Ick Clear

[wetfish]

Being an idiot I added ick clear to my senegal bichir's tank. In the directions it didn't sound like bichirs would be one of the fish sensitive to the medication. I should have checked online first. I used a full dosage. The ick clear was in at full strength for a half hour to a full hour. How dangerous is Victoria Green to bichirs?

Before posting this topic I did a 2/3 water change. The bichir isn't acting sick, but I'll keep a watch on him.

 

[Cohazard]

Treating ich is easy, and it's best to not use meds. Raise your temp to at least 80F (85F being better) and add salt to your water.

Add 1/4 tsp/gallon once every hour for 8 hours which will put you at the target 2 tsp of salt per gallon. Table salt is fine, and I've used iodized and regular salt on QT'd fish with no harm being done to the animals.

HTH

 

[uwe]

Hi wetfish,

bichirs have astonishing keeper qualities (remember Sylvester Stallone in Rocky 1?) ... i think they will keep in good condition.
A friend of mine did an over-medication with Flubenazol (against the bichir parasite Macrogyrodactylus polypteri) and also overdosed this drug. This drug is really heavy stuff and was forbidden in Germany for a long time ... the bichirs managed it well!

Don't worry! You've done the best to preserve the opportunity of damage with changing water.

Greetings

Uwe

 

[wetfish]

I was mostly doing this as a preventative. I have another aquarium with ick and I used the same tools on the bichir's aquarium awhile back. In the aquarium with ick I have been using the heat/salt treatment, but it doesn't seem to be working(have had temp at 86 for over two weeks). I just thought adding some med might help.

I'll probably try the heat/salt on the bichir's aquarium if I notice any signs of ick.

Defenitly getting a quarantine tank before I buy anymore fish

Thanks for the replies

 

[uwe]

Hi Wetfish,

you do not need to treat Polypterids against ick because they are almost immune against it.
The most common parasite on polypterids are Macrogyrodactylus polypteri, this plague will kill a bichir without treatment. The medications against ick don't help against this parasite!
Macrogyrodactylus is a survival artist. The most fresh imported bichirs are dying by this parasite! Here in Germany i've helped some keepers and dealers to handle this problem with Flubenazol. Those who thought they could handle it with common medication against ecto-parasites or salt took the award of 100% lethality of all bichirs the kept. In one case a dealer had the affection of every bichir (ropefish, lapradei, endlicheri, polli, delhezi, ornatipinnis, weeksi and ... teugelsi!) ... i gave him the medication (i have enough of this compound at home, it's medicine for pigs - smallest package 500 g) and all bichirs survived. Another deale who had an affection at the same time uses salt - and lost all bichirs ...
All the way, the dealer with the bichirs thar survived said "Thank You" in a very special way - i got a teugelsi as a present!!!

That's the way i got my teugelsi ...

Greetings

Uwe

 

[wetfish]

Uwe, thats great that you helped all of those bichirs. I hope I never have to deal with a parasite as bad as the one you mentioned. Senegal is just about the biggest bichir I can keep, but I'll be carefull if I ever get one of the smaller wild caught varieties.

I also have a gourami in the aquarium with the bichir. As far as I can tell though, it is not showing any signs of ick. They were exposed to tools from the other aquarium a few weeks ago. I should probably just leave things alone. "If its not broke, don't fix it"

 

[Cohazard]

Hi Wetfish,

you do not need to treat Polypterids against ick because they are almost immune against it.
The most common parasite on polypterids are Macrogyrodactylus polypteri, this plague will kill a bichir without treatment. The medications against ick don't help against this parasite!
Macrogyrodactylus is a survival artist. The most fresh imported bichirs are dying by this parasite! Here in Germany i've helped some keepers and dealers to handle this problem with Flubenazol. Those who thought they could handle it with common medication against ecto-parasites or salt took the award of 100% lethality of all bichirs the kept. In one case a dealer had the affection of every bichir (ropefish, lapradei, endlicheri, polli, delhezi, ornatipinnis, weeksi and ... teugelsi!) ... i gave him the medication (i have enough of this compound at home, it's medicine for pigs - smallest package 500 g) and all bichirs survived. Another deale who had an affection at the same time uses salt - and lost all bichirs ...
All the way, the dealer with the bichirs thar survived said "Thank You" in a very special way - i got a teugelsi as a present!!!

That's the way i got my teugelsi ...

Greetings

Uwe

I've been looking for the name of that polypterus specific parasite, thanks! I found it a while back when some wild bichirs I bought had tiny external parasites that looked like hair.

I treated with jungle labs parasite clear and the parasites were gone the same day of the treatment. I treated again just to be sure it was gone.

 

[beblondie]

Parasites particular to Polypterids
While generally hardy fish, bichirs can get many of the normal standard fish
dieases however there are some specific to bichirs and those are the focus
of this post.

