A little help over hear please.

[troyclark]

Hello all, I have a few questions that maybe some of you can provide some insight to. I have two 55 gallon tanks with 70-80 month old turk fry in each. Each tanks has two hydro 5 sponge filters and a 250 watt visi-therm stealth heater. Each is maintained at 86 degrees and given a 90% water change nightly. I have been dosing with Prazipro for about 2 weeks now and still see the white stringy poop. Now it seems some are breathing a little more rapidly and I want to streat with formalin for gill flukes. I changed 90% of the water tonight and did not redose the Prazipro. I put an unused aquaclear filter loaded with fresh carbon to remove the Prazipro before I treat with the formalin. How long should I let the carbon run to make sure I have removed as much Prazipro as possible ?? I can't really tell a difference after I use the Prazipro. Is there a better med to deal with internal and external parasites. I am just not a believer in the Prazipro yet. Thanks in advance for any help.

[Mughal]

Iyou should try aquarium salt.

If you can try:

Metronidazole B.P. Tablets - 200mg (ask your local vet for them, they're not expensive)
Dosage: 2 tablets for 50 gallons water.

Change water and repeat the treatment everyday for 5 days.
When white feces disappeared and see black feces, internal parasites cleared



Also if you do another 90% WC then you could add the formalin right in afterwards, that'd be better than waiting for the filter to remove it anyhow.

[Carol_Roberts]

HI Troy:
Prazi is for gill flukes and tape worms. White strings of mucus hanging from he vent is either flagellates or internal bacterial infection. Formalin will not help. You have been putting lots of meds in the tanks. I think I would try metro at 400 mg per 10 gallons 2 or 3 times per day in ONE tank and see if they improve. (Try just water changes with pH stable water in the other tank. If you are doing a single huge water change with unstable water that could stress the babies if the pH suddenly drops from say 7.8 to 6.8. IF the pH of the change water is higher or the same 90% water changes are wonderful.) AFter 3 days see which tank looks better. If the metro tank then dose other tank. REmember to raise temp to 92+ and change water has to be close to that temp too.

[troyclark]

Carol, I did wc's on both tanks of fry. Did a 60 % on one and a near 100% on the other as I was putting reflectix insulation on that tank and needed to move it to do so. After the wc the 60% wc tank changed Ph from 7.94 to 8.05 and the 100% wc tank went from 7.63 to 8.00 Are these changes OK for my fry. The temp only changes maybe a degree at most. I am ordering some Metro from Drs. Foster and Smith tomorrow so I will try that once I get it. Thanks for the info.

Troy

[AADiscus]

PP (Potassium Permangnate) Spelling??? is really good for external (flukes, etc. You can put it in the tank is use it as a dip.

If you think it is really tapeworms straight Prazi works better IMO than Prazipro. You can get it from www.pondrx.com (http://www.pondrx.com) for about $29.00 a bottle (treats 1,000 gallons)

Remember.....when you start treating with the Metro, raise your temp up to about 92 degrees. Continue this for the whole treatment. Once complete with the treatment GRADUALLY lower the temp.

After that treatment i would give them a break from any meds unless really necessary. Like Carol said, you have been giving them alot.

[troyclark]

Yea, I'm a typical amateur, if something doesn't look right throw all meds I can get my hand on in the tank. I am getting better though. I will try the metro as soon as Drs. Foster/Smith delivers it. I also bought a couple of Via Aqua Stainless Steel 300 watt heaters. Any experience with this anyone wants to share ?? My Visi-Therm Stealths are making me a little edgy. One of them doesn't keep temp very good but if I give a little pull on the cord it seems to kick it in. Thanks for the feedback.

Troy

[Mughal]

One of those little "pulls on the cord" could end up serving you "boiled fish" for dinner someday. I'm glad you're getting a better heater!

[Carol_Roberts]

Swinging up a little in pH does not stress discus. I've never used metro on month old discus. Babies this age are very messy - you may need to do two water changes per day to keep bacteria levels low enough.