Figured out what my clown has-- Not ICH!

[travis32]

O.k. I'm not sure if this is good or not, but I finally figured out what my clown has. I thought it was caused from ich parasites falling off the fish and entering the stage of infesting my tank with ich. However, no further signs of ich have shown up in the past 2 months.

I do know what it is though, but, don't know what to do about it..

Based on the description, HLLE describes what the clown has exactly.

He has pitted holes along the top of his head, right along the edge of his first white stripe above his eyes. My wife thinks the clown is gross because he has holes in his head.

He is very lethargic. Hasn't visibly / actively eaten for the last 8 weeks. (YES 8 WEEKS!)

Yesterday and today are the first days ever that I saw him eat. He ate 1 piece of mysis yesterday and spit it out. and today he ate a piece of brine and actually ate it. He's still extremely lethargic. One of the holes on his head looks like it has started to close over the last week or so.

But, I don't know the cause nor do I know what to do to help him heal?

I thought about ordering some vitamins to soak the brine / mysis in before feeding it? Or can I crush some vitamin C pills for humans and use that?

The only thing I can think of is I had bought another clown about the time this clown got sick. That clown died within 7 days of getting him. No other fish appeared to be affected, but either it had some parasites that latched onto this clown due to proximity, or, the stress of losing that clown caused this one to develop HLLE, or that one had HLLE and this clown got it from that clown...

I don't really know, kind of a catch 22. I have a new clown that is awesome and appears to be staying healthy and actively eating and being very active. It has motivated the other clown to be more active and eat. But, well, I can almost see his bones through his skin. So, I'd like to help him gain weight and fight the HLLE. I've tried garlic soaking shrimp / brine shrimp.

I've tried garlic flakes. Regular flakes. Pellets. Nori, veggie flakes. I'm not sure what else to try? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Chris27]

Try changing the diet up a bit, constantly feeding flakes pellets and the like doesn't give the fish a well rounded nutritious diet, compare it to a human eating cereal 3x a day.

Get a good multi-food like emerald ent., SW Multi or marine fusion (my fav.), defrost it in RO water, and strain the food out. Next, soak it in garlic, vitamin and fatty acid supplements for 20-30 min and then feed. At this point you need that fish to eat, and eat well. With good water quality and a good diet it may pull through for you.

[travis32]

Yup. I'm wondering if the start of it isn't flukes? I don't know much about them, but, I have seen one or two other fish have small round looking white worm like creatures hang around their bodies. Most don't get a good hold and just fall off (only visibly seen 1 or 2.)

They're less than 1/8" long.. I don't know if they could have caused HLLE to develop. But, I have seen at least 1 like that. I blasted him with shrimp last night, and he accidently ate a piece. He opens his mouth rapidly and I saw one go in his mouth. Was kinda funny. I ordered some elos vitamins to soak shrimp in today. I've tried a wide variety of foods and he doesn't go after anything. The additional clown seems to have motivated him to have a minor eating response. And a slight increase in activity, but, it's pretty limited.

[fairywolf32]

Here is the picture of the clown travis32 is talking about (I posted it in the clown section but was advised to post here but seen he posted it so I will at least post the picture so everyone can see what he is talking about). The link to the thread the picture is in:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1967348

Thanks!