what do you know about brooklynella ?

[reefgeek]

Well Im batting 1000 for the last couple of days !!!! ! 3 for 3. 3 Up 3 down. 3 false percs DEAD !!! all with what looks like to be a break out of brooklynella. Now being a new reef guy, I have not realized the necessity of a quarantine tank until now. Now here is my question. The tank is fairly new 9 weeks cycled. Parameters look good. What do you think the treatment should be of the tank since I have had 3 fish with same signs and symptoms. The other 2 fish are doing OK in there right now, but they are little Damsels. So I expect them to be almost bulletproof. Im soooo frustrated right now !!! I mean what happened things were going great !!!! Oh, and all 3 of these false percs came from the same LFS. However my mushrooms are going off !!!!! looking great killer green colors !

[graphixx]

well its a parasite and not much is really known about it. you can do a couple of things to treat it:
1.a fresh water dip with water the same temp and PH as your water for approx 15 minutes
2.Giving a bath with saltwater and formalin at about 1000ppm for 15 minutes
3.or adding an acriflavine product such as Fish Vets Revive

Best of Luck

[reefgeek]

how do you think this was introduced to the system.... Now that I look back I had one damsel die 4 days into the cycle with the same symptoms. Does stress make the fish lose color, and kind of turn a grayish color .... Thats what has happened to the last couple of DOA's

[perpetual98]

Don't dose Formalin in the tank though, it'll wipe out your inverts.

This is from Joyce Wilkersons book "Clownfishes":

Symptoms are a thick, whitish mucus coat, rapid respiration, loss of appetite, open-mouth gasping and faded color in advanced cases. Affected fishes are usually found either lying on the bottom or staying near the suface of the water.

[KG]

Reefgeek, here's what one website had to say about the subject:

Brooklynellosis

What causes brooklynellosis?

Brooklynellosis is caused by a ciliated protozoan known as Brooklynella hostilis Lom and Nigrelli, 1970. B. hostilis is found pretty much all over the world, but is more common in warmer waters (Lom, 1995). It infects most marine teleosts (bony fishes) but has not been detected in wild fish (Lom, 1995). Brooklynella has no free-living stages (Lom, 1995).

The parasite attacks the gills of the infected fish and with heavy infections, the surface tissue of the gills is destroyed and the parasites feed on tissue debris and ingest blood cells (Lom, 1995).

The signs of brooklynellosis

As the parasite causes respiratory difficulties (Lom, 1995), the infected fish show rapid or laboured breathing and may swim close to the water surface in an attempt to get sufficient oxygen. The gills may haemorrhage and small red spots (petechiae) may be present (Lom, 1995). A mild inflammatory reaction may be evoked by a light infection, but a heavy infections will usually cause the death of the fish. Noga (2000) reports that skin lesions are also often associated with brooklynellosis.

Prevention of brooklynellosis

Lom (1995) suggests that ciliated protozoan parasites, such as Brooklynella, only cause problems when the fish are stressed. Maintaining good water quality and low stress levels may be sufficient to prevent Brooklynella in aquaria. As the introduction of new fish is generally stressful to the fish, quarantining a fish for a number of weeks before it is moved to a display tank will allow both observation for signs of disease or parasites and enable the fish to regain any condition lost in the capture and transport process.

Treatment of brooklynellosis

Both Lom (1995) and Noga (2000) recommend formalin baths of between 0.125 and 167 mL/L for 30 to 60 minutes. The warmer your water, the less formalin that should be used as both formalin and increasing temperature reduces the oxygen saturation of the water.

The bath water should be matched closely with the tank water and probably the best way is to take water from the tank and place it in a bucket, add the formalin. mix well and treat the fish. Replace the removed water with fresh seawater (artificial or natural depending on what is normally used). Add an airstone to the dip bucket to ensure good aeration (and then toss the airstone away). After the dip is completed, dilute the dip water with 4 times the volume of tap water and discard.

To each gallon (or 4 litres) of bath water, around 0.6 mL of formalin should be added to get the desired dosage.

Have a second bucket of tank water ready to transfer the fish to when the treatment is complete or the fish shows signs of stress. The second bucket allows the fish to be "rinsed" before it is placed back into the tank.

Don't use formalin if the water temperature is greater than 27