clown fish with ick not eating

hugo

New Member
Hi,
My clown fish has ick and has not eaten in almost 4 days. He is still swimming but most floats without exerting much effort. I am starting treatment but am not sure whether he will pull through. Is there a chance my other clown will also contract ick? What should I do?
 

moga

Member
sorry to hear about ick on your fish..
i have had clown with ick but they fought back and became healthy..
why don't you raise the tempture of your tank to 82? that worked on my clown as well as my angel..
good luck~..
 
BTW:
Be sure to only put a small amount of Brine Shrimp into the tank at a time, otherwise the garlic may soak out. Also, if your ich is that advanced, garlic might not help. You may need a quarantine tank and/or a good long freshwater dip. Clowns deal with freshwater pretty well... as a matter of fact, some whackos were selling "freshwater clownfish" on the net a while back... clowns that had been acclimated to freshwater with atouch of salt. I think this was cruel, but it does demonstrate that a dip probably won't kill the fish. Do a search for ich, dips, etc. in the Disease and Treatments group. Also, you should make sure that you've properly identified the illness before you treat.
HTH
 

i3luedragon

Member
I put my Clowns in a freshwater dip and most of the ICK fell off. Then I put them in a QT with Coppersafe. I also slowly did hyposalinity and raised the temperature. So far my clowns have been there for almost 2 weeks and eating healthy. ;)
 

frenchman

Member
I actually have a very similar problem. I have isolated my clown into a quarantine tank and treated him with RxP for more than 2 weeks. It did not help. I dipped him several time in freshwater for 2 minutes but it did not help too much (amazing to see a clown actually swimming in freshwater :eek: ) I now treat him with Cupramine and it seems to work better. He did not die but stopped eating. Well... I guess I feel with you. :(
 

hugo

New Member
Thanks for the feedback and sympathetic messages. Here is an update. I dipped my clown in freshwater last night. He seemed to be more active in there than he was in my tank. Swam around and explored the 5 gallon basin I put him in. I got the temperature close to the tank and dechlorinated the water.
When I put him back in the tank he appeared to do worse. He moved only enough to keep himself upright. Some of the ick appeared to be gone but the piece above one of his eyes was still prominently there. So I went to the fish store and bought some rid ick. I prepared another bath for him and put him in there for close to 30 minutes. He again seemed to be doing better.
After I put him back in the tank I noticed some slime stuff coming off of him. I think the dip might have removed some of his protective coating. I am hoping the dip also melted away his ick. This morning he was still swimming in place behind a piece of dead coral. He still did not eat but after I saw how resilient he was in the basin I have hope he will pull through.
So far the other clown in the tank does not show any signs of having ick.
The interesting thing is I have a cleaner shrimp which the ick affected clown would approach to have itself cleaned but the shrimp never obliged. The shrimp would allow the clown to approach but never close enough for the shrimp to be able to clean it...
 

hugo

New Member
I think there is a secondary ailment affecting my clown. I have had fish with ich and server instances of ich continuing to feed. He does have ich for sure. He has a white grain next to his left eye. Another on his tail fin and two more on his side.
It started with one and then he had several. He was very active and feeding well until Friday of last week. Then suddenly he stopped feeding completely. He is not near death as he put up a fight trying to avoid the net. I am not sure what details to give other than:
25 gallon tank
5 weeks since setup
not done cycling - nitrite and nitrate levels close to peak
lots of diatom growth which I clean weekly
have not tested pH or oxygen levels
 
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