very very common in clowns and could have easily been transferred to the goby. The latest clown pictures confirm it's not just a lymphocystis issue.

Here is a good reference on it. This will be interesting as you have multiple things going on here.
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/brooklynella.html
 
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