Help please? treating gill flukes?

[ialtalal]

I just got done doing a water change and what I found floating on the water is waaaaaay crazy? I found a parasite matter fact I found two at first I was sure, I picked it up looked and was telling myself what this could be So i take a closer and its a parasite. Damn I guess now may be you guys can get an idea of what is going on? i put what i found in a bottle of water so I can find out more about what is it? i know its not a lil shrimp because i never feed my fish shrimp. I showed it to my sister who is a doctor and she said its a parasite? so let me know what don you guys think? thanks a lot

[ialtalal]

For mine, it depends on the fish. I have two tanks, one with adults (55) and one with sub-adults (29) still growing. I feed the sub-adults 5 or 6 times a day. In the morning with freeze dried blackworms from aquatic suppliers - Al Sebetta. They get fed at 11:00am and 2:30pm by an auto feeder Ocean Nutrition mixture of Marine and Marine 2 pellets. I feed them beef heart flakes from Ken's Fish around 4:30 or 5:00. Some more beefheart or blackworms around 7:00 or 8:00 then water change 80% of the water with aged, heated, aerated water.

For the adults, I feed freeze dried blackworms in the morning, autofeed some ON Marine 1 and 2 pellets around 3:00pm, some blackworms or beefheart at around 7:00pm. Water change 70% every other day with aged, heated, aerated water.

Adam

This an awesome feeding schedule. Do you really have to get freeze dried blackworms? is there another alternative for it? may be brine shrimp perhaps?

[Skip]

i feed what ever i can get my hands on at the moment..

[ialtalal]

i feed what ever i can get my hands on at the moment..

Is what is it that i found?

[Skip]

Is what is it that i found?

i have all types of foods and i try not to feed same thing in same day.. i like to change it up

[aalbina]

Pictures of what you found would help. Parasites live off of the fish (a host) - there are many other things living in water that do not live off the fish. Copepods, planaria etc etc. They are harmless and live off of uneaten food and/or algae. Not sure what you found - but I wouldn't jump to parasite so quickly. Pictures would help us identify what you have.

Does it look like these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copepod

or are they worm like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarian

Adam

[aalbina]

No you don't have to get freeze dried blackworms. I feed them because they are very high in crude protein content which puts growth on the fish, they are convenient, I believe - based on research - that they are safe, and my fish eat them out of my hand like they are starving! I get them here: http://www.aquaticsuppliers.com/

Brine shrimp would not be a good substitute for a high protein food - they don't have near the protein content as FDBW. They are pretty good at keeping the fish regular as they act as a bit of a laxative for them. I do feed frozen brine shrimp occasionally for just that reason. If you feed a good quality pellet or flake food - that is probably all you really have to have. I choose to go with a variety with my adults to ensure they are getting all the nutrients they need. I choose the foods I feed to the sub-adults to put growth on them.

This an awesome feeding schedule. Do you really have to get freeze dried blackworms? is there another alternative for it? may be brine shrimp perhaps?

[ialtalal]

So i went to the fish store today and took what i found yesterday in my tank and gladly it wasn't what i thought it was and i also took a sample of my water and all reading were good and at the safe side but i was surprised to find that my ph went up to 7.6 from being 6.8 most of the time because i used to use the discus buffer but not i stopped using cuz other here didn't recommend using it so i don't know if my fish like this going from 6.8 to 7.6? i have been doing 50% water changes since monday and its has been five days and to be honest i have seen much changing in my discus condition yet? still same signs clamed fins dark not eating scratching thier bodies and darting even though yesterday i made sure they got the same temp when i did the water change on the tank? the guy at my LFS said its probably an external parasite? he recommended paragard? but i don't much about it and thought it would be great to hear from you guys? so what do you guys think i should do at this point? it has been five days and i don't see any improvements here and its making me really sad watching my fish like that? and i would like to thank you guys for still fallowing up with me and keeping up with such a rookie like me WARLOCK4169, aalbina and everybody else thank you

[aalbina]

Ok - so this thread is all over the place. In my opinion, the best advice you have been given is to age your water. You haven't posted your water parameters with the exception of pH. Here are the steps I think you need to take before you throw meds in the water.

