How to dose Anti-Fluke Life Bearer for Fry - replace med after water change????

[Sasha]

I have confirmed flukes (via microscope) on my 6 week old fry. I dosed Anti-Fluke Life Bearer at 1 drop per gallon of water last night, but want to perform a water change this morning. I am not sure if I should REPLACE the med after the water change based on the amount of water removed from the tank, or if I should wait and simply add another full dose tonight (24 hours after the first dose).

The fluke situation is unfortunately pretty severe (lots of flukes visible on a very tiny (pin point sized) gill piece removed from a fish that perished), because the flukes crept up on me while I was out of town and I had a friend taking care of the fish during my absence. I think it is best to keep the water as clean as possible, right? I also want to remove as many of the eggs as possible thru water changes and filter rinses.

Should I remove my sponge filters and only keep my HOB filter running? Not sure if the fluke eggs will infest the sponges or if the eggs only fall to the bottom of the tank?

Also, some have suggested moving the fish to a new/clean tank. I only have a spare 10 gallon tank available and I have an adult male and approx 30 fry (fry are approx 1.5 inches long mouth to end of tail). I don't think the 10 gallon is a good idea with that many fish. Would you agree?

[lipadj46]

I would do a near 100% change before each dose and wipe down the tank. Make sure you lower the temp to below 80F, don't be afraid to double or triple dose and treat for extended periods. You should plan on doing a pp bath or multiple baths when you are done with the trichlorfon to clean the filters and tank. They still may come back though, the gift that keeps on giving lol!

[Sasha]

Thanks - why temp below 80F?

And it sounds as if I SHOULD add more meds daily (even if before the 24 hour mark) to replace the meds removed via water changes?

Also, I've never done a PP "bath" in the tank - and frankly it scares me. So many people say that dosing the PP is very tricky and that PP can be dangerous.

What hints/tips might anyone be able to offer to wiping down the tank without getting hands in the water? On a prior post in a different thread, Eddie HIGHLY suggested that we should keep our hands out of the tank while the Anti-Fluke Life Bearer med is in the water.

[lipadj46]

Thanks - why temp below 80F?

Trichlorfon degrades quickly at high temps to the point of being ineffective


And it sounds as if I SHOULD add more meds daily (even if before the 24 hour mark) to replace the meds removed via water changes?

Yes I do a daily 95% daily water change and redose the full amount


Also, I've never done a PP "bath" in the tank - and frankly it scares me. So many people say that dosing the PP is very tricky and that PP can be dangerous.

It can be dangerous. If you have a gram scale it is very safe. If you get into trouble hydrogen peroxide will instantly deactivate the pp.


What hints/tips might anyone be able to offer to wiping down the tank without getting hands in the water? On a prior post in a different thread, Eddie HIGHLY suggested that we should keep our hands out of the tank while the Anti-Fluke Life Bearer med is in the water.

Wipe down the tank during water changes while the tank is nearly empty and get some gloves

[Sasha]

Thank you! Any suggestions from others?

[Sasha]

Oops, one open question still:

Should I remove my sponge filters and only keep my HOB filter running during Anti-Fluke treatment? Not sure if the fluke eggs will infest the sponges or if the eggs only fall to the bottom of the tank? And if Anti-Fluke Life Bearer kills the bio system in the tank, the sponge filters probably aren't doing much of anything anyway, right??

Thank you very much! Your advice is greatly appreciated as I am only about a year into discus raising, and this is my first batch of fry. :-)

[lipadj46]

trichlorfon won't kill your bio filter IME, maybe set it back but only if you overdose, your sponges are infected already so you might as well treat them. The problem is fluke eggs are very resistant and can survive for a long time hence the longer treatment, multiple treatments, tank rotations, nuking and pp'ing after you treat. If the anti-fluke does not work for you I've had better luck with flubendazole (from plymouth discus or inkmkr) and dmso. Also all AFLB is pretty old at this point as it was discontinued over a year ago so it may not work well, delos powder is powdered trichlorfon and is more effective IME.

[Sasha]

Thank you!

[nc0gnet0]

In all honesty if your sure your fry have flukes your just better of culling them and treating the parents. Successfull treatment most likely will have long term consequences. And do you really want to sell juveniles that may still harbor some of the parasites?

[Sasha]

In all honesty if your sure your fry have flukes your just better of culling them and treating the parents. Successfull treatment most likely will have long term consequences. And do you really want to sell juveniles that may still harbor some of the parasites?

Ouch. Culling all of them will be very hard for me to do. What are the expected long term consequences?

[lipadj46]

Stunting, gill infections, they could also get gill plate deformities or gill curl.