butterflys: quarantine & acclimation

[suta4242]

Locally we have a range of species available, but many appear to carry various parasites and bacterial infections picked up through the chain of custody. IME pulling them through quarantine, especially if they arrive in bad condition, is tricky.

So I'd like to hear from butterfly keepers what you do during quarantine. :hmm5:

Do you undertake prophylactic treatments - if so which ones? Maybe you have firsthand experiences about what not to do: eg when things have gone wrong, but the fish may have pulled through had things been done differently.

Can you also provide details if your QT or approach is different to the norm?

Thanks for your time.:beer:

 

[rachenbrazil]

First in QT ...give some time to get used to enviroment and food.
When settle and no symptons arise , flukes control with prazipro...
If other disease show first , treat it and after that treat for flukes

 

[SDguy]

I've been successful with the following protocol:

QT: 15g tank with Aquaclear hang-on filter (established sponge filter), heater, light, and live rock rubble/pieces. Also, a small powerhead for circulation.

As mentioned above, the only prophylactic med I use is prazi, but only after the fish is eating well, and fat. Sometimes this is not an option though. I recently had flukes appear and I had to treat even though on buttefly was not yet eating well. It got very skinny during the prazi treatment, but still pulled through.

Unfotunately I can't say I've ever had a butterfly not require other meds. Ich, along with just general, weird unknown bacterial cloudiness has always deveolped on every butterfly I've dealt with in recent times.

For the ich, once I figured out that butteflies can be cured of ich with very low doses of Cupramine, I have not lost one in QT since.

For bacterial and other strange issues that have popped up, I've been extremely successful with Nitrofuracin Green Powder by fishfarmacy.com. I have a yellow longnose butterfly develop an infection on its snout (usually a killer for a butterfly). The NGP cured it quite well.

 

[AuroraDrvr]

QT- Depends on the fish. I have a few available, 10G, 46G, 55G and 60G
Prophylactic Treatments - Praziquantel x Metro mixture (API General Cure).
Treatments - Ich: Hyposalinity, Flukes: API General Cure, Bacterial Infections: Hikari Bi-Furan

After having multiple poor experiences with PraziPro, I switched to API General Cure. It's a dry powdered form of Praziquantel and Metronidazole. Works much better and quicker IMO.

 

[suta4242]

Thanks for your replies...

After having multiple poor experiences with PraziPro, ...

Sorry, but could you elaborate on this? Didn't it work using the standard dosage, or was it poorly tolerated by the fish or something else?

 

[AuroraDrvr]

Sorry, but could you elaborate on this? Didn't it work using the standard dosage, or was it poorly tolerated by the fish or something else?

My apologies, I was in a rush and should have clarified.

Multiple times I have brought in Angels or Butterflies that had Flukes of some kind. Each time I treated with Prazipro, and each time the flukes were very slow to respond to the treatments, in my most recent case, a Pet Store C. fremblii brought in flukes, infecting my C. rainfordi. After numerous dosages of Prazipro, the flukes were still not eliminated. It wasn't until I decided to switch to API General Cure that the flukes were cleared. Unfortunately it was a day-late-and-a-dollar-short for the C. rainfordi.

The Prazi was within a 1/2 year old, and shaken properly before dosing. It was also stored in the refrigerator after opening.