PARASITES IN MY CICHLIDS: looking for advice

[phyber]

Greetings!

i posted a thread earlier ( http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=386794 ) about how my Green Terror was not looking very colorful...

Now, symptoms have gone from bad, to worse. The GT has not improved in color much since my thread posting, and now constantly has white poop and literally sits on the bottom of the tank; no movement, no eating. I also went back to the LFS and the GT's in their tank have shown no signs of improving and actually look worse than mine. I told the manager that something was seriously wrong and she's investigating where they were shipped from.

This trend has also spread to my blood red parrot cichlid and electic yellow lab, but not as severe. These cichlids are just VERY timid now and have no interest at all in eating.

I have moved the GT to a QT to salvage what I can.

In the cichlid tank, I did a 25% water change to try and catch any remaining baddies in the water.

I purchased the API General Cure kit for parasites (i've heard more about Jungle Labs, but there was none at any of my LFS and this was the closest i could get) and have started treatment as of yesterday.

Does anyone have any experience with my problems? It's been ~5 days since my fish have eaten a hardy meal like they used to, and they now constantly cower inside their flower pots, when they used to be active and beg me for food.

Thanks!

 

[phyber]

Details of setup:

25g grow out tank housed the GT, BRP, and EYL
78* temp
Aqueon HOB filter @ 200 gph
water parameters are fine
water/replacement water always treated with Kordon NovAqua+

 

[cichlidfish]

There are a lot of food based medications that would be benificial for the internal infection. It sounds like it could be bacterial, so look for food meds that are for that. If it is a parasite, then get food meds for that. Just follow the instructions on feeding. I would also be doing a lot of water changes and about 50%.

 

[Water]

There are a lot of food based medications that would be benificial for the internal infection. It sounds like it could be bacterial, so look for food meds that are for that. If it is a parasite, then get food meds for that. Just follow the instructions on feeding. I would also be doing a lot of water changes and about 50%.

His fish aren't eating so getting medicine based foods would be no use.

 

[phyber]

Exactly, i got the jungle lab medicated food but they won't look at it much less eat it.

Treatment for the parasites have helped thus far but not out of the woods yet.

I'll mosnlikey try to get some Macryn 2 to add after this medicine has ran it's course

 

[mbeatrice]

parasite clear from jungle it takes care of internal and external parasites its cheap and very effectiv just follow directions on the back of the box...

 

[Rara12]

Do yourself a favor and treat the tank with some form of copper, preferably cupramin. Then in a five gallon bucket try dipping the fish for 45 minutes to an hour in a solution of 2 1/2 gallons heated water (matching the temp of the tank) one full cap of bifuran and one cap metronidizol. The copper is an agressive medication to target the parasites in the tank. Where as in the medicated dips the bifuran deals with the secondary infections caused by the parasites and the metronidizol further targets the parasites. Do the dip once a day until you get the fish eating.
Once the fish starts to eat again, soak some pellets in proziquantal and garlic. The proziquantal is a very potent medication and i hasitate to recommend it for treating the tank. However when soaked in food it does a very good job of cleaning out the digestive tract of the fish from parasites. Dont use to much prozi. as its very oily and you dont need much. The garlic, on top of being great for the fish's immune system, helps to cover up the bitter tast of the prozi.

 

[Rara12]

Just read you other thread, and to get better color in your fish you just need to feed foods with natural color enhancers. Foods like algaes flakes, preferably one that uses more then just green algaes (I like the julian sprungs mixed algeas) or krill that has a large amount of astaxanthin. Microbe-lift makes a great product thats a krill spray. You can spray it on your pellets to add astaxanthin to it. I like to feed Hikari BioGold (by far the best cichlid food out there imo) for its probiotics, soaked in krill spray.

 

[aclockworkorange]

Hiker bio gold:

Ingredients: Fish meal, wheat flour, brewer's dried yeast, gluten meal, spirulina, fish oil, bacillus subtillus, enzyme, garlic, astaxanthin, monosodium glutamate, vitamins and minerals including stabilized vitamin C.

You think that's by far the best food on the market? Hmm. This isn't a nutrition thread and I don't want to start any big debates.

As for parasites, have you researched praziquantel and metronidazole?

 

[Otherone]

API general contains Praziquantel just as parasite clear and Metro do. The API cure tablets are small and you'd need alot to treat larger tanks fortunately your treating smaller tanks. I use the API general for feeder fry all the time in a 30gal tank.

I've successfully it done like this (thanks to MFKers) - Discard any fiber media and carbon. 50% water change treat tank as directed by instructions - repeat after 24 hours - repeat after 48 hours. Each time 50% water changes and vaccum the bottom. 24 hours after the 3rd treatment 50% water change insert new fiber media and carbon - carbon will get the rest of the meds out, after a week or 2 throw the carbon out and you should be good to go. Increasing oxygen would help out as well.

After the treatment their stomachs are probably real sore and it might take a few daze for them to start eating so i don't try to power feed or ram garlic into their systems. After a few daze of eating I'll add fresh garlic to their diets to raise their internal PH - this doesn't kill worms - it creates an internal enviorment to harsh for them to establish. Alot of times that white stringy poop contains egg cists making re-infection a possibility. I've had re-infection occur and it can be a real bugger but be persistant til all stringy poop is gone. I had to treat a 150 gal tank 3 full regaments of 3x once, it took a month to get them clean but it did.