Flukes, am I on the right track?

[lipadj46]

1. 2 days ago 1 fish started to shake head, flick against driftwood. today I noticed a little bit of head shaking of other fish in the main tank but no other symptoms

2. Symptoms: He is dark but no slime coat shedding, no clamped fin, he is still aggressively eating too. Also noted that the tips of his gill plates are curled a bit, assuming gill flukes.


3. What medications/ treatments: QT'd him and am on the 3rd day of prazipro on QT tank and main tank. I treat 1 tsp of prazipro per 10 gallons. I also do methylene blue baths daily on the one dark guy. I'm planning on doing this for 2 or 3 weeks.



Tank/Water

4. Tank: 55 gallon main tank, 6 1.5" fish and 6 2.5" fish. QT is a 20 gallon.

5. Main tank is bare bottom with driftwood and an anubias. Tank has been running in some form for almost a year. I do daily 95% water changes from the tap, I dose the prazi each water change.

6 Parameters and water source;

- temp 86F

- ph 6.0

- ammonia reading 0

- nitrite reading 0

- nitrate reading under 5

- well water no

- municipal water yes dGH = 1, dKH =1

7. Any new fish: no



Anyhow I was wondering if I should continue with the prazi for 3 weeks or step up to quick cure or trichlorfon. I like the prazi because it is mild and won't kill the main tank's bio.

[Moon]

Keep on with the Prazi. It should work.

[lipadj46]

Keep on with the Prazi. It should work.

thx, never have even heard of a gill fluke before I started keeping discus, ha!

[TURQ64]

They are a critter discus are known to have issues with.......Gary

[lipadj46]

well everyone seems to be back on track and back in the main tank. The fish are no longer dark, gill plates are healed and breathing is back to normal. I am still going to treat the tank for a full 3 weeks though. I switched over to trichlorfon today (local store had some old stock ap pond anti fluke fortunately) as I ran out out prazi and it seems kensfish was late with orders due to the storm so I won't have more until tomorrow (ordered some on monday). I still see some head shaking and rubbing but not like before.

I'm thinking that their may have been some water quality issues after the heavy rains from the hurricane that caused the stress, i did dose extra safe just in case.

[TURQ64]

I switched over to trichlorfon today

Lucky find!

[lipadj46]

Lucky find!

yeah its not the lifebearer concentration but the bottle treats 2400 gallons (at 1.3 tsp per 55 gallon) so that should let me treat for a couple weeks easily.