Digenetic trematodes ( internal flukes)
Callodistmum diaphaannum- may be found in Polypterus bichir (gall bladder)
The adult form of these flukes can inhabit any part of the body diagnosis of these
worms is usually not possible and treatment is not warranted

Monogenetic trematodes(skin and gill flukes)
Macrogyrodactylus polypter-malmberg
Macrogyrodactylus polypteri- may be found in wildcaught P.senegalus form Gambia
These resemble fine hairs or very fine pieces of thread,they are visible to the naked
eye as symptons include rubbing and rolling its body and thrashing it can be cured
usually by using Jungle labs Parasite guard at 3/4 dose.(this is the most comon
parasite i have seen)

Proteocephalus (tapeworms)
Proteocephalus pentastoma -may be found in P. bichir wildcaught from the Sudan
Proteocephalus sulcatus- may be found in P. endilcheri wildcaught from the sudan
Polyoncobothrium polypteri- may be found in P.bichir wildcaught in Egypt
Camallanus polypteri n. sp-.is described from Polypterus bichir in Lake Tingrela, Burkina Faso.
The adults lie in the intestines of it host as it sheds its eggsthey are pushed down
the intestines and eventually into the water.Most if not all need an intermediate
host .ie.the eggs are eaten by a small crustacean it in turn is eaten by a small
fish which in turn is eaten by a bigger fish.A starving host may expell its tapeworm .

Lernaeidae (parasitic crustaceans)
Lernaea haplocephala - May be found on any wildcaught polypterid
This is a species of anchor worm i'd suggest parasite guard 3/4 dose
So you can see along with the more common parasites.We have some
species specific ones.Here i cannot help but bring up the importence
the practice of quartine is, especially with bichirs as many are wild-
caught .And the risk of contamination is to high.All new specimens really
need to be quaratineed for 4 weeks

 

[uwe]

Hi Beblondie,

thanks for your extended information about parasites that bichirs could get!

In Germany there's no distributor for Jungle Labs Parasite Guard ... so i've googled to look at the composition of the active ingredients.
Praziquantel is one of the ingredients i knew from medications distributed in Germany. in the special case of Macrogyrodactylus i've heard from some keepers here that the parasites had been away after 24 hours but sometimes - after a few weeks - Macrogyrodactylus had been there again!
Praziquantel takes affect to the parasites in paralyzing them. Unfortunately Macrogyrodactylus polypteri isn't explored as well - no one wrote about the opportunity of encapsulation, a common surviving methode to ride dry periods out ...
The new affection in some cases of treatment with medications containing Praziquantel could stand in coherency with some unknown survival techniques of Macrogyrodactylus.

Flubenazol (is it allowed in US?) takes affect in blocking some essential enzymes of the metabolism of mollusks, worms and crustaceans. They are dying from inner starving. So there's no opportunity of preparing for bad living circumstances by the parasites.

The prejudice of Flubenazol is the efficiency of the ingredient ... it kills all mullusks etc. in very low dose rates - almost over the waste water and in series over the ground water ... common sewage plants arn't able to degrade the ingredient! That's the reason why Flubenazol was forbidden for a long time in Germany.
Normally Flubenazol is used in animal husbandry to combat tapeworms and roundworms. So it isn't a typical fish medication but the most effective medication against Macrogyrodactylus - i've gained this experience with other bichir keepers in Germany.

Greetings

Uwe

 

[uwe]

Hi Beblondie,

thanks for your extended information about parasites that bichirs could get!

In Germany there's no distributor for Jungle Labs Parasite Guard ... so i've googled to look at the composition of the active ingredients.
Praziquantel is one of the ingredients i knew from medications distributed in Germany. in the special case of Macrogyrodactylus i've heard from some keepers here that the parasites had been away after 24 hours but sometimes - after a few weeks - Macrogyrodactylus had been there again!
Praziquantel takes affect to the parasites in paralyzing them. Unfortunately Macrogyrodactylus polypteri isn't explored as well - no one wrote about the opportunity of encapsulation, a common surviving methode to ride dry periods out ...
The new affection in some cases of treatment with medications containing Praziquantel could stand in coherency with some unknown survival techniques of Macrogyrodactylus.

Flubenazol (is it allowed in US?) takes affect in blocking some essential enzymes of the metabolism of mollusks, worms and crustaceans. They are dying from inner starving. So there's no opportunity of preparing for bad living circumstances by the parasites.

The prejudice of Flubenazol is the efficiency of the ingredient ... it kills all mullusks etc. in very low dose rates - almost over the waste water and in series over the ground water ... common sewage plants arn't able to degrade the ingredient! That's the reason why Flubenazol was forbidden for a long time in Germany.
Normally Flubenazol is used in animal husbandry to combat tapeworms and roundworms. So it isn't a typical fish medication but the most effective medication against Macrogyrodactylus - i've gained this experience with other bichir keepers in Germany.

Greetings

Uwe