Internal parasite

[mike54784]

I'm just starting my aquarium over again after a case of ich destroyed my tank. I'm actually not just starting again, because it has been going for a while again, but I'm just adding fish back to it again for the first time.

I'm just going with two fish this time. They are both false percs. I got them at the same time, and put them in QT. They both have white stringy poop. I've done my research and know that this could be caused by a few different things. One of which is internal parasites. I'm going to treat with PraziPro.

My question here is related to leaving a tank fallow. I know that the life cycle of ich is about 6 weeks, so leaving a tank fallow for about 6+ weeks will solve the ich problem, but my question here is about internal and other parasites aside from ich. What are the life cycles of these other problem solvers? I'm trying to find out how long to leave my tank fallow to rid it of things other than just ich, but in my searches everything is saying to leave a tank fallow for 6-8 weeks or so because that is the life cycle of ich. I'm not seeing anything that is an all inclusive fallow period for internal parasites and other diseases. Any insight?

 

[HumbleFish]

For gill flukes, the fallow period is 4 weeks. But for internal/intestinal parasites... I'm not really sure. However, I've known plenty of people who just soak metronidazole in the fish food to clear intestinal parasites. Done right in the DT, no fallow period needed.

If these fish are in QT, you can dose metro in the water. Or treat with something like API General cure, which contains both metronidazole and praziquantel.

 

[mike54784]

Thank you HumbleFish. You have helped me quite a bit in previous posts as well. I can't remember if it was you that I spoke with in a previous post about the possibility of coral carrying fish diseases.

I know it's in part paranoia from my last tank dying off, but I can't help but think how my LFS is a cesspool. To have several tanks all connected to one sump, with constant new additions every week, I know that everything I get has something, if not every type of disease.

This last time I bought coral, it was housed at the LFS in the same tank as other fish, so I'm worried to take my fish out of my QT to put in my display, just in case my display (with the new coral) has diseases from the coral that may have been in the LFS tank.

I'm going to try API General cure in the QT. I had found it on Amazon, but it says freshwater fish, and doesn't say it's safe for saltwater, so I overlooked it. Now that you have said it I've researched it a little more and see it is safe for saltwater. I'm still going to leave the tank fallow for about five weeks before adding my clowns to the display.

Thanks again Humblefish

 

[mike54784]

One more question. Does copper based treatments cure everything that prazi and metronidazole does?

 

[HumbleFish]

One more question. Does copper based treatments cure everything that prazi and metronidazole does?

No, copper only treats external parasites like ich & velvet. Prazi is mainly for gill flukes, and some internal/intestinal parasites - while IME metronidazole does a much better job of clearing the latter.

You are right to be paranoid about transferring fish diseases via coral/inverts. Best bet is to setup a (fishless) coral frag tank, and QT all corals/inverts in there for 72 days.

And you're very welcome.

 

[mike54784]

Thanks again Humblefish! I have a coral only tank right now. I have my inverts in a 5 gallon bucket with 2 gallons of water. I'm doing water changes by dumping .5 gallons of the water in the five gallon bucket every other day, and replacing it with water from the display. I then add .5 gallons of fresh mixed saltwater to the display.

I'm doing this because I didn't want to add fresh food to the display just for the inverts. I was planning on adding my inverts to the tank shortly after my fish from the QT.

72 days seems like a long time for the two clowns to be in the QT, but I think what I was looking for was confirmation of what you just said (because that is what I'm doing and was hoping I had the right idea). I also didn't know the time period. Just one last thing though. Why do you say 72 days when ICH is about half of that, and gill flukes only four weeks of being fallow? Just wondering specifically what is out there that I'm trying to avoid that usually has the longest life cycle.

 

[HumbleFish]

The 72 days comes from one study done on one strain of ich:

The time required for theront development varies. In one study (Colorni and Burgess 1997), theronts emerged from a group of tomonts sometime between 3 and 72 days, with most released from 4 to 8 days after tomont formation.

Source: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa164

So, the 72 days is a "worst case scenario" when it comes to dealing with the disease with the longest known fallow period, ich. I started a thread where fallow periods were discussed, and you can see the general consensus reached here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2435164

 

[mike54784]

Thanks again HumbleFish! That is exactly what I was looking for! I wish I could have found that thread in my search earlier!

I'll be sure to add updates in other threads and posts!