White film?

After adding a k4 to our company display tank, the fish just started acting weird! After a week of them continually being more and more stressed every day I finally figured out the stressor! Had a lot of stray charge from the k4 so I put in a ground yesterday.
Anyways, why I posted in asap is because both clowns have a greyish white film all over the entire body. No symptoms of ich or fin deterioration...
I am thinking it's bacterial? Does anyone know the name of this infection or the most efficient treatment?

 

Possibly Amloodinium also known as velvet. This is a rapidly progressing disease which starts off at the gills and so shows initially as respiratory distress but will then spread out across the skin.
Signs include respiratory distress, skin rubbing and erratic swimming. Without treatment death can occur within two days of respiratory signs. Hypo Salinity treatment is not effective. There is not much hope against Velvet.
Or possible Brooklynella. If it is brooklynella Formalin is the only treatment that is effective against this parasite and it can be used with scaleless fish also, but at half the recommended dosage.
Formalin 3 or a 37% formaldehyde solution : By far the most effective, and in my opinion, the only truly effective measure that will act quick enough to defeat this parasitic protozoa.

DO NOT add this to your show tank, this chemical will kill your biological filter as well as any and all inverts and corals within your tank as well as rapidly depleting the oxygen levels.

- Remove the infected fish to a quarantine tank, ensuring that the tank is well airated as the fish may be experiencing reduced gill efficiency.

- Treat the quarantine tank's water with Maracyn or any other trustworthy anti-bacterial medication as a safeguard against secondary bacterial infections as this parasite is known to cause open skin wounds.

- Have two, one gallon clean containers filled with water from the quarantine tank that the fish has been in.
- The first one gallon container will be used for the actual dip
- The second one gallon container will be used as a rinse to remove any of the formalin from the fish before being returned to the quarantine tank.

- Add one or two teaspoons of Formalin 3 to one of the filled gallon containers, this will provide a dosage of either 100ppm or 200ppm, using the lower dosage for fish species that can be considered delicate, such as the Tangs and Butterflys.
- An airstone MUST be used within the treatment container with vigorous air flow as formalin will deplete oxygen levels.
- The temperature of the treatment container must not be above 80 degrees.

- Place the fish into the dip container for a period of between 30 to 60 minutes, of course the longer it can remain in the dip, the better, but you MUST monitor the fish at all times, if the fish shows any signs of trouble, remove the fish right away, put it into the rinse container for a few minutes and return the fish to the quarantine tank to recover. Do not attempt to dip the fish again until the next day.

- The fish should be dipped once a day for a five day period. If you feel the fish is being harmed or not handling the treatment, lower the formalin dosage used and if need be, skip a day before repeating the dip. Do not use this as an excuse just because you feel sorry for the fish though. The dosage and length of time within the dip, are all things that you will have to make judgment calls on.

- While the fish is in its treatment dip, replace the two gallons of saltwater that you removed from the quarantine tank, ensuring that the replacement water is of the same salinity, PH and temperature as that of the quarantine tank.

- Once the fish has been treated, remove it from the dip and place it into the rinse container for an additional five minutes, this will allow any medication and loosened parasites to be rinsed off of the fish.

- After each use, both containers should be emptied into a drain , rinsed well with freshwater and allowed to dry until needed again.

- I would also be concerned with the quarantine tank having free swimming parasites able to infect the fish again as it returns from its dip, as such, I would have the quarantine tank set at hypo saline levels ( 1.009 sg ) prior to the fish being moved to the quarantine tank, while it is usually recommended that the salinity be lowered gradually, I feel in this circumstance, the immediate transfer to lowered salinity levels will have a two fold benefit, in that it may knock off alot of the parasites right away and may also kill off those that remain free swimming in the tank between dips. A fish is much better able to handle sudden lowered salinity than going into higher salinity. Any "shock" concerns would be minimum. Most large wholesalers and public aquariums place their new arrivals directly into hypo saline conditions upon arrival with little, if any, losses.



Two Tank Method to prevent reinfestation :

- Since there is a concern about returning a newly dipped fish back into the quarantine tank's water, which may allow the reinfection of the fish, having two tanks in use could avoid such a chance. One of the two tanks would be drained and sterilized after the removal of the fish and filled again with new saltwater, rotating between the two tanks and sterilizing each as the fish are removed for treatment.



LONG TERM BATH :

- If you feel that you have caught this parasite in its earliest stages, or are not sure of which parasite may be infesting the fish, a long term treatment bath can be used also, this treatment plan should be used if you feel the fish is so weakened or has an unusual risk involved with the dip method. This method may also be more effective when having to treat all of your fish at one time due to the main tank being infested.

- A quarantine tank has to be used also for this treatment method, formalin should never be used within the main aquarium.

