My experience with Prazipro and Gar

[joe00]

To treat for Argulus on a wild collected Shortnose Gar, I used slightly less than the recommended 1 teaspoon for every 20 gallons of water with Prazipro (5% Praziquantel).

Dead in less than 24 hours!

 

[E_americanus]

that is unfortunate, sorry for your loss! i have never had issues with praziquantel-based meds with gars, but i always use about half the dosage. we have used prazipro on gars of about the size you have photographed and there were no problems, but these were FLGs.

how long did you have this wild SNG and how long before you treated it? sometimes wild gars are best left to settle in to captive conditions before treating with meds. it's a very peculiar case IMO...given the red on the fins and jaw, i would look into the water parameters. what was the quarantine tank like, how big, how was it filtered, and what were the parameters?

hopefully this is an isolated case and the rest of your fish do fine. i would recommend going with 50% the recommended dosage from here on out with pretty much any meds used on gars--
--solomon

 

[Conner]

Hmm, sorry to hear that. I've used Prazi-Pro with WC shortnose gars with no issue. The first time I used it was after about a month in captivity, when they were about 8" long. I've used it since then as they grew in size as well with no issues, even at the full dose (I wasn't treating the gar, but other fish sharing the tank with the gar).

 

[Polypterus]

I never under any condition treat a WC gar until it has settled (that is usually 2 months).. Even then unless it is really serious and need too. I prefer to not do so or to only do so in Topical cases. I would not have used this treatment for Argulus, Rather it would have been better to just paint them (The actual Argulus organism) with Alcohol and pick them off. Stress the fish has being out of water is better than surrounding it in chemicals screwing with it's gills and poisoning the fish. Praziquantel can be used with Gar but it must be done very carefully and with greatly reduced doses.

 

[tokyogasmask]

Hi, I use Prazipro as meds for my tanks.
They are mainly Bichirs, but there are also Arowana and Gar. (Florida, and short nose)

Never had any problems with any of the fish.
I really think the death of your fish is not down to the medicine. (unless of course is is due to stress of being medicated before settling)

 

[Polypterus]

Hi, I use Prazipro as meds for my tanks.
They are mainly Bichirs, but there are also Arowana and Gar. (Florida, and short nose)

Never had any problems with any of the fish.

I would suggest not keeping up with the game of chance and rolling dice expecting the best... Be careful how you use these things with these fish.

 

[tokyogasmask]

To be honest, my Bichirs are the true love of my collection (Not to say I don't love my Gars), and whenever I have had the need to medicate my Bichirs Prazipro has always worked wonders. So I will stick to using it.
The hand full of times I have used it there have been no obvious problems with any of the fish Gar included and all fish have kept a healthy look and appetite.

I usually use a little under the recommended dosage.

Interesting that there may be problems with Prazipro and gars.
At our Bichir meets we often have some of the guys from Kamihata Fish Industries come down to discuss breeding etc. Next time I will pass this info onto them to forward onto their consumables branch (Hikari) and see if they can shed any light on this.
It being their product, I am sure they would like to work on making it safer for Gar?

 

[joe00]

The gar was treated in a 100 gallon tub with sponge filters. No Ammonia or Nitrite and Nitrate around 40ppm (tested after I found the fish dead). The red marks on the fish were most likely caused by handling and an extended stay in a Rubbermaid container on the trip home. I got the Gar Saturday morning and treated Monday evening. I should have let him settle in longer but he seemed to be acclimating really well and was crawling with fish lice.

Longer acclimation before treatment and a smaller dose next time seems to be the ticket. Does treating with half the recommended dose seem to get the job done?

 

[bobtan]

The Gar might have got shocked?

 

[MonsterMinis]

TBH I've used prazi on more then one occasion in my gar tank ( to treat my spiney eels) and have never had any issues w/ it. I've used it on other sensitive species ( aba aba knife, and silver arrowana) But I always start w/ a 1/4 dose then work up over a few days to a full dose. Most people also remove media and increase temp when useing any medication... I Do not, and never reccomend it unless under particular circumstances. I would rule out any possability of contamination from the tub, the stress levels of the fish, was the filtration used pre-cycled? where your PH/KH/GH levels ect similar to where the fish was collected?...I would rule out other variables before blameing the Prazi.

lesson learned... medications of any type are best under-used.