My jack dempsey I got in early july has always been really skittish and light in colour, not showing any of the colouration adult dempseys should. He has been fin clamping since I got him and won't come out when anyones around. when I look at the tank from far away he comes out and starts moving all his fins rapidly and scratching his side on decorations, sometimes he will suddenly twitch like somthings irratating his side. I know he has an external parasite(s) so first I tried to add salt , then I tried to use melafix, later I added somthing which I believe was called common cure after that didn't seem to work I removed him from the tank and gave him a dip in saltwater he started turning white at first which scared me so I removed him after a few mins and returned him to his tank. after he was bleeding from little holes from where I think the parasites jumped ship. Now he still is fin clamping and scratching himself I need help on how to obliterate these parasites. If this helps to identify what they are somtimes I can see black squiggles that kind of look like little worms on his gill plate and side as well as little white bubbles on his pectral fins. any advice would be really appreciated. and thanks to all that take the time to read this.
need help with jack dempsey!
- Thread starter ctenopoma
- Start date
So he had worms on him? maybe it was anchor worms?
When you added salt and then melafix for how long did you do those treatments?
When you added salt and then melafix for how long did you do those treatments?
MommyJulia;2139626; said:
On the melafix it said to dose for seven days but, I borrowed it from a friend and it was already half gone so I only treated the tank for five days untill it ran out, The tank I treated with salt for about a 1 and a half weeks I was trying to increase the salinty , then lower the amount to kill the parasites.
I haven't used that....but when my cichlids had parasites, I raised the temp (87 degrees), put melafix in and if I remember it right I did that for about 10 days. a week to 10 days. I didn't really see any improvement for the first few days.
damn 87 deg. i only go to about 83-84 and i usually keep my tank at 78. the only thing i use is aquarium conditioning salt 1 tablespoon for each 5 gal. but i up it a little when treating parasites.