How to ID gill flukes

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calgaryflames

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Nov 10, 2009
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does anybody know any ways to determine if your rays have gill flukes.

I am not certian on anything right now maybe just stress on the rays but i do know rays can survive with flukes no problem unless stressed.I did move all of the rays around and have started to notice like a cough and a little bit heavy breathing but no so much the heavy breathing because i see them early in the morning when i turn lights back on they are breathing very slowly! the cough occurs only in 3 of my rays every few minutes if i watch them closly otherwise most people wouldnt even notice it.I have also noticed a couple rays will swim off the bottom upwards and trash or flick their body pretty violently almost like they are trying to get something out, could be sand,shrimp shells or now i think maybe gill flukes??? this violent twitch or flick/trash i have been seeing for a long time in my rays.


i really dont know how i would have got flukes into my tank unless quarantine failed and i never actually killed everything off when i first treated them after importing!! "if they even had anything senario" maybe something slipped under the radar or most likely not even gill flukes just me watching my rays too much since i moved them into my 1400 gallon and overeacting

can anybody on here that has experience with gill flukes please leave your input and please only people who actually know from experience this can become a great thread

thanks guys
 
The signs that I have noticed would be labored breathing, rubbing themselves (swaying back and forth), coughing, not eating as much, only breathing out of one lung, and just sitting there not being very active.
 
The rays are still active.doesn't mean they do or don't have anything at this point.i will sit around tonight and try and video record what i observe and share it with everybody than get more educated input from people
 
Flukes are easy to see under the lowest setting on a microscope. If you scrape the skin near their gill opening you should be able to get a slide sample.
 
rudy;4953188; said:
breathing out of one lung is a dead give away.
Click to expand...


i can say i havent seen this!! do you think that would be a sign of a very infested specimen tim??


just the cough once every minute or two and the violent flick/trash so far!! maybe not flukes ,

i hate medicating my rays , plus it will cost me alot to medicate my big tank
 
well i was able to id this as gill flukes.i think they have been giving me problems for a while now.over the last few months i thought i had a bacterial infection than i though they had internal parasites last summer.well some signs that did occur with my black rays is the ventral openings and around the vents became very pale and lighter discoloration.than i notice one of the females breathing out of one lung.Also had some breeding snook cichlids in that tank that stoped breeding and eating agressively.

to me its amazing how resliant rays are to parasites.i did treat all my rays with prazi, but in the summer time i introduced 4 red stripe sevrums that came from a guy i knows tanks.apparnetly nothing is wrong with any of his fish and he treated them "and if you are reading this thanks for the flukes" another lesson learned dont ever trust anybody and treat them as infected from the begining.

over the last little while i have learned alot about flukes and my rays.funny breathing patterns should never be over looked as nothing.this was my first indication.i noticed funny flicks and coughing but over looked it.it was not until i moved them from my 300 to my 1200 gallon that the rays started to really show signs of it.that was due to stress of course giving the parasites a opportunity to take over the weakend immunity of the rays.treatments are simple prazi never use flubendazole or panacure its very bad news,i almost lost a ray trying this med and a very expensive ray too.
 
Metronidazole is another very good treament for gill flukes (Hexamita) and safe for rays.
 
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