I just noticed my Bowfin is absolutely infested with argulus (fish lice, not ich). My Lungfish also has a few, what can I to go about medicating this? They share the tank with my Florida & Shortnose Gars, which are not affected at the moment. I am assuming the source of the parasite is feeder goldfish. I am scared of what to do to medicate as I know primitive fish are more sensitive to a lot of major fish medications.
Help! Fish lice on Bowfin & African Lungfish in Gar Tank!
- Thread starter tnaylorj
- Start date
By googling I seem a mention of Jungle Labs Parasite Clear, anyone have any experience with this and primitive fish?
Bump the water temperature to 82°F, 1tbsp of salt per 10 gallons of water, and do more frequent water changes in order to keep the water quality up; this is the basic primitive fish treatment to try first. Many medications are not compatible with primitive fishes, so you may have to manually remove the fish lice from the fishes with tweezers. If you manually remove the fish lice, put some mild antibiotic cream, e.g. Neosporin, on the areas where the lice were.
Also, get that African lungfish out of there; it's going to snap one day and kill the rest of the fishes.
Also, get that African lungfish out of there; it's going to snap one day and kill the rest of the fishes.
eyedropper.... and direct application of just about any liquid parasite killer ( I use prazi-pro to de-worm my spiney eels, and have used it with my gar a few times now, I honestly can't remember if it works for lice or not). net the fish out.. and directly apply to the lice... it should fall right off... pop fish back in tank ( sometimes they are abit more stubborn and will stay attached.. but usually not for long).. squish lice under heel. I've done this with many a goldfish thats come in with them at work. I would doubt a single drop of most meds would do any harm to the fish, but I've never had cause to do this with my own more sensitive fish at home. I imagine clove oil or just about any more "caustic" application would work as well. Same concept as getting a tick off us mammals. I've also heard the same trick of coating the bug in petroleum jelly works... but never tried it.
These are easy to do. Remove the fish and take the lice off with tweezers. Done. Watch for a few days, you might have to do it again.
For those who are clueless like myself and had too google:That is messed up. Never seen anything like it! I though "lesions" on chesapeke fish was a major turn off! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad that I have never seen, heard or imagined anything like this in the fishkeeping hobby. I am suprised as huge as they look, that they are not a "food source".
You constantly see several fish following an ick infested fish and gobble up the parasites when they "scratch" them off on tank decorations.
I've stopped physically removing them as when they get really imbedded they can act just like ticks... and if not all is removed cause some really nasty secondary infections. Surprized Sol or Pej haven't piped up with a good solution as they deal with alot of wild caught gar.
I only remove them and have never had an issue. Works like a charm. If you fidget with them a sec they tend to try and escape. Grab them then