Concerns about flukes and Prazi not working?

[Kurkis493]

Ok I have an Achilles that I confirmed had flukes a couple of weeks ago. I did a Prazi treatment. I missed the cycle on the flukes because over a week after treating with Prazi I saw signs of flukes again two days ago.

The Achilles had raised white spots around the cheeks. I added a full Prazi treatment to the 90 gallons almost two days ago. (4.5 tsp) and while all the "itching" stopped within 24 hours, yesterday the Achille's eye had a glaze over it.

I woke-up this morning to find his eye even more swollen, looks like a creamy color around the eye and then has stringy stuff (I assume the worm?) hanging out of the center of his eye.

I can't add more Prazi to the system... Should I have expected his eye to get worse before it would get better? Do I just stick with the plan here and let the Prazi do its thing?

 

[Kurkis493]

I assume I can also put some epsom salt in the system with the Prazi to help with the swelling on the eye?

If it is 90 gal of water, what is the dosage?

 

[HumbleFish]

With regards to Prazi; you have to do a second dose 5-7 days after the first. 20-25% WC before doing the second dose. The 5-7 day window is important; to ensure you kill all the "hatchlings" before they can lay eggs of their own. Because while Prazi does eradicate (most) worms, it doesn't kill any eggs they might leave behind.

It sounds like you are treating in a DT. Is the skimmer turned off?

Also, the "stringy stuff hanging out of the center of his eye" doesn't sound good. Can you post a pic of this?

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Other than the Achilles are any other fish showing signs of flukes?

 

[Kurkis493]

This is a 90 gallon tank set-up for QT. The fish have been in this system for ruffly a week. There is no skimmer attached to this system.

For my last Prazi treatment, I did 5 days of Prazi, did a 25% water change and did another 5 days of treatment. On the 5th day I moved these fish into the 90 gallon tank.

I had a flame wrasse several days ago that was looking ill, stopped eating and was swimming at the top of the water. The fish started to pick on him a bit and I thought he was just being bullied. I moved the fish to a 10 gallon tank. I noticed on this fish 2 days ago in the morning white stringy poop.

Later that day back in the 90 I was watching my fish eat Nori and noticed some raised white spots on the Achilles right around his gills. Shortly after that I noticed my blue hippo tang scratching on the pvc pipe and the black tang doing a little bit of flashing which he typically doesn't do.

I added the prazi to the 90 gallon 2 days ago based on all of the above. Yesterday I woke-up and the Achilles no-longer had those white spots on his gills but instead his eye was cloudy. Days earlier this fish was a perfect specimen. I wasn't sure about this because it happened well after the 10 hours the prazi usually kicks into the system.

I woke-up today to notice his eye significantly worse. Covered with something, stringy stuff coming out of the eye. He ate and is still acting normal.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I could remove this guy and treat him for infection with Maracyn... I could run some carbon for the day and treat the entire system with Maracyn...

I really don't want to lose this fish. I had a flame angel I had in QT and both of the eyes got infected it couldn't eat and eventually died. This Achilles is looking the same way.

I'm not sure about the water quality.. I was doing tank transfers every couple of days and adding Bio Spira to the new system each time.

On the 90 I have a canister running with some fluval bio things and some seachem rock for the bacteria to grow and I have 2 bottles of Bio Spira in this system. The water is a week old so I'm not sure it is overly dirty yet?

 

[Kurkis493]

I tried to get a picture for you guys but he moves far to much to get anything useful. All it looks like is an eye covered in cream.

 

[HumbleFish]

The Flame Angel that died; is the Achilles in the same QT? What I'm getting at is... Is the Achilles now in the same water/tank that the Flame Angel was in when he died? If so, it's possible a bacterial infection killed your Flame Angel, and the same harmful bacterium that took out the Flame is now affecting the Achilles.

As far as flukes are concerned; I would do another f/w dip to confirm/deny. Because it's also possible you are dealing with a Prazi resistant strain of flukes here... if so, Newsmyrna80 can tell you how to deal with that better than I.

 

[Kurkis493]

The fish are in completely new water... I was doing tank transfers etc on all my new fish.

I'm sure it is flukes. I will try to catch and freshwater dip but if I have fish scratching, white stringy poop, cloudy eye and raised white spots that have since disappeared what else could I possibly be looking at?

All of the fish have stopped scratching since adding Prazi the problem is simply this guys eye... I will add epsom salt.

My crossroads is should I keep up with prazi or should I be doing a medication?

Thanks.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

I would keep up with the Prazi. It can take several rounds before it'll knock them out. If after 3-4 more rounds the flukes are still around you can resort to formalin dips. Try to do a FW dip to be 100% sure it's flukes. Do you have a microscope?