- The salinity of the quarantine tank does not have to be lowered to hypo saline conditions.

- Aeration should be vigorous within the quarantine tank.

- The fish will have to remain within this quarantine tank for no less than eight weeks if they have been in the main tank to allow the main tank to remain fishless for that time period to ensure any remaining parasites die off from the lack of a host fish.

- With the quarantine tank set up as suggested / linked to, Add one to two teaspoons of Formalin 3 to each 10 gallons of water. Using the lower or higher dosage depending on the sensitivity and / or the condition of the fish to be treated.

- Every 24 hours, change 25 percent of the quarantine tank's water and add another dose of formalin 3.

- Continue the treatment for a five day period. Continue to do daily water changes after the four day treatment to control the inevitable ammonia issues.

Note : Amquel plus can be used in conjunction with Formalin 3 to control or lock up ammonia.

- Formaldehyde persists for only a few hours in aquariums and does not accumulate in the water

Notes / Concerns : Formalin is a poison , as such it should be treated and handled as you would any dangerous chemical. Please follow closely any directions by the manufacturer for its proper handling, storage and disposal.

Alternative Formalin use : If you feel the infested fish may not be able to handle long term dip methods, you may want to consider using a combination of both dip and long term bath methods, in that, give the fish a one time dip treatment to knock down and remove the infestation and then place the fish into a long term bath treatment to kill any remaining parasites. I would only do this with a heavily infested fish that could be considered a sensitive species or one that is already weakened by the parasite.

Hypo salinity - This is not an effective treatment, while lowered salinity may allow the protozoa to drop off of the fish, it is no guarantee that all will do so and you risk losing the fish if any remain and are able to rapidly multiply again. The speed at which this protozoa can multiply requires fast, effective treatment. At which hypo salinity methods may take too long to become effective before the possible loss of the fish.

Copper based treatments - Not found to be effective against this particular parasite.

Freshwater Dips - Not found to be effective, although it may provide temporary relief or used as a method to knock off as many of the parasites as possible before the fish is placed into a long term bathtreatment.
Good Luck

 

Yea I have a positive ID on brooklynella
from what I understand this is mainly a damselfish infecting protozan. Will exposure to the tangs put them at risk?

 

I have known of Sohal Tang getting Brook so I assume it stand's firm for the whole family.

 

Tell me about your tank hardware and stocking habit's. Skimmer Filtration. Acclimation and all. Let's cut to the chase and find and fix the problem. Also tell me how you do water changes. How long do you let it set before putting it in the tank. If not left at least 24 hour's, Many components of synthetic salt remain caustic- and therefore toxic- for a significant period after they appear to be dissolved. It is much better to mix the water 1-2 days in advance.

 

There are a lot of factor's that play in a healthy aquarium. You are God over these fish and coral's. They are totally dependent on you and your husbandry. What other fish do you have?

 

Alright, here's everything... This company DT has been set up for three months now. Te company paid for it so no corners were cut. the live rock was taken from my personal tank at home. I bought a mated pair of percs to this tank to begin with. I bought a super beefy cuc from reef cleaners. I have not yet added coral as the tank is a little young. My mechanical filtration consists of a skimmer from coralife (I know it's cheaper but my options were slim for skimmer selection at my lfs) additional mechanical filtration is a hob filter for a 125 gallon until our custom sump is done being made. I maintain the carbon monthly and rinse the sponge in hob every two weeks. My flow is 37x turnover and their is no accumulation of detrus across the sand bed. I perform 20-30% water changes monthly with brightwell salt. Typically it is allowed to sit overnight for 12 or more hours. One of the new k4's we added was putting out 43 volts into the tank so we grounded it... The fish started developing the stress and eventually the symptoms presented above until I thought to use the volt meter to check any charge.

Since the k4 was added, we have lost one blonde naso (very mad about that one) a pseudochromis and as of this morning, a female perc... Left in the tank is a desjardini sailfin and the male perc. The sailfin has developed a small case of ich from the stress and te male has full blown brooklynella. The sailfin has no visible symptoms of brooklynella.

I appreciate your help grey ghost!

 

Do not use Formalin in the D.T. use it in a Q.T. or it will kill your C.U.C. The only way I can see how you wound up with this illness was from the filtration system. I will explain this later in another post or a P.M. If you lose all the rest of the fish to this illness you will have to leave the tank fallow for at least 6 week's. And even if you pull them through you will still have an affected tank. Move the fish to a Q.T. before using the medication (Formalin) it will wreak havoc on your C.U.C. There is not much else I can help with. Good Luck & God Bless
GreyGhost

 

The Naso alone was a huge loss. Beautiful fish. It is sad to lose any fish. Except my blue damsel. I don't think a 12 gauge shotgun would affect her.

 

Hahaha yea damsels are always a pain lol