1. Buy a Seachem ammonia disc at you pet store or a test kit from Seachem that tests for ammonia. You can't use the API test kit for ammonia because you won't get an accurate reading if you're using Prime or Safe from Seachem.

2. Buy a test kit to test nitrate and nitrite.

3. Test your water before the next water change and post your results.

4. If you have a pH test kit: take glass of water from the tap, check the pH and record it. Wait 12 hours with that glass of water just sitting on the counter, test the pH of that same glass of water again and record it. If there is no change - wait 12 more hours and test again. The difference in the first pH test and the last will tell you if you need to age your water because of a natural pH swing. If the change is more than .2 then you should age your water. So 6.8 to 7.0 is OK 6.8 to 7.8 is too much - it's actually ten times more not 1 - pH is a logarithmic curve. If there is a big change - then you can age your water or do several small water changes a day. I highly recommend aging the water if you have more than a .2 swing. It will stress your fish over time.

My opinion on Seachem Paraguard is that it's pretty safe for external issues. It's aldehyde based along with malachite green. I've mostly used QuickCure which is formaldehyde (formalin) and malachite green. This Seachem product does the same thing but is safer for the aquarist. If the problem is with your water - then this remedy will only help temporarily. You will be back here with the same problem because your fish immune system is weak and they will most certainly get sick again. Good water means strong healthy immune systems.

Let us know when you're able to test ALL your water parameters.

Adam

[ialtalal]

I did test my water and everything looked good everything at 0 and ph at 7.6

[ialtalal]

Ok - so this thread is all over the place. In my opinion, the best advice you have been given is to age your water. You haven't posted your water parameters with the exception of pH. Here are the steps I think you need to take before you throw meds in the water.

1. Buy a Seachem ammonia disc at you pet store or a test kit from Seachem that tests for ammonia. You can't use the API test kit for ammonia because you won't get an accurate reading if you're using Prime or Safe from Seachem.

2. Buy a test kit to test nitrate and nitrite.

3. Test your water before the next water change and post your results.

4. If you have a pH test kit: take glass of water from the tap, check the pH and record it. Wait 12 hours with that glass of water just sitting on the counter, test the pH of that same glass of water again and record it. If there is no change - wait 12 more hours and test again. The difference in the first pH test and the last will tell you if you need to age your water because of a natural pH swing. If the change is more than .2 then you should age your water. So 6.8 to 7.0 is OK 6.8 to 7.8 is too much - it's actually ten times more not 1 - pH is a logarithmic curve. If there is a big change - then you can age your water or do several small water changes a day. I highly recommend aging the water if you have more than a .2 swing. It will stress your fish over time.

My opinion on Seachem Paraguard is that it's pretty safe for external issues. It's aldehyde based along with malachite green. I've mostly used QuickCure which is formaldehyde (formalin) and malachite green. This Seachem product does the same thing but is safer for the aquarist. If the problem is with your water - then this remedy will only help temporarily. You will be back here with the same problem because your fish immune system is weak and they will most certainly get sick again. Good water means strong healthy immune systems.

Let us know when you're able to test ALL your water parameters.

Adam

yea its going every where i agree

[ialtalal]

what is this product does anybody knows? http://brightwellaquatics.com/products/blackwatert.php

[aalbina]

I did test my water and everything looked good everything at 0 and ph at 7.6

If everything is at 0 before a water change - I am a little surprised. How long between the last water change and the testing of ammonia, nitrate and nitrite?

Adam

[aalbina]

I did test my water and everything looked good everything at 0 and ph at 7.6

And what happened with the glass of water after 12 hours then 24?

Adam

[ialtalal]

If everything is at 0 before a water change - I am a little surprised. How long between the last water change and the testing of ammonia, nitrate and nitrite?

Adam

so i did a water change at 12 midnight at night and did a water test at 11 am in the morning and everything was good.