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Clown with cottonmouth


mFrame

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Got a pair of black saddleback clown from a group order a few weeks ago. Both had strange looking lips, and one was dead within 2 days. The second has survived and is still alive, but now has a large cottony white growth on one of his gills. It spread to his mouth, and from everything I've found online it appears to be "cottonmouth". I have him in a 12g quarantine tank and have spent the last 4 days treating with Maracyn by Mardel. I've seen no reduction in size of whatever it is growing on him. He is still active, swimming, and eating, though he has a difficult time getting the food in past the cotton.

Any advice on alternate treatments? He's obviously a fighter but needs some assistance to kick this thing's butt. As mentioned, he's in a bare bottom QT tank so that should provide a lot of treatment options.

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Watching this thread, since I woke up this morning to a chromis with a suspicious white growth on one of his gills that also matches the description of cottonmouth. If I can catch him I'm going to try maracyn 2, since I've heard it's more effective against gram-negative bacteria, but very interested in alternative treatments as well.

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The remaining clown is in the QT tank on day 4 of being treated with Maracyn. I'm trying to figure out whether to treat him next with Maracyn2 or with Formulin. He's still active and trying to eat but obviously needs some help.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Updating this post to let people know what has worked for me. Clown was placed in the QT tank and treated for 4 days with Maracyn. Showed no signs of improvement and actually continued to get worse. He still had a healthy appetite though, which kept him alive for the next round. Treated for 4 days with Maracyn 2 and once again showed now signs of improvement. By this point the mass on his side was larger than his fin and his lips and mouth were covered. Despite this, he was still eating and very active. So I moved on to the last treatment, Quick Cure (malachite green, formalin). 1 Day after initial treatment the mass was half its size. 2 Days after it had reduced in size by half again, leaving the mass a pinkish color. Lips and mouth were much more clear at this time and the fish's appetite remained. 3 Days after the mass is just a small pink lump on his side, though his appetite seemed diminished. I treated again on Day 4 per instructions hoping to completely eliminate the mass, but 24 hrs later and it was still there unchanged and the fish had no appetite. Will do a full water change and clean today without continuing treatment to see how the fish progresses.

Just a reminder not to use any of these treatments in your reef tank. I bought a cheap used eclipse system for QT purposes and put a few pvc elbows in so the fish has some shelter. Salt creep is horrible on the setup, but seeing the malachite green staining the acrylic makes me never want to have this stuff around my real tank.

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