Flukes

[Tracey2]

Whats the best way to treat delicate angels for flukes? I hae used prazipro in the past but usually fish stop eating with this med.

 

[namxas]

IIRC, you can use vitamin B6 to help the fish get over the hump. It will help the fish to utilize stored carbs and may actually increase its appetite. We used this with good results on a flukey Mombassa lionfish.

 

[Tracey2]

Hi Greg, thanks for your help. Is vitamin B6 something I buy at the drug store or is it made for fish? How much would I use?

 

[Tat2demon]

I used Prazipro for 2 weeks with no problems at all.

 

[Beandawg]

10 minute FW dip. Set up a QT, and prazi pro the DT. Once youve FW dipped the angel, all the flukes will be gone so there is no reason to prazi the QT. Do not use anything from the DT in the QT though.

 

[RBU1]

Prazipro is all I use and have never had a problem. The only time you might have an issue is if the fish is loaded with flukes and the prazi kills them fast causing issues with the fish. If you think the fish is heavily infested with flukes do a FW dip first them follow up with prazi in a couple days.

 

[Tracey2]

Thanks for your replies. Maybe I have misdiagnosed, I assumed flukes because she is twitching. She had a FW dip when she arrived at the lfs and I gave her a prazipro bath for an hour before going into my QT. She is scratching one side of her face and twitching. I did not see anything in her bath water using prazi.

 

[RBU1]

Could be flukes could be crypt. Hard to tell for sure, especially if your not seeing anything. Are you going to treat with copper?

 

[Tracey2]

I have dosed half of the first day treatment of cupramine, so very low dose but she seems fine still picking at food. Now I have to decide to dose the other half of cupramine or mix in a low dose of prazi. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[LargeAngels]

FW dips only kills the adult flukes, not the eggs and a Prazipro dip doesn't get rid of all the flukes either. Best way is to do 2 or 3 consequtive Prazipro 5-7 day treatments to make sure all eggs have hatched and been killed. Like RBU1 stated if there is a heavy infestation it is best to FW dip first and then start the Prazipro treatment.

If you are now treating with Cupramine I would do a quick FW dip just to see if flukes fall off and see if that is the cause of the twitching and not wait and find out after the Cupramine treatment that the fish still had flukes. Cupramine and Prazipro are two meds I'm never without anymore.

 

[Tracey2]

Thanks for your help. The lfs did a FW dip with her but I am not comfortable doing this. I did a FW dip once and the fish died. She is not twitching constantly and otherwise looks healthy so what if I leave the cupramine low and start dosing prazi? I have a new batch of SW made if things don't go well.

For those of you that do FW dips, do you have a ph probe? I have a temp probe but only have an API test kit for ph, I wondered if this was why my last experience with this method did not go well.

 

[namxas]

Tracy,

The B6 was obtained from health food or drug store.

 

[Tracey2]

Greg, can you explain how you used this vitamin, is it in pill form that you dissolve in the tank, how much per water volume, thank you.

 

[Chipie]

A very important thing when doing a fresh water bath is to match the PH of the fish tank's water.

 

[Beandawg]

A very important thing when doing a fresh water bath is to match the PH of the fish tank's water.

Not important.

 

[Tracey2]

After doing the half first day dose of cupramine my water was testing .25 for ammonia so I did a large water change and turned the skimmer and carbon back on. After the water change the regal started eating flakes and looks great, I have not seen her twitch again. Is it possible the parasite was removed with the water change or killed with the low dose of cupramine?

I plan to observe for a few days but would appreciate opinions.

My bigger problem is, I could have flukes in my DT already. I found a thread today showing pictures of flukes which look transparent and oval shaped, I think I have seen these on my majestic angel in the DT, not sure. My display does not have corals yet, should I treat it with prazi? Can fish live with flukes? Why would I only see this on the majestic and no other fish?

Thanks for your help.

 

[LargeAngels]

Cupramine can show up as a FALSE positive on most ammonia test kits, as they can't tell the difference between ammonia and the Cupramine so it may be that the ammonia reading was really 0.

Flukes are really nasty IMO and should be treated for if you suspect it. Many angelfish come in with flukes and almost no place treats for them so very likely the emperor has them. People hardly ever see them except if they are on the eye and then the eyes will look cloudy.

 

[Tracey2]

I think you are right about the false positive on the ammonia because the regal didn't seem too upset but I do think the large water change stimulated her appetite.

I have never seen flukes on the majestic's eye but sometimes it looks like someone has rubbed some of the color from her, does this sound like flukes?

The majestic was in a tank I tore down so has been through QT but I don't remember what she was treated with back then. Why do I only see this on her and no one else in the tank?

 

[Beandawg]

Cupramine will do nothing for flukes. FW dip your fish and Prazi-bomb the DT. There is nothing to be scared of, the longer you wait the more you run the risk of SERIOUS secondary infection.

 

[Tracey2]

Well tonight I finally got brave enough to do the fw dip even though the only sign on my regal was something on her chin which I thought was either a fluke or an isopod. I matched the ph and temp and after 15mins I had killed my happy eating regal. I don't know what I am doing wrong with fw dips but I will never do it again, I feel just sick.