Can a clown pass an internal parasite on its own?

[salt_water]

Just curious if a clown can get better without having to take him out and QT him, as I dont have it setup. He's going on the third day of heavy breathing, he sits down in the rocks during the day, and at night swims at the top of the water. So, I dont know how he is still alive if he isnt eating anything. I've been keeping an eye on him and he has tried to poop out this parasite, as I can see white thread coming out. Is he on his way out, or you think he could be getting better? Hoping for the best...

 

[salt_water]

Screw it, here goes the Freshwater dip, added a litle bit of PH/alkalinity Buffer to the freshwater and matched the temp best I could. Wish me(and him) luck.

 

[salt_water]

I can not believe I actually just put a true percula in a pitcher of Freshwater, THIS IS F'IN CRAZY!!! I hope he makes it. Poor little guy.

 

[salt_water]

Wow, I put him back in and my other clown is doing the mating shake thing, and my six-line wrasse swam over too, Its like they are all telling him he's going to be alright.

Its the funniest thing. They know something just happened to him, and BTW mscaperna, I found out FW dips do kill internal parasites. The clownfish(as you may already know) takes in water through its entire body. So they take in plenty of FW to hopefully kill any and all parasites on the fish. I was told they have made very large fish drink bottled water to get them out. :joy:
Still, hoping for the best.

 

[mscarpena]

I hope everything works out for you. I did not think a FW dip would help. If it did great. Keep me posted and good luck.

 

[salt_water]

I certainly hope so... He is still alive but swimming with his tail up, I dont think that is a good thing. The other fish go over a nudge him to keep him moving. What would be "normal" for a fish after a FW dip? I know they arent going to be back to normal right away. Any help would be great, Thanks.

 

[mscarpena]

Well clownfish are one of the better fish at regulating over a wide range of salinity, but straight fresh water they certainly can not survive for long maybe 2-3 hours. I was reading that most healthy fish can survie with these parasites, but your fish seems to not be doing so well. I deffinately agree that your fish has an internal parasite. I did some reasearch and I found out that you should treat sick fish with metronidazole for about 3 days. Then use piperazine for 7-10 days. I have a book about clownfish. It states that you should do this when wild caught healthly fish arrive. The book states that wild caught clownfish are afflicted with internal parasites about 70-85% of the time. Try it and see what happens. I would try to remove the fish from the aquarium especially if you have acro's because I was reading that some parasites are flatworm. Some flatworm can eat and kill acro's. Well I hope this helps and I hope your fish makes it. Good luck and keep me posted. Also the book states nothing about doing or not doing a fresh water dip for internal parasites. If you do one don't go over about 2-3 minutes. Also remember that fw dips are pretty stressful on a sick fish.

 

[salt_water]

First off, thank you so much for actually going forth to help me out. As you already know, I did the FW dip. I only left him in there about 5-6minutes, which as far as I could find is about max for treatment. I got him on 12-21, so I guess he had to be eating something, although I didnt see him eat a thing from the second day on. He is still "alive and kicking", with his tail raised, all the fish periodcally go over and check him out, very interesting. I did not, however, find the medication you've listed. I will have to find these meds. I assume this is a wild caught fish since I've been reading most tank bred clowns won't have this issue. Also, I do not have any Acropora in my tank. That is what you mean't by acros, correct? Again thanks for the help, I hope I don't loose this guy. BTW he's been doing the heavy breathing thing for 3 days or so. He's damn resilient.

 

[mscarpena]

The one medication is used for cats and dogs as a dewormer. Check out **************.com. You may want to call them.

 

[salt_water]

Well, for an update. He didnt make it, he did fine all through the night, and was swimming like his old self again in the morning. Then the other clownfish went over trying to get him to swim around more and stressed him out even worse. He ended up getting way too stressed out. Very bummed... I'm not going to be adding any fish for awhile now. I'll wait until I've got a QT setup, like I should have had already. Thanks again for the help.