Internal parasite treatment with inverts. And coral

mattybecks

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Feb 21, 2012
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So I have set up my first marine aquarium. 1m long, 170L tank, about 12kg of live rock (I got some of the last avaliable live rock from the LFS display tank before it was banned here). Got more than Ample filtration and very stable parameters. Some new coralline algae growth on the rocks, and loads of interesting life forms coming out the rocks. But thats beside the point.
The current stock is now at
6 red legged hermit crabs
4 blue legged hermit crabs
2 cleaner shrimp
2 ocellerious clownfish

I only have soft corals for now, bunch of mushrooms and Xenia both of which have been doing splendidly these last few weeks.

My question is what internal parasite medication can I use for the clowns, that won't harm the various life (tiny crustations, little worms, fan like trumpt things etc ) in my live rock, my corallime algae, my corals or my inverts..
I have always used API general cure in my freshwater tanks, but I believe metronidazole is not safe for soft corals or inverts...
I only recently added the clowns, and last night I noticed one piece of their fecal matter that had a white part attached to a clear stringy part then the brown part. As I mentioned they are new additions, and other than the poop, seem healthy, curious and ready to take food. They aren't skinny and look to be perfectly normal. But I would rather hit any internal parasites sooner rather than later..
 

mattybecks

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For future reference, incase anyone has the same question.

"IMO - stringy white poop is not automatically a sign of internal parasites as diplomonads (hexamite like flagellates) - it can be but in that case it is - IMO - always in connection with other indications like - dark colour, fish get shy and it have stop eating. The white stringy thing is just the mucus from the intestine and many conditions can make fish excrete that, starving is on cause and other things - like stress - that irritate the digestive tract too. See this thread.

Sincerely Lasse"

 

tlindsey

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Never used it personally Prazipro may be a med to check out. It's for Saltwater and Freshwater. Read it will kill Feather Duster and Tube Worms so you may want to pass.
 
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kno4te

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Would make sure it hasn’t resolved. Can use prazi and metro with other crabs and shrimp. Can use metronidazole mixed with a frozen food and sechem focus. Or just dose prazipro to the tank. The metro is the better choice since being fed to the fish.
 

mattybecks

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No need for medication thank the gods. It was only as the clowns where newly introduced and a little stressed I think. Their poop went back to normal pretty quickly and has stayed that way since, and normal behavior.

For others out there who may have this problem, New Life Spectrum makes a pellet food called Hex Shield for internal parasites.
 
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Lepisosteus

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For future reference, Focus with metronidazole/praziquantel is reef safe when bound to food. Focus in combination with API general cure does both. Metro+prazi will need a binding agent to the food so Focus is strongly recommended. If the fish displays signs of “internal parasite” but does not appear to be losing weight it has an intestinal worm. Use praziquantel. If the fish does appear to be losing weight even though it’s feeding it has internal parasites/flagellates, use metronidazole. If you do not know, use both
 
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