How to treat natives for parasites?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
L

love The Jack Dempseys

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Dec 15, 2010
1,369
1
66
Michigan
Tomorrow me, my dad, and my grandpa are going fishing at a pond before easter dinner to spend some time together and i have a 55gallon with a 5" peacock bass that they will added to after they are treated in my unstocked 29 gallon(its been stocked but never drained). I just wanted to know how to treat them for parasites, thanks. And by the way if any of the fish are over 3-4" i will probably throw them back, I want juvies only:nilly:
 
i think melafix is for bacteria and parasites, and pimafix is for fungus. i usually quarentine new additions with both. just make sure you use melafix for 7 days in a row since its a antibiotic and if you dont kill the bacteria it can become stronger. this is true to my knowledge but there are some more educated people on here that can help you further.
 
a quick saltwater bath when you get them home works wonders on removing external parasites, then feeding crushed garlic with frozen food helps clean out the gut
 
Mr.Geoff;5080136; said:
a quick saltwater bath when you get them home works wonders on removing external parasites, then feeding crushed garlic with frozen food helps clean out the gut
Click to expand...


Does this work? I've never heard of it before but it would be a sweet option if it does.:)
 
its what I always did was i was bringing hoem natives by the bushell. Once they were home, made a nice bath of saltwater up and dumped em in there for 3-5 minutes, they will float around, stick out of the water, be upside down, and all kinda of external stuff starts to fall off them. then plunk em in the freshwater tank, they sink to the bottom and a couple minutes later they swim around like nothing.

feeding garlic is a common practice amoung people keeping discus and oscars, fish prone to hole in the head diesease, which lives in the gut. the garlic raises the acidicy of the stomach and kills the parasite. its good stuff.
 
Ha i should have been more specific, I have heard of the salt bath method but not the garlic. Sounds interesting though.:)
 
i have never heard of either of these.. the salt bath sounds like a bad idea.. but im curious. what kind of salt do you use and how much per gallon?
 
use aquarium salt or NON iodized table salt. You use about a 2 or 3 tablespoons in a gallon. Its very simple what happens, you place the fish in a hypotonic situation, the fishes cells are able to adapt to the salt faster then what the parasite's cells can, and they basically just explode off the fish. the fish are fine for the couple of minutes they are in there. i've done it to countless freshwater fish, and you can do the opposite for saltwater fish, bath them in freshwater for a couple mins. in the....probably 8 years that i kept natives i always did this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom