Clown only disease?(Newbie)

diana888

diana888

New Member
Hi, I hope you guys can help me. I had 2 clowns and a yellow tang. One clown got pale fins and white strings hanging from his butt (?) and died within hours. Someone told me it was a parasite and if the other fish started to look bad to give them a fresh water dip. Well, the other clown was almost dead within hours so we did the dip and he is fine now. The tang shows no signs of ill health. My question is, could this have been a clown only problem? Do I need to treat the whole tank for something before I get more clown, or any kind of fish? The fish were bew, less than a week in the tank, and i had just put in a piece of live rock 2 days prior. I just do not want to buy new fish only to lose them. Thanks for any help!
 
geridoc

geridoc

Well-Known Member
If your water parameters are good, I would do nothing for a few weeks and just see what happens. If the parasite reappears, you could treat. Otherwise, just let things settle down a bit.
 
diana888

diana888

New Member
Thanks for the photos Beth.
Our clowns did not have the patches seen on your photos. The back fin and side fin got paler and there was a long skinny pure white string from the bottom of the fish and possibly that thin white film on the body. Breathing looked labored and my husband said the clown looked like it was trying to blow things out of it's gills.
The second fish is doing okay now. We gave him 3 fresh water dips and are searching for formalin in this tiny town but it looks like we will have to internet order it. The surviving clown's one eye is pretty white and he is still not eating, but he is swimming around as opposed to laying on his side like he was doing until we started with the baths.
Weird thing is our yellow tang is healthy and happy.
My main concern now is getting more fish. I do not want to buy more fish and have them get sick but we only have the tang, the one clown, a shrimp and a crab. Not much for a 55 gal tank.
 
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