GILL FLUKES

[majik]

could anyone please advise me on the treatment of gill flukes i have one fish that im almost sure has them and another possible should i treat in hospital tank or should i treat in main tank and i hav been advised to use formalin is this correct? i have bought some but havent used yet as i just want to kno im doing the right thing before i medicate please help

[rick.c]

what ever you use i would be careful ,i treated my hole tank with clout for flukes and it killed my bacteria had to recycle the tank

[majik]

hmmmm i did wonder about that i hate havin to medicate it mucks up everything i went on to the link by carol roberts and have treated as per instructions fingers crossed here we go............did you continue with daily water changes while medicating?and did it take long to re cycle tank or was it like a mini cycle?

[Graham]

OK 1st off Prazi is the basic number one treatment...simple and very effective..............formalin may or may not get them all and you'll have to follow the repeat dosage exactly...then it will have to be followed up by a second series of dosages to kill off all the baby gill/Dactylogyrus flukes..........

Formailin requires daily water changes to be totally effective

BTW how do you know they have flukes

Graham

[majik]

my golden malboro has been sulking in the corner for a week now not eating and in the last 4 days he has clamped 1 gill and his breathing is continusly up over 90 per minuite today 1 of my blue turqs has decided to go out in sympathy and sulk in the same corner and today has also clamped 1 gill i searched the town i live in and couldnt find any of the other medication you recomended as a book i have also states that as 1st choice all i could find was the formalin i have already dosed as per instructions i have been monitering since i medicated and all look fine no signs of stress and my blue turq has stopped sulking and unclamped gill not the golden tho but he is moving more and more aleart i will do a 50% water change 8 hours after meds i hope ive done everything right im very nervous now oh also i have increased the oxygen input

[Wahter]

Hope the formalin works for you.

You can find praziquantel in a few products such as

General Cure and

Prazi-Pro.

Hope that helps (for next time).



Walter

[majik]

ok ill search new zealands trade me (like e bay)if i can ger some would u recomend thet i discontinue the corse of formalin wait a few water changes and then treat with new meds or continue with corse of formalin and if that dosnt work start again with new meds??

[majik]

oops sory i am so concerned about them i forgot to thank you for your help and advice it helps reduce the stress of fishie illness when help is at hand thank u

[rick.c]

luckly i had other tanks going so i could use cycled sponges from them ,and also got some biospara tank is not fully back to normal but geting there ,after treating ammonia levels wenty up so keep a check on your levels
rick

[majik]

ok thats great thanks for that i an testing water daily wiht meds and doing daily water changes they had their first dose yesterday i did 50% water change after 4 hours instead of 8 as they were starting to look a bit glum all ok with fish and water stats so far so thanks heaps for that yes i have other tanks that i can pinch media and water from if i need to hope all goes well ill keep u posted

[majik]

so far so gud due for 2nd dose tomorrow morning just a thought tho can i add melafix aswell to try and reduce the stress of medication???or is that not a good idea,

[pcsb23]

Don't bother adding melafix. Just keep the water and tank as clean as poss during treatment. I'm not a fan of any opf the 'fixes.

[Graham]

I agree with Paul here do not add any Fix's. There should be no stress from the use of the Formalin, What you may see it the fish reacting to the parasite dying and not being stressed out from the chem

[majik]

oh thats excellent thanks for that ive been doing daily water changes and things seam to be going fine no amonia etc thanks for that feel better now im a bit more sure of what im doing and could u please advise me of the pros and cons(if any) of uv sterelizer light?

[majik]

:( oh dear i think im guna loose my golden malboro shes just misrable she is not eating at all.... and is very thin now bless her she just hides in the corner and is not even intresred in food althow she is using both gills now and has unclampted gill but is still clamping fin and not a happy camper at all im very worried about her they are due for third dose of formalin in the morning i am doing 50%water changes every day dosing 1mil per 10g every second day water change 8 hours after medicine the water stats are holding up well i have extra oxygen going in tank is there anything else i could be doing im so concerned about her

[SuAsati]

you always have flukes. they not kilfish until bad water kepp water good and save fish plese.

[judy]

It sounds like you're doing everything right, and if both gills are now unclamped, that's a good sign, even if her fins are still clamping. She may be recovering more slowly; may have had the worst case of all of the fish. Sounds like it, since she was the first to fall ill.
She should be able to survive even if she doesn't eat for a few more days-- though it is SO hard to watch them try to struggle through these things, isn't it? Poor little thing!
Meanwhile, though, do try and source PraziPro. It's in a liquid form, and works a charm. Thos gill flukes may return at some point down the road.

[majik]

yes it is very hard to watch them suffer i have ordered some prazi pro from america but i dont think shes going to make it this morning shes swimming at the surface and very weak should i continue with the meds is she beyond saving

[judy]

not sounding encouraging-- do any of the experts here have any thoughts on whether Majik might try force-feeding, or is the fish already just too stressed to handle that?

[majik]

ok heres what ive done i have discontinued the formalin and will wait on the prazipro to arrive i have put her in hospital tank this morning i nearly put her down but just couldnt bring myself to do it so shes in hospital tank i will continue with daily water changes in big tank everyone else in there seams fine ,as mentioned by judy i myself was wondering about force feeding ,??????
and thank u all for help and advice and sympithy

[majik]

:angel: shes gone poor thing very sad everyone else looks ok tho thank u all so much for your help and suggestions i guess some just cant be saved

[subcooler]

I was wondering if anyone has a pic of Gill flukes-I have no idea what an infected fish would look like.
I'd had to mis-diagnose a health problem (due to ignorance)!
Thanks for your help!
Rob

[Hans Kloss]

I was wondering if anyone has a pic of Gill flukes


As you wish ;)
http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=l0bdRt2uD00



I have no idea what an infected fish would look like.


It usually looks like a sick fish. Nobody can diagnose gill flukes without microscope. Great part of so called "gill flukes" are in fact protozoan or bacterial gills infection.
Hans

[tonymaccs]

Hi Majik,
If NZ is similar to Aus Prazipro is probably not available which I guess is why you ordered it from US. There are probably other worm medications you can purchase at you lfs that have praziquantel as the active ingredient. "Aquaworm" is one available here.
Trichlorphon is also effective against flukes and readily available and you will see by searching some threads here that there are some opinions that prazi isn't that effective for flukes.
As has already been said it is not uncommon for flukes to be diagnosed for other causes. From what you described and how quickly it was fatal, there is a good chance it was not flukes.
Tony

[majik]

yes the flukes probly wernt the cause of death the refusal to eat was but i figured the flukes were contributing to the misery as far as i can diagnose without microscope the tank still has flukes rapid brething,rubbing gills on things,and sort of quick flutters but otherwise happy and eating well as i mentioned i stopped the formalin and cant decide on a medication thanks for pointing me in the right direction for whats avaiable here

[subcooler]

Sorry to hear of your loss!
I am rapidly finding out how attached we get to these beautiful fish!
I would also like to thank the sender of the pic on gill flukes.
I think I have a better understanding of what the symptoms are now- scratching gills agains anything available in tank.
I hope to not get any first hand experience with them-but @ least I feel better informed about how an infected fish would act.
Thanks again to all the members here who promptly share thier experience with us new guys!
Rob:)