Heat Treatment for Internal Parasite/Worm Issues

[Sasha]

I am trying the heat treatment right now. I have one (4.5 inch) fish in a 10 gal quarantine tank with filter and an airstone. The highest temp I can get is 95.6 degrees (assuming my digital thermometer is accurate). Do you think that will be hot enough? I would like to avoid having to invest in yet another heater if possible.

Also, did you attempt to feed the fish at all during the heat treatment? or only after you brought the temp back to 85 degrees? And did you introduce the fish back into the main tank right away after reducing the temp to 85, or did you give the fish a few more days (with food?) alone in the quarantine tank before reintroducing him to the main tank?

[TURQ64]

You really should have another heater, if just for backup (product failures, etc.) This treatment does take heat. (95's maybe enough, but you really have to hang with the duration, since that's the key, (IMO)..I've both fed, and not. It depends on the fish overall. They'll live without daily feeding. It happens all the time in the wild..to recap, slowly raise the temp, keep it high for many days, then take several days to return to normal (whatever that may be)...nothing quick, fast changes aren't good...Gary

[YSS]

Yup! Gary got it. I tried feeding initially, but I think it's better not to. I tried feeding the first time, but not since the first time. 95.6 may be high enough, but I can't be sure. Keep the fish in high heat for 5 days. Finally, I always return the fish to the main tank after the treatment and it takes a few days before the fish start eating again. Good luck with the treatment and keep us posted.

Yun-

[Sean Buehrle]

The guy that owns angels plus told me that high temps are good for flagellates, he said they thrive at 95 but die at 96-97.

He told me this when I was ordering some metro for flagellates.

And I'm pretty sure he said 10 days.

[DiscusBR]

Thank you for sharing your experience, YSS. One of my 7 Cuipeuas is in the same situation you describe. I will start a heat treatment and will let folks know it goes here.

[fast93accord]

I have had great success with heat. 3 of my discus didn't eat enough and 1 stopped eating for weeks. I had tried every med, which worked temporarily, but they would stop eating a few weeks later. I set up a qt tank. 93degrees is the max I could get. I put all my discus through this. They spent between 5 days to 2 weeks at 93 degrees. During the treatment none ate well. But once they were back home the 3 with problems turned into pigs. They're personalities also changed for the better. This was about 2 months ago and 2 of the 3 non eaters are finally growing. 1 was stunted when I got him and I think he's never gonna grow past 5"...

[Sasha]

You really should have another heater, if just for backup (product failures, etc.) This treatment does take heat. (95's maybe enough, but you really have to hang with the duration, since that's the key, (IMO)..I've both fed, and not. It depends on the fish overall. They'll live without daily feeding. It happens all the time in the wild..to recap, slowly raise the temp, keep it high for many days, then take several days to return to normal (whatever that may be)...nothing quick, fast changes aren't good...Gary

Thanks so much, Turq. But I'm a bit confused... even if I add another heater to the tank (it's only a 10 gal tank and I have a 300W Hydor Theo heater in it set on the max heat setting) I'm not sure how that will raise the temp. Won't the heaters, with their integrated control, continue to shut off when the water reaches the level of the temperature setting, irrespective of how many heaters there are?

My "back up heater" (in case of an in-tank heater failure) is the one i use to heat my water while it's aging. If I have an in-tank malfunction, I can yank the one from the aging bin to keep the fish safe until I get a chance to go pick up a replacement one.

thanks to all! this forum is incredibly helpful. I don't know what I'd do without all of this support. It's great.

[Sasha]

I have had great success with heat. 3 of my discus didn't eat enough and 1 stopped eating for weeks. I had tried every med, which worked temporarily, but they would stop eating a few weeks later. I set up a qt tank. 93degrees is the max I could get. I put all my discus through this. They spent between 5 days to 2 weeks at 93 degrees. During the treatment none ate well. But once they were back home the 3 with problems turned into pigs. They're personalities also changed for the better. This was about 2 months ago and 2 of the 3 non eaters are finally growing. 1 was stunted when I got him and I think he's never gonna grow past 5"...

So it's good to hear that you had success with 93 degrees. When you started this treatment, did the fish have the white poop in addition to not eating? Or were their feces normal?

[fast93accord]

Yes, they were pooping white when not eating...

[Sasha]

Thanks so much, Turq. But I'm a bit confused... even if I add another heater to the tank (it's only a 10 gal tank and I have a 300W Hydor Theo heater in it set on the max heat setting) I'm not sure how that will raise the temp. Won't the heaters, with their integrated control, continue to shut off when the water reaches the level of the temperature setting, irrespective of how many heaters there are?

My "back up heater" (in case of an in-tank heater failure) is the one i use to heat my water while it's aging. If I have an in-tank malfunction, I can yank the one from the aging bin to keep the fish safe until I get a chance to go pick up a replacement one.

thanks to all! this forum is incredibly helpful. I don't know what I'd do without all of this support. It's great.

So I just got off the phone with my local fish store, and their recommendation is to try an "old style" heater that has just the "+" and "-" signs on the control vs. an actual degree setting. Perhaps this is what Turq64 and others have been using to get the heat up? I have one of those in a small community (non-discus) tank that I might try in the discus quarantine tank to see if I can get the temp up higher.

[lancer3]

with the heat treatment, do i do water change daily or leave the water for the full 5 days unchanged.

[YSS]

with the heat treatment, do i do water change daily or leave the water for the full 5 days unchanged.

I used a 20G tank with only an airstone, so I did daily water changes of about 15G to make sure I didn't have any ammonia and nitrite build up. If you have a mature filter in your hospital tank, you probably don't need daily water changes.

[Sasha]

Yes - I did daily water changes of approx 50% while I did the heat treatment in my quarantine tank. Since it is only a 10 gal quarantine, I was able heat my aged water slightly on the stove in small quantities to get it up to the right temp (96 degrees). Obviously, needed to be sure to stir the water on the stove vigorously to ensure even heating of the water and no "hot spots), and I checked and rechecked and rechecked the temp of the replacement water before putting it in the quarantine tank to refill after a partial draining. Didn't want to burn the fish!

[YSS]

Was the teatment successful?

[TURQ64]

Since the how to get more heat? question appears a lot, here's how I get there. I do use a controller. Heaters vary; a few old HOB's, a few Jager's dimed out, but more recently, a recycling project..I purchased 5 500w Finnex Titanium heaters with controller..The controller's all failed, so I chopped off the heating element, soldered the two red wires together that sent a signal to the unit(probe), and put a standard plug on the remaining black and white wires,,,These puppies will melt iron ore! (J/K)....Gary