Square back anthia in qt. possibly has flukes.

[greg1786]

Not up to this point. To be honest it seems like a few more white worms have popped up since using the gneral cure. Im having a very hard time keeping the ammonia levels down as well. Ive been doing daily water changes to try and keep it in check but i cant get it below .5ppm

 

[HumbleFish]

Not up to this point. To be honest it seems like a few more white worms have popped up since using the gneral cure. Im having a very hard time keeping the ammonia levels down as well. Ive been doing daily water changes to try and keep it in check but i cant get it below .5ppm

Some meds will cause ammonia test kits to give false pos. I would double check with one of these.

 

[HumbleFish]

bump... whatever happened with the anthias?

 

[greg1786]

Well after a two rounds of the api general cure( one full treatment) at half the dose, he seemed to be doing somewhat better. He became increasingly active as the days passed and he actually started eating live brine as well as the guppies. Still not interested in anything frozen or dry. After the treatment at half dose I did a large water change and ran carbon. Yesterday I started another round of the general cure at the full dosage and its going to work pretty hard on the worms. The anthia doesnt show any negative side effects from the meds and there is only one tiny worm left on the side of his face! Where the worms had been previously embedded there is some significant DEEP scarring but otherwise hes ok. He is still pooping white though its more of a dark grey now. Im hoping after the full treatment at full dose he will hopefully be cured. Once the worms have dissappeared totally and he is pooping normal, i plan to give him a freshwater dip to ensure flukes are gone as well. All in all things are looking much better today than a week or two prior. I cant thank you enough for all your help because without it the anthia more than likely wouldnt have made it this far.

I do have a few questions about him once the parasite has been fully erradicated. At this point in time my normal quarentine procedure time would have been up on a healthy fish and hed be moved to the DT. My question is what do you recommend I do with the anthia once he has beaten these worms. Should I drain and sterilize the QT and refill it and put him back in? If so should I restart the QT clock as if he were a new fish and keep him there until he is accepting frozen and prepared foods so he will fare better in the DT? On the flip side, do you think all that is unnecessary and once hes parasite free I should just move him to the big tank so he has a more stable environment and room to actually "stretch his legs" so to speak? Thanks again for all the help ill continue to update you

 

[HumbleFish]

I do have a few questions about him once the parasite has been fully erradicated. At this point in time my normal quarentine procedure time would have been up on a healthy fish and hed be moved to the DT. My question is what do you recommend I do with the anthia once he has beaten these worms. Should I drain and sterilize the QT and refill it and put him back in? If so should I restart the QT clock as if he were a new fish and keep him there until he is accepting frozen and prepared foods so he will fare better in the DT? On the flip side, do you think all that is unnecessary and once hes parasite free I should just move him to the big tank so he has a more stable environment and room to actually "stretch his legs" so to speak? Thanks again for all the help ill continue to update you

I would wait a while to put him in a DT with any other fish for the following reasons: 1) You've encountered a disease (worms) that kind of falls into the realm of the unknown. It's not like he had something easily identifiable and treatable, such as Ich. So there's no telling if these worms will manifest themselves again once treatment ends or if they are contagious. 2) Until he's eating better and eating a wider variety of foods, I would keep him QT'd. He just won't be able to compete with other fish right now. Especially with just one eye. He needs to regain his strength and become a more aggressive eater.

I would drain/sterilize/refill or at least do some large WCs once treatment ends. You want to get all the meds out of the water to see if his condition improves, or if these worms come back, once the meds are all out of the water.

Good luck! It's been a pleasure helping you thru this. I get satisfaction from helping others and saving a fish's life if I'm able to.

 

[greg1786]

Well I have some unexpected but good news! As soon as I finished typing the last post I decided to go check on him. He was pooping and it was entirely dark brown!! Also the feces it self was actually alot larger in diameter than usual. It was always stark white and almost as thin as fishing line but this was much bigger and dark! What a good sign. Do you have any recommendations on how I could train him to accept foods that arent alive. It seems he only is interested in eating it if it moves around and he has to chase it

 

[HumbleFish]

Well I have some unexpected but good news! As soon as I finished typing the last post I decided to go check on him. He was pooping and it was entirely dark brown!! Also the feces it self was actually alot larger in diameter than usual. It was always stark white and almost as thin as fishing line but this was much bigger and dark! What a good sign. Do you have any recommendations on how I could train him to accept foods that arent alive. It seems he only is interested in eating it if it moves around and he has to chase it

Try throwing in a little frozen mysis or brine at the same time you are feeding the live stuff. Eventually he'll either mistakenly eat one (and like it), or go into a feeding frenzy and start eating everything in the water. :lol:

 

[greg1786]

Ok cool thanks. I just checked out the link to your tank in your signature line and the giant colonies of pulsing xenia are amazing!! I lost mine when I upgraded my tank a while back they didnt handle the transfer well. I have been checking my lfs every week for the last four months trying to get more to no avail. Anyhow both tanks are really cool but I felt compelled to tell you how awesome those xenia are as I have a strange affinity for them!

 

[HumbleFish]

Ok cool thanks. I just checked out the link to your tank in your signature line and the giant colonies of pulsing xenia are amazing!! I lost mine when I upgraded my tank a while back they didnt handle the transfer well. I have been checking my lfs every week for the last four months trying to get more to no avail. Anyhow both tanks are really cool but I felt compelled to tell you how awesome those xenia are as I have a strange affinity for them!

