Mysterious fish deaths are more common now (Flukes)

[Yogre]

I picked up a seemingly healthy Lyretail Anthias and Copperband Butterfly a week ago, and having no QT added them directly to my display. Within a few days the Lyretail got cloudy eye and started gasping. The Copperband was constantly flashing, had stopped eating, and was rubbing himself against the rocks. The next day my clownfish exibited the same symptoms as well.. Only my flamehawk seemed uneffected. This thread led me to belive they had flukes.. I picked up some Prazi-Pro but was hesitant to dose my tank despite all the claims here of it being reef-safe, and wanted to first confirm that it was indeed flukes. My CBB at this point was on his last legs so I was able to catch him and FW dip.. I've couldn't possible imagine that he could be so covered with these little beasties since you couldn't see anything on him, but within 2 minutes of FW dipping him it was raining little white worms-- looked like baby pieces of rice.. Literally about a hundred fell off of him..

Dosed my 50G tank with 10ml of Prazi-Pro and within 24 hours my fish were happy and healthy again-- it was like a miracle. Unfortunately the CBB did not make it-- either due to the shock of the FW dip or bleeding out when all the flukes fell off.

It had no effect on my corals whatsoever except for a bit of polyp retraction immediately after dosing, which went away after a few hours. RBTA, clams, ricordia, zoas, acans, hammer coral, candy cane, assorted sps, clove polyps, maxi mini anenomes, weso brains, plate coral, blastos, and chalices totally unaffected. Ironically, the only things that look totally ****ed are some shrooms (all shrunken up).

Just wanted to add my 2 cents, if you can confirm you have flukes, prazi-pro provides lamost instant relief and definitely wont harm your coral if dosed properly.

Glad your lyretail made it, sorry to hear about the CBB. After my experiences with flukes and anthias, I became a QT believer.

This is what I like most about Reef Central, reefers helping reefers. I too was able to save the lives of some fish by reading this thread, and learning the symptoms of fluke infestation. I now dose all new fish preventatively with Prazi for flukes in QT.

 

[jjsan]

What are your experiences from the product De-los? I am hearing about it, but don't see much info on RC when I do a search.

 

[billsreef]

De-los is trichlorfon, aka dylox. It's an organophosphate pesticide, not invert safe, and not tolerated by all fish. It's very effective on crustacean parasites such as parastic copepods and fish lice. I've not found it to be particularly effective on flukes. Prazi, fresh water dips, and formalin are the best choices IME.

 

[Outerbank]

Is Prazi pro safe for a DSB or will it cause a huge worm kill?

 

[Yogre]

I have a significant number of worms in my sand, and my display tank has been dosed with Prazi 3 times. The worms are still there, I can see their tunnels in the sand against the glass. If anything in my tank was harmed by the Prazi, I'm not aware of it.

 

[suta4242]

Does anyone know whether praziquantel becomes more toxic at a lower salinity?

Is it safe to use in conjunction with hyposalinity?

Also, does it affect your nitrifying bacteria?

cheers

 

[billsreef]

It's usable in FW without any special considerations, so I expect it's quite fine with hyposalinity.

 

[SolarEclipse]

I think I just lost my Suburst (Fathead) Anthias to Flukes, fine two days back. Then loss of apitite, hid for the last two. Then found him dead this morning with glazed over eyes. Not sure if the glazed over eyes were because it was dead or the flukes. Always had seen this fish out. Just wanted to chip in, and also wanted someone to tel me if this was indeed flukes. Thank you.

 

[Yogre]

I think I just lost my Suburst (Fathead) Anthias to Flukes, fine two days back. Then loss of apitite, hid for the last two. Then found him dead this morning with glazed over eyes. Not sure if the glazed over eyes were because it was dead or the flukes. Always had seen this fish out. Just wanted to chip in, and also wanted someone to tel me if this was indeed flukes. Thank you.

Only way to know for sure is to freshwater dip the corpse for 10-15 minutes. If you see little translucent things about the size of sesame seeds in the dip bowl, it was flukes.

 

[billsreef]

Flukes, like many other parasites, flee a dead host in rather short order. Typically all you can look for with a necropsy is damage typical of a particular parasite or type of parasite.

 

[Rockys_Pride]

no fish deaths yet, but good info to know.

 

[cthetoy]

I think I just lost my Suburst (Fathead) Anthias to Flukes, fine two days back. Then loss of apitite, hid for the last two. Then found him dead this morning with glazed over eyes. Not sure if the glazed over eyes were because it was dead or the flukes. Always had seen this fish out. Just wanted to chip in, and also wanted someone to tel me if this was indeed flukes. Thank you.

My experience is the Flukes do not normally succomb a fish in two days unless you just bought it and the fish was heavily infested. Your fish did probably have flukes but flukes usually come with secondary infections or diseases such as ich and velvet which can succomb a fish in a few days

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

I dosed my 100g+ multi-tank reef system with 1oz of prazipro 48 hours ago and i haven't seen anything even slighty upset. good thing too since i'm receiving a pretty decent order from bluezoo this morning and don't intend to QT.

