Outbreak of Clownfish Disease: What To Do With Surviving Fish?

iceaxe · 12/20/2016, 02:55 PM

I've had an impressive outbreak of clownfish disease. My personal introduction to the need to quarantine fish, courtesy of BlueZoo (thanks for the $400 waste of money!).

Anyway, I have a blennie, goby, and tang that survived the apocalypse. The tank is a 3 month old reef tank with some SPS corals and inverts. This thread is focused on what to do now...

1. I've read recommendations here to pull the remaining fish and treat them with formalin / fresh water baths. And that even though the surviving fish are now healthy by appearance, they are still shedding protozoa. So the treatment may kill the surviving fish... And there seems (?) to be no real data regarding how long surviving fish are able to shed the pathogen.

2. I've seen other posts emphasizing that the tank (via the corals) is now contaminated. Obviously I cannot treat the corals.

So the question is, what is a practical thing to do at this point? Don't add any fish for 6 weeks? Then add fish and cross my fingers?
Pull the remaining fish, QT them + treatment and then let the tank sit fallow? How can I be sure the remaining fish are truly healthy post-treatment?

... Hopefully you see my conundrum... Thanks in advance for your help.

12/20/2016, 02:55 PM	#1
iceaxe Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2016 Posts: 1	Outbreak of Clownfish Disease: What To Do With Surviving Fish? I've had an impressive outbreak of clownfish disease. My personal introduction to the need to quarantine fish, courtesy of BlueZoo (thanks for the $400 waste of money!). Anyway, I have a blennie, goby, and tang that survived the apocalypse. The tank is a 3 month old reef tank with some SPS corals and inverts. This thread is focused on what to do now... 1. I've read recommendations here to pull the remaining fish and treat them with formalin / fresh water baths. And that even though the surviving fish are now healthy by appearance, they are still shedding protozoa. So the treatment may kill the surviving fish... And there seems (?) to be no real data regarding how long surviving fish are able to shed the pathogen. 2. I've seen other posts emphasizing that the tank (via the corals) is now contaminated. Obviously I cannot treat the corals. So the question is, what is a practical thing to do at this point? Don't add any fish for 6 weeks? Then add fish and cross my fingers? Pull the remaining fish, QT them + treatment and then let the tank sit fallow? How can I be sure the remaining fish are truly healthy post-treatment? ... Hopefully you see my conundrum... Thanks in advance for your help.