Yeah, my last reef was an SPS and everything was carefully controlled/manicured. So this time around, I decided to just go with a bunch of softies/LPS, throw 'em in there and let whatever happens happen. I've got GSP trying to take over Monti Caps, Xenia shading out other corals, Lemonpeel Angel is picking at my frogspawn. War of the ocean, baby!!! :uhoh3:

 

[greg1786]

Haha thats awesome. Ive got the most amazing news. I fed the anthia guppies at 11pm and he ate 4! Well for shits and giggles @ 2:50 am i decided to see if hed eat frozen brine, and guess what he did!! Then i was so excited i decide why not try some nls pellets and guess what, he ate them too!!! Hahahaha danced around my bedroom like a bafoon and my gf looked at me as if she wanted to have me admitted into a mental ward! And to top it all off there are no visible signs of worms anywhere on his body!! Fingers crossed man!

 

[HumbleFish]

Haha thats awesome. Ive got the most amazing news. I fed the anthia guppies at 11pm and he ate 4! Well for shits and giggles @ 2:50 am i decided to see if hed eat frozen brine, and guess what he did!! Then i was so excited i decide why not try some nls pellets and guess what, he ate them too!!! Hahahaha danced around my bedroom like a bafoon and my gf looked at me as if she wanted to have me admitted into a mental ward! And to top it all off there are no visible signs of worms anywhere on his body!! Fingers crossed man!

Sounds like he's "feeling better". His appetite should increase as his condition improves. Anthias have high metabolisms and hardy appetites. Some feed them 2-3x daily.

I have a PBT that I went thru hell with in QT. It literally took me 6 months to get her healthy enough to put in the DT. Now she's my fav fish and we seem to have a special bond. She eats out of my hand and everything. :bounce2:

 

[greg1786]

Thats an awesome story! Ive actually grown quite attached to this anthia a little more so than my other fish due to all this that weve gone through. Ive been feeding him guppies everyday twice a day to put the weight back on him that hes lost. I may continue to feed them once a day for two weeks until ive noticed an improvement in his weight and size and mix in the nls pellets and spirinula enriched brine as well. His stomach is still a bit sunken in from not eating for so long and eating so little once he started accepting

 

[greg1786]

The anthia seems to really be getting his strength back. He is starting to voraciously eat the frozen brine now the instant it hits the water. Not so much with the pellets he seems to eat a few but doesnt like them much. Tomorrow morning I plan to do a big water change of at least 50% and run a good bit of carbon to pull the meds out. I assume that at this point, from all the heavy meds, all the flukes and worms should be eradicated from the tank as well as from the fish. What do you think? Do you think I should take the extra precautions and just sterilize the whole tank rather than do the wc and carbon? Also, i know this is totally off the subject and not relevant to thw disease forum but I was thinking about getting two female square back anthias for him to possibly bond and spawn with. Obviously this wouldnt be anytime soon but do you know if anthias do better in small groups?

 

[HumbleFish]

Do you think I should take the extra precautions and just sterilize the whole tank rather than do the wc and carbon?

This is what I would do. IME, when you are dealing with an unknown disease and have gone thru hell trying to eradicate it. Don't take any chances.

Also, i know this is totally off the subject and not relevant to thw disease forum but I was thinking about getting two female square back anthias for him to possibly bond and spawn with. Obviously this wouldnt be anytime soon but do you know if anthias do better in small groups?

They do quite well with this arrangement. And after everything this poor guy has been thru; I'd say he deserves a couple of lady friends. Just make sure you have a big enough tank to accommodate his harem.

 

[cngreg]

Prazi is good for monogeans (like neobenedia the eye fluke) and tape worms, which may be the stringy poop, but isn't im not sure if it will work on otehr types of worm (like nematodes) which might be the things coming out of the head...if those are worms. Might need to use levamazol or fenbendazole food. There are Florida IFAS pubs on procuring and treating with those.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa091

 

[greg1786]

This is what I would do. IME, when you are dealing with an unknown disease and have gone thru hell trying to eradicate it. Don't take any chances.

Ok ill sterilize the tank id much rather be safe than leave it to chance especially because of the hell this guy had to go thru

They do quite well with this arrangement. And after everything this poor guy has been thru; I'd say he deserves a couple of lady friends. Just make sure you have a big enough tank to accommodate his harem.

I totally agree! Ive got a 6' 125 what do you think? Enough room?

 

[HumbleFish]

I totally agree! Ive got a 6' 125 what do you think? Enough room?

Yup, a male and 2 females should do well in a tank that size. Just give the male at least a couple more weeks in QT to ensure his symptoms don't resurface (now that he's out of the meds).

 

[greg1786]

So the anthia has been doing GREAT. No signs of the parasite returning. He is eating like a horse, he will eat anything i feed to him except NLS pellets. Im pretty sure if I dropped an entire cube of mysis in the tank for him he would devour every last one lol. Think he is ready to go in the DT with the big boys?? Im getting a little antsy but dont want to make a costly mistake.

 

[HumbleFish]

So the anthia has been doing GREAT. No signs of the parasite returning. He is eating like a horse, he will eat anything i feed to him except NLS pellets. Im pretty sure if I dropped an entire cube of mysis in the tank for him he would devour every last one lol. Think he is ready to go in the DT with the big boys?? Im getting a little antsy but dont want to make a costly mistake.

What other fish do you have in the DT?

 

[greg1786]

Lavender tang(4-4.5") yellow tang(4.5)" target mandarin(2") starry blenny (3") barred dartfish(3.5)" and two cinnamon clowns but they are in the sump for another at least month until my two nems heal from split