 

[prodman]

I dosed my 100g+ multi-tank reef system with 1oz of prazipro 48 hours ago and i haven't seen anything even slighty upset. good thing too since i'm receiving a pretty decent order from bluezoo this morning and don't intend to QT.

Its too bad that you feel that its still ok to not QT. Prazipro is not going to keep all the other non fluke nasties at bay.

 

[ahmedess]

I just bought a Naso tang and i freshwater dipped it without prazi for 30 mins before putting it into my QT. After i removed the fish from the freshwater dip i found in the container stuff that looks like a sesame seed but its color was yellowish green and not white.

Do Flukes have to be white? Do i have flukes or is that something else? Could it be just fish poop? the fish has been in my QT now for 3 days. It is eating a lot and i cannot identify any disease symptoms.

I have thrown the freshwater that had this stuff in it. i wish i took a picture of it before i threw it away. I m thinking of giving the fish another dip to take a picture of that thing.

 

[Aquarist007]

I just bought a Naso tang and i freshwater dipped it without prazi for 30 mins before putting it into my QT. After i removed the fish from the freshwater dip i found in the container stuff that looks like a sesame seed but its color was yellowish green and not white.

Do Flukes have to be white? Do i have flukes or is that something else? Could it be just fish poop? the fish has been in my QT now for 3 days. It is eating a lot and i cannot identify any disease symptoms.

I have thrown the freshwater that had this stuff in it. i wish i took a picture of it before i threw it away. I m thinking of giving the fish another dip to take a picture of that thing.

I have had them grey in colour in some tanks and they are black or look like fish poop when they are dead---a colour I like to see them at:lol:

 

[Aquarist007]

Will running a uv sterilizer remove "some" flukes. This tank has had a history of different parasites over a year or so. I thought it might be a good thing to run on a long term basis.

 

[magman53]

I have been treating my tank with prazipro, I dosed 4 days ago, I redosed again today. My problem is that it looks like the flukes are actually getting worse, the flukes have spread to nearly all my fish. The reason I redosed today was because it looked like the first dose did not work, and I wanted to make 100% sure the dose was effective. I plan oon redosing in 10 days time again.

I did the first dose 4 days ago, I maybe did not shake enough, but I don't think that it would render the prazi ineffective, as the flukes are getting worse. , My tank is about 200galons, I dosed 11 teaspoons the first time, as soon as I dosed, the worst fish did have the expected fits, or shudders.

Today I changed about 35 gallons of water through the skimmer, and re dosed 12 teaspoons after shaking till my arms nearly fell off.

(Through the whole treatment the skimmer and reactors are all off)

Inspecting closely this evening, nearly all the fish have got it, and worse, in the last two days.

The eyes are covered in a film with spots on, the skin is blotchy on some of the fish, and the bodies and fins all look like they have white spot on, and they twitch/shudder or rub on the rocks, confirm that this is flukes, or is there a chance it could be something else.

This could only of come in two months ago with an angel I introduced.

 

[billsreef]

What size are the white spots? Flukes are typically very hard to see, so anything you are seeing is either damage from the flukes, secondary infection, or it is indeed something else entirely.

 

[magman53]

What size are the white spots? Flukes are typically very hard to see, so anything you are seeing is either damage from the flukes, secondary infection, or it is indeed something else entirely.

I have been dosing heavily with antibiotics and vitamins, myself and the vet are almost on a first name basis now, I get class 1 drugs over the counter almost now:spin1:, but I think my main problem was secondary infection, especially without the skimmer. I believe from a friend that the shudders from the second dosing is the prazi burning the infected areas, sort of like you pouring alcahol on a sore which makes sense to me

The antibiotics, vitamins and garlic do seem to be helping the fish rather and also I am using cleaners to help, the fish do seem much better though. I did lose a clown, dipped it and there was maybe what looked like 3 flukes on it. I think the fish's immune system will help combat if the water is better, so I prefer running with the skimmer on. i do have a big bioload (more like heavy feeding 5-6times /day) and the skimmer is critical to me. It did go mad for nearly 48 hours after the prazi, I was actually doing my w/c's through the skimmer, I probably did a 70% w/c through the skimmer.

I did manage to get the last 16 x1oz bottles of prazi in South Africa from the distibuter, they not brining it in again, but I shared half with a mate, and if need be that I have to dose again, I will rather dose, and then do daily w/c and add prazi to the new water. I think in my position, that maintaing the feed rate and water quality 100% is the main factor for the fish

The grazers are by far the best as the garlic in the nori is imo what has helped them, but the fish do seem much better.

I think all of us reefers are the most stubborn bunch when it comes to advice, you always think it happens to other people, or q tanks are only for the paranoid, unfortunatly all of us learn the sad hard way through the long ceramic tunnel.............I always believed that a fish will be happier in the dt and would settle in quicker, never again will a fish go straight into the dt.

I think the longer you keep marines, the more mature you become in understanding the hobby..........I think I just passed puberty