02.07.05 - 11:30 pm

so i recently purchased two very healthy looking a. allardi clowns, mistakenly labled as chrysopterus. they both appeared extremely healthy, but i had a QT tank set up anyways; coming from africa, they could have just been ticking timebombs for disease.

the first two days went well. they ate and ate. this was very pleasing to me. i was doing daily 50% water changes, with copper and small amounts of formalin in a depressed salinity environment. however, day three the female fell hard, and then soon the male. it was a struggle, and neither were improving. i contacted marinap, the best source of QT information i knew of. she guided me the best she could, and i followed directions in spite of rising odds. the female developed fin rot. it was consuming her tail. at this point i started using antibiotics, which i had started using before, but had been instructed to stop by marina, unless symptoms were present (which there were none initially). i began using formalin baths, for 25 minutes, then to 40 and then to a full hour of 1 gallon with 1 mL/gallon. this improved things, only temporarily.

so when things werent getting better, i made a decision which in retrospect, should have been avoided. i decided to move the ailing clowns to my refugium. there i had consistently excellent water quality, and i have seen those conditions do wonders for sick fish. and in this case, it also worked. while both clowns were being heavily consumed by brook, the male was the first to recover. without any medications, his breathing slowed, and his white mucousy body became that of his original self. his fins stopped being clamped, and he resumed eating. the female, her tail just a red stump, still swam and acted as if she was improving, minus the interest in food. i decided one last bath should heal her wounds and end the assault of the brook. however, this final bath appeared to stressful, and she died less than 6 hours later, after doing nothing different from the previous baths, and making sure the pH of both waters were identicle.

with the female deceased, the male continued to improve and now is a bustling happy young man eager to eat anything i throw his way. he has a 75 gallon refugium to call his own, and he stays within a 12 inch area....where the food is regularly dropped.

that part of the story ends, and yet, led to the worst part of all.

my two chrysopterus clowns that i received back in july of last year, my adored and breeding stubborn pair, were struck down. first the female. rapid breathing. they both became reclusive. disregarding the elevated breathing rate, i preocupied myself with their constant hiding behind the anemones as a sign of a clutch of eggs. my growing fear of an impending brook infestation didnt materialize until the end of day two when i knew i couldnt ignore the rapid breathing anymore.
by some chance, i was able to catch her that night and give her a formalin bath for an hour, and the next day, she was breathing fine. the relief was tremendous. because up until that point the male seemed unaffected. but of course, the next day he was not.
he was even worse than the female.
this is day two of me trying to catch either of them. it has proved fruitless. ive removed anemones, rocks, corals. ive damaged colonies with sloppy net manuevers. ive tried catching them while they sleep. ive tried turning lights on them suddenly in the dark. they cant be caught. ive spent hours trying in vain, and each time watch them get more stressed out, and their condition worsen. at this point, i doubt theres little i can do for them. im going to try again tonight, but i dont expect to succeed in catching either of them.

what my misconceptions were when i introduced the sick fish into my refugium was that my original pair of clowns were strong. fat. large. acclimated and resistant. ive played with danger like this before in tossing non QT fish into my refugium and tank, and have never in the last 4 years had a problem. occasionally, adopted sick fish as well have been tried in my refugium, most recovered but some did not, and nobody in the main display was affected.
i didnt think the brook on the sick and stressed fish would have any effect on the strong and resiliant clowns in the main display. this is simply not true.

so sadly, i will more than likely have to start again at square one, in creating a pair, and waiting out the enormous amount of time before a potential breed. i grew so attached to these two fish. yelled at the female when she bullied the male so much. cheered the male in his constant attempts to at least sleep in the same anemone as the female. and enjoyed watching the blue in their bars become increasing intense with blue.

my question after all of this ends, and im left with just one happy allardi male is this:

when will the brook die? without a host in which to destroy and reproduce, how long should i wait before adding another pair of clowns? if i wait a month, will they be affected? if i wait 6 months is there a chance the new clowns will still be affected?

thank you all for listening to my account, and for all those that coached me these last eight months.