Fluke life cycle

[Tokyoyankee]

What is the life cycle of fluke in your system? Typically 8 weeks for ich to rid your system. How about flukes?

 

[Tokyoyankee]

Sorry, I meant how long for your system to be fishless to rid it of fluke. Ich is 8-10 weeks

 

[Deinonych]

You don't need to leave the DT fishless for flukes. You can nuke them with praziquantel. It's one of the few reef safe medications. Just turn off the skimmer so it doesn't get removed from solution.

 

[Tokyoyankee]

Thanks. Although my PraziPro is reef safe, I prefer not to treat it if [possible. MY DT has been fishless for 4 weeks now with my fish in the hospital tank.

 

[cngreg]

the eye flukes we commonly see are neobenedenia and they lay eggs. I think the eggs hatch in 4-10 days ( may be temp dependent). Need to consider that when treating as prazi doesn't kills eggs.

 

[tylersarah]

Prazi will also kill any beneficial worms in the reef. My understanding is flukes can last in a fallow reef for up to 12 weeks.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

the eye flukes we commonly see are neobenedenia and they lay eggs. I think the eggs hatch in 4-10 days ( may be temp dependent). Need to consider that when treating as prazi doesn't kills eggs.

cngreg is correct. Neobenedenia eggs hatch in 4-6 days on average. At 78 degrees they hatch in 6 days. Then look for a host for 2-36 hrs. Once they find a host and attach it takes them up to 2 weeks to become an adult and lay eggs on the fish. Sometimes the eggs will fall to the substrate. The cycle starts over. Recent research has shown that praziquantel is not 100% effective against neobenedenia. This has been my experience as well. I have had to resort to formalin dips to kill off this fluke after using prazi to no avail. I left the main tank fallow for a month with success.