Need fluke help ASAP.

[troyclark]

Someone please help. I have about 70 2 month old fry left. I started with around 100 and have steadly been losing some each day. I have tried PP (old, old bottle of 3.74% solution), and PraziPro. I haven't noticed any improvements with the PraziPro. I am dosing 3 teaspoons for a 55 gallon tank. Each 55 gallon tank has about 30-40 fry in it and gets a 95% water change each night. I wipe down the sides every 2-3 water changes. Use sponge filters only and the tanks are heated to 86 degrees. Please help.

[Carol_Roberts]

ARE you sure ammonia is zero? Could be bacterial gill infection in addition to flukes. I like good old formalin at 1 cc or ml per 10 gallons, wait 8 hrs do 50% water change ( in addition to daily 95% WC)

[mark neill]

Carol,
What do you do with the sponges/filtration during treatment?

Thanks

Mark

[troyclark]

Carol, I checked my ammonia after I changed 90% of the water in each tank last night they both read .25 ppm. My city uses chloromines in its water supply. I use Prime at the recommended dosage to eliminate the chloromines. I read on the bottle of Prime and it says in converts the ammonia into a non-toxic form. Is my ammonia test reading this non-toxic form of ammonia or do I need to add an additional chemical to get rid of the ammonia ?? All suggestions are welcome.

[jeep]

Hi Troy,

Yes, Prime will give you false positives for ammonia and I wouldn't add more chemicals. I agree with Carol that they are probably dying due to secondary infections. When I ran out of Kanamycin I used Maracyn (E.M.) and it worked fine.

[troyclark]

Thanks for the info Brian. I have some formalin on hand so I think I will give it a try. I might have some Melafix on hand also. Have you had good luck with Melifix or does it just smell good??? LOL

Thanks for the quick response Carol. I thought the ammonia reading was because of the Prime and Brian confirmed it. But I was a little nervous when I went to bed last night. Both fry tanks tested the .25 ppm so I tested the water straight out of my storage tank and it was the same. I really wish my city would go back to chlorine. Thanks again

[Carol_Roberts]

Formalin will not totally kill the biofilter, but will hurt it some. I just increae water changs. Add salt with the formalin. Melafix will not help bacterial gill infections or flukes.

[troyclark]

Carol, I started to dose with Formalite 1. It is made by Aquatronics and it says it is 15% Formaldehyde, with Malachite Green and Copper Sulfate. One drop per gallon. Have you heard of this and is this a good med. Thanks

[Carol_Roberts]

I've never used it before . . .

[troy]

Hi
Be careful with Formaldehyde, with Malachite Green , it is very strong combo and fry are very sensitive to that, never heard of a mix with copper Sulfate though.

I would not use it on young fish, just to be safe . i have had young fish die from F &M and so have others.
At least stop treatment at any sign of problems.

Holding barrel did you add prime to that also , if not do you have bio filter in there. Prime is a great product.

if not water problem treat as the others say for bacteria with antibiotic first.
I have had a lot of experience with flukes and finally found ways to deal to them.

[paletka]

Hi,
Don't ever use FORMALIN with Melafix, everything will die.

chris

[troyclark]

Thanks for the advise everyone. Last night I did my normal 90 - 95% water change and added some formalin I got at the LFS. In less that an hour most of my fry in both tanks started to turn black and hand out in the lower corners of the aquarium. During the water change I wiped all the walls and floor of the tank and rinsed my sponge filters. I couldn't figure what went wrong. I narrowed it down to the formalin, contaminated water in my storage tank, or the bucket I put tank water in to squeeze the sponge filters in had something in it. The formalin was new and others have used it successfully so I don't think that was the case, and I did a 100% change on some "guinie pig" subadults I have to see if it was the storage tank and they are all fine. By process of elimination, I think the bucket I used to clean the sponge filters must have had something in it that got on the sponges. I moved the fry into a spare 55 I had ready to seperate them further anyway and did 100% water changes on both the other 55 as well as wipe the walls again and rerinsed the sponge filters vigirously in a clean bucket with tank water. As of this morning I have only lost 15 - 20 fry and all the others are looking pretty good considering. Any other ideas as to the reactions ?????

Thanks

P.S. Sorry to bother you at home last night Carol, but I panicked. Thanks for being kind and understanding as well as for the expert advise.

[Carol_Roberts]

No problem :) I hope they pull out of it . . .