Quarantine of wild discus

[M0oN]

I've been told wild discus are almost guaranteed to have things like gill flukes and such.

Somone recommended treating em' with a course of metro and potassium permanganate but I can't find the potassium permanganate.

Anyone have any information on this situation?

[brewmaster15]

Hi moon,
To be sure wilds have their own bugs to deal with but I have actually found them to be less affected by flukes, and hexamita unless they have been in captivity long or in contact with domestics.. The metro would be for the hexamita... I consider Hexamita a disease of the captive discus...so its likely that wilds may not have it before you get them.

This is just my personal opinion and experience but I think with wilds there is a good likelyhood of internal worms of some sort... so a good dewormer is a good start. I like panacur.... but piperazine, flubendazole, levamisole are all good ones.... Praziquantel is great for Tapeworms (not too common)

for externals.... any number of protozoans are possible so a good salt dip, or formalin dip is adviseable.. I use potassium permanganate. This will also remove any
Body flukes.

many good sellers of wilds treat for some of these so you may want to coordinate/communicate with them on what they did.


hth,
al

[M0oN]

Thanks Brewmaster, could you please recommend a place to buy panacur and potassium permanganate?

Also could you go through the steps of performing a potassium permanganate dip for me? Don't want to accidently harm these guys :)

Jason

[brewmaster15]

Hi Jason,
If you have never used PP its probably best to use something else until you have some Runts or culls to practice on... The PP can be bought at aquaticeco.com as can many other great products.

a Good substitute for you might be fluke tabs or clout... availible at Jehmco.com its a lot safer.

panacur is fenbendazole ..its availible at vets and is used in the food,...

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=1138


hth,
al

[richgrenfell]

Cool link.....but what the heck am I gonna do with 5 lbs of PP!! LOL!!!!!

[M0oN]

How long would I need to feed the food for? Would the best idea be to take a weeks worth of my beef heart/shrimp mix and puree in the medicine then feed it to the fish until it's all gone?

Also I've never used gelatin in my mix before, any pointers on how to properly mix it in without cooking the meat and sea food?

I do have a single blue diamond that's been at around 2 inches for the past month now and has not been eating since I've treated it for hex that I could use to practice the dip. But I'm thinking it might be a better idea to hold onto him and use him to see if the wild's have anything after I treat them.

With fluke tabs what do you recommend as far as water changes and length of treatment/dosage? I've been told it will destroy my biobed so would adding some BioSpira to the tank after treatment be a good idea?

Thanks again, if it weren't for this site I'd imagine I'd have 10 dead discus on my hands instead of 10 live ones...in fact I would have never even considered getting into discus.

Jason

[brewmaster15]

Hi Jason,
The fluke tabs are usually dose every other day, with 50 %wc daily. same for clout... These meds should not affect your biofilter.

The panacur food I feed for a 3-4 days... then repeat in 2-3 weeks. Best I do is make it up a batch and freeze what I don't use. That stays for several months.

hth,
al :)

Rich... I'll set you up netx time you are over...I bought the 5lbs ;) took me 2 years to go thru a pound..Lol