Worms or intestinal parasites?

[blackthunda77]

I have a sargassum trigger that ive had for almost 2 years. Problem with him is that i cant seem to get him to put on weight. He always looks emaciated. He eats fine usually. I feed a mix of roggers food(similar to rods food), Mysis, and flakes for the most part.

I dont see the stringy poop that people talk about but i dont know what else it could be. Is there any medication that could me soaked in the food in a REEF tank? Or would i have to set up a quarantine tank for him and if so what would be the best medication?

 

[MacWilliams]

I have used API General Cure in the past on my tank when I had visible signs on internal parasites in my clown pair. So instead of pulling them all out I just dosed the tank. It is reef safe but will kill all worms. So if you have feather dusters or something thats a worm i would try to pull those out if you can. API is a dewormer and antibiotic. So it will help with a lot of different things. Just make sure you read the package cause you have to do 2 doses and assuming your sig is correct you will need 2 packages more then likely. Remove carbon/gfo and turn your skimmer off when you dose.

 

[Mrscribbled]

I'd go the oral route, Metro or paracide X food soaks.

 

[blackthunda77]

I'd go the oral route, Metro or paracide X food soaks.

So what then? Take my mysis shrimp and soak it in the medication? How much and for how long? What is the most commonly found medication i can use that can find at say a petsmart, petco, etc without having to order online?

 

[Mrscribbled]

You can check those places, most common is metronidazole. Works well with combination of seachem focus. National fish pharmacudicals carries paracide X, directions will be on the bottle.

 

[blackthunda77]

Ok, i couldnt find Metro or general cure so i bought some PraziPro. I did some research for the past couple days and from here and wet web media and some other sites it seems that in tank treatment with prazipro has been effective and reef save. I started the treatment last night. Hopefully i see some progress. In the mean time i will still be looking for some metro to use as a food soak in case prazipro is not as effective.

As of this morning none of the fish or coral are showing any signs of stress. Everyone is acting and eating normally.

 

[SDguy]

Both metro and paracide X can be found on this page: http://www.nationalfishpharm.com/products3.html

 

[blackthunda77]

Thank you. I just needed something ASAP. If i still cant find those others locally this weekend i will go the online route.

 

[blackthunda77]

Question...The paracide X states its to be used to soak food. What about the Metro? Is that an in tank treatment? Am i looking for the powder or the metro pro? The powder states daily dosing and 25% water changes before each dose. Thats alota water changes.

 

[SDguy]

I've only ever used metro in food. Yeah, lots of meds require lots of water changes, which is why they are so much easier to use in a QT.

 

[blackthunda77]

Ok so i just finished 1st round of prazipro and did a water change yesterday afternoon and then started a second round last night. No casualties and im cautiously optimistic. Its only been a week but the trigger is still eating and his belly seems to have "leveled" out and is not as "bumpy". Here is a pic of him starting to gain some weight.

 

[avolar]

Ok so i just finished 1st round of prazipro and did a water change yesterday afternoon and then started a second round last night. No casualties and im cautiously optimistic. Its only been a week but the trigger is still eating and his belly seems to have "leveled" out and is not as "bumpy". Here is a pic of him starting to gain some weight.

Hi John, I know this was few months ago but, how the prazi pro treatment worked for you?

 

[blackthunda77]

Unfortunately i lost the trigger about a week ago. He became emaciated and just never bounced back. I did however, come to the conclusion that i believe he became blind. Not sure if it was due to internal parasites or not but he acted as if he saw large shapes, like me approaching the tank, or my hand. But he could not catch food or mysis etc in the tank. Anything that would come near his mouth he chomped on thinking it was food. Well one time my achilles came a bit close and he chomped down in the achilles fin and took chunk out. needless to say the achilles gave me a bit of a beating.

As for the medication, i did two full rounds. I didnt lose any fish, nor did they act like they were affected. I dont attribute any coral deaths to the treatment either. I did lose a smooth skin acro and a birdsnest, but not ready to link that to the treatment. I was having some nitrate and phosphate issues at that time as well.