Keeping Cleaner Wrasse for Skin Flukes Control
- Thread starter Ostri
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Dmorty217
Saltwater Addict
Certain cleaner wrasse almost always die. The African cleaner wrasse is the best and hardiest of the bunch.
fishfreak2009
Swimming in the School
FWIW, my cleaner wrasse (locality unknown) is an excellent feeder, eating nori, flake, pellet, and frozen. Unfortunately, he is also incredibly annoying to the other fish. For the most part his pestering gets spread out pretty well, but he does get driven off by the vlamingii tang and the dogface puffer pretty often.
Praziquantel does kill many flukes, but not all of them.
Cleaner wrasse may help with some flukes, not all. Also the cleaner can get infected and unlike in the wild, there's no one there to help clean him. Might be better off trying to deal with the parasite effectively as there's a good
chance the fish won't.
Keeping cleaners in a big DT is preferential to keeping them in a small one, ideally with big fish that enjoy a regular clean. They are also less likely to develop problematic behaviours such as constantly harassing fish to be cleaned, nipping flesh while cleaning etc...
If you have the appropriate system then avoid buying a large cleaner wrasse since, aside from adaptation issues, they already do some nipping etc on the reef. It's unlikely they'll change this strategy at home.
HTH and GL.
That's my last bet honestly... I can't take fish out. I exhausted Prazi. I cant dose the DT with Paraguard either. However when my cleaner wrasse was alive I did not get this many skin flukes. Usually I see 1 - 2 on some fish.
The 10$ ones always die. I'm getting African this time.
The problem is that so far I cant really think of anything that can deal with the parasites effectively. Prazi was my only shot and it didn't work. I do not have a QT that big that can house all the fish that I have in my DT. I have corals in my DT so I can't medicate it with other fluke-targeting products either. I'm looking for other reef-safe medications for flukes but there doesn't seem to be one. My big fish - purple, achilles, moorish idol, and powder blue seem to have flukes. I do have cleaner shrimps and neon goby but they do nothing about this.
How did you get flukes ? Did you not qt?
QUICK UPDATE HERE:
I removed all my frags (new system, frags are still on the rack) and dosed 2x concentration of Prazipro for ONE LAST TRY...... I really hope this works out. I will keep updating what happens. I've tried Prazi many many many times before and it always ends up coming back after I stopped dosing.
I will do a large water change at Day 6 and redose. Then I may do a 3rd dose.
I removed all my frags (new system, frags are still on the rack) and dosed 2x concentration of Prazipro for ONE LAST TRY...... I really hope this works out. I will keep updating what happens. I've tried Prazi many many many times before and it always ends up coming back after I stopped dosing.
I will do a large water change at Day 6 and redose. Then I may do a 3rd dose.
Okay things look tremendously worse today. The moorish idol's got a mouthfull of flukes. Dangling from its mouth! ANYONE PLEASE HELP!!! ANYTHING!!! It's getting really bad and I'm afraid that if I don't take any action I'm going to lose several thousand dollars in a few days!!!
PLEASE HELP!!!
I dosed more Prazipro. 3x recommended dosage now. The moorish & achilles' mouthskins are peeling off. I see a ton of flukes. Not sure if they are all coming out because of the strong dosage.
PLEASE HELP!!!
I dosed more Prazipro. 3x recommended dosage now. The moorish & achilles' mouthskins are peeling off. I see a ton of flukes. Not sure if they are all coming out because of the strong dosage.
block head
New member
Probably combination of flukes dying and being aggravated. Plastic totes are dirt cheap. $ 20 kiddie pool works. Be careful mixing meds. Some are deadly when mixed. Maybe some wrasse for tank. Copper might make sense in a tote. Follow the directions. Massive die off isn't always desirable. I d definitely do multiple treatments of prazi pro. Don't mix copper and prazi. Fresh water dips are tricky . Can be a effective treatment. Maybe set up a temporary tank , tote, whatever . For coral, or fish . Sounds like you have alot invested. Think dollar a gallon sale might be around still. Brute trash cans , not sure what you have for space. Crappy heater , air pump works in a pinch. Room temp isn't ideal, ive lost power for a week in winter. Healthy fish did fine. Probably can hobble something together if you get creative. Craigslist , sell it off and re coup some\ most. Doesn't need to be pretty
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