Mysterious fish deaths are more common now (Flukes)

[Long Island Andy]

I have used Prazi in my reef, FOWLR and my outdoor pond. After I dosed the pond, within an hour or two the Koi were flashing and actually jumping. I called customer service at Hikari and was told this was very normal since the flukes were actually trying to dig in deeper and the fish became agitated. I had a similar experience with a large Emperor Angelfish. The prazi made him start to rub and shake his head. In both cases the Prazi took care of the flukes and didn't hurt any of the animals.
I use Prazi now with any new fish that I am acclimating HTH

 

[nemo's janitor]

@magman53 why not get a scraping done and take it to the vet that is supplying you the prazi. He should be able to pop the slide under his scope tell you what it is. Trichodina or Trematodes. Make treatment very easy then. If it is Trichodina the Praziquantel and FWB helps little. Perhaps your issue.

BTW have you tried Droncite. It is Praziquantel and is a pet dewormer used for dogs and cats. Very affordable and readily available in SA. Surprised your vet did not inform you.

 

[jaesong]

Great thread. The symptoms are spot on. Glad some of you guys took the leap of faith and treated your tanks.

I saw white stuff fall off my Goldflake after a FW dip, but I had no idea what it was. Wish I knew about flukes before he bit the dust.

 

[magman53]

Paraguard? How effective is paraguard against flukes in QT? Would it work in the usual 10 days like prazi, or would it be more. I QT my fish with paraguard now, or cupramine with prazi (when the cupramine comes down to 0.25), but would the paraguard be just as effective as the prazi?

 

[hottuna]

FWIW : I have just successfully treated a group of fish in my qt for flukes using cupramine and low salinity(1.014) ...as seachem claims: cupramine at the right dosage and time period is effective againt flukes..The key this time around is that I buffered the tank to a dkh of 10.6 before dosing..this seems to inhibit the toxicity of the copper and I was able to run .5 cupramine for 5 weeks -no issues.. HTH...

 

[magman53]

Has anyone had sucess with paraguard against Flukes?

 

[Reefer08]

Will a cleaner shrimp remove flukes off a fish?

Thanks

 

[Aquarist007]

Will a cleaner shrimp remove flukes off a fish?

Thanks

As with other parasites like ich, they dig through the mucous area surrounding the fish. The white spots you notice are not the parasites but the necrotic mucosa.
Cleaner shrimp can only remove the parasites that have not yet dug into the mucous level.
Parasites that attach the gill areas of the fish also can't be eaten by cleaner shrimp or cleaner fish.

 

[billsreef]

Will a cleaner shrimp remove flukes off a fish?

Thanks

Actually, flukes are one of the few parasites large enough that we regularly encounter that cleaner shrimps will remove. Though, not to the extent of considering it a cure, just some help with control.

 

[hottuna]

Sure do miss Jhemdal's input on these disease treatment issues...

 

[geaux xman]

wish i had read this thread prior to acquiring my blueface.

ate fine for 5 days... then quit eating. i didnt treat with prazipro til the 4th day of not eating. it never ate again and died after about 10 days of not eating.

i imagined i treated too late.

 

[ryanuuy]

Hi,

i have a 150g sps reef and i think one of my mitratus butterflyfishes is suffering from flukes i think! It has cloudy eyes and stopped eating and started hiding in the cave area of my tank all of a sudden. I caught it and did a FW dip but nothing but scales came of(as far as i can see) so i have no idea if that worked.

We dont have access to prazipro but we do have praziquantel powder to treat discus! Just to be sure, i would like to treat the whole tank with prazi but preferably in a lower dosgae as to not overly disturb the sps.

How do you mix prazi powder and in what dosage should i be using it?

 

[RegalAngel]

Hi,

i have a 150g sps reef and i think one of my mitratus butterflyfishes is suffering from flukes i think! It has cloudy eyes and stopped eating and started hiding in the cave area of my tank all of a sudden. I caught it and did a FW dip but nothing but scales came of(as far as i can see) so i have no idea if that worked.

We dont have access to prazipro but we do have praziquantel powder to treat discus! Just to be sure, i would like to treat the whole tank with prazi but preferably in a lower dosgae as to not overly disturb the sps.

How do you mix prazi powder and in what dosage should i be using it?

Why do you think Flukes? Not just because of cloudy eyes! Could be a bacterial infection on the eyes, which should be treated with the proper anti bacterial medication.

Flukes:
The obvious symptoms:

1) Fish twitching the head side to side once in a while like if wanted to shake something off his head.

2) Discolored blotches of skin (Most people think this is velvet or some bacterial infection and misdiagnose it with antibiotics)

3) Frayed fins or tail.

4) Sudden loss of appetite. Fish was fine yesterday but today it's not eating at all.

5) Cloudy eye(s)

6) Rapid breathing

 

[ryanuuy]

Out of all those symptoms, he has them all! He hasnt been eating like normal, hes been hiding a lot, he breathes rapidly, his fins are a little frayed.

His scales are also falling off though...

Does that make it flukes??

 

[RegalAngel]

1) Fish twitching the head side to side once in a while like if wanted to shake something off his head.

By far the most usual symptom....If the fish is scratching then Ich or Flukes, but if it is shaking its head then likely flukes if no visible spots.

Since that is not happening, the fish may have something other than flukes.


http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/Q&A/skin_disorders.html

Q: The scales on my fish are falling off.
A: Sounds like the fish has Bacterial Hemorrhagic Septicemia.

Treatment: Treat the fish with Oxytetracycline Hydrochloride Powder, for ten days.


Edit: I would try something like Revive that treats Flukes and Bacteria.....

http://www.fishvet.com/revive.htm

 

[ryanuuy]

I did a FW dip on my other butterflies that were starting to show white discolored patches on their skin and today they look much better. Their appetites never went down though so i dont know if thats related but i was worried that whatever it was might be affecting them next. I will be dosing prazipro the minute it arrives by priority mail here in my country and if that fails, i will be catching the fishes and placing them in a hospital tank with furan 2 in it.

Unfortunately, im not sure where i can get Oxytetracycline Hydrochloride here but i will try to look for that as well!

What do you guys think?

 

[billsreef]

I caught it and did a FW dip but nothing but scales came of(as far as i can see) so i have no idea if that worked.

Sure it was scales that came off in the dip and not flukes? It's pretty rare to get scales falling off in a FW dip, maybe a couple dislodged by netting, but not more than that.

 

[Aquarist007]

wish i had read this thread prior to acquiring my blueface.

ate fine for 5 days... then quit eating. i didnt treat with prazipro til the 4th day of not eating. it never ate again and died after about 10 days of not eating.

i imagined i treated too late.

That might not be a parasite. Some fish esp tangs do not do well when treated with copper and some fish are still being caught by the use of cyanide. Both can reduce the life span of a fish,

 

[b0bab0ey]

Flukes just won't go away!!!

Flukes just won't go away!!!

I have a Powder Blue Tang in QT that I've treated with PraziPro 4 TIMES NOW and the Flukes just keep coming back! I've tried both 5-day and 7-day intervals. Results are always the same. He starts twitching, the twitching gets worse, I hit him with a couple treatments of PraziPro and he seems fine for about a week or two. Then the twitching starts back up, and we rinse and repeat. I've read that PraziPro only kills the Flukes and not their eggs. So, how do you ever beat Flukes w/PraziPro if the Flukes just keep laying more eggs, generation after generation?!

 

[billsreef]

Have you confirmed that it is definitely flukes causing the twitching? Usually the follow up treatments take care of anything that hatches from eggs.