PARASITES IN MY CICHLIDS: looking for advice

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Thanks all for the suggestions

My gt is looking better and is active, but my eyl didn't make it :/ also, my brP has become odd and is shaking and convulsing like he's getting shocked

My API kit might be a bit different now than yours was, I only had to do 2 treatments and I poured my last one in this morning.

Any other advice to get them to eat? They went from 3 meals a day to not eating all week :(
 
Update

Brp didn't make it either :(

Gt is looking active again but still not eating.

Let's assume that I lose all my fish; what will I have to do to rid the tank of any bad stuff before I drop new ones in? A full disassembly and cleaning/ drying?
 
Sorry to hear about your lose, it's difficult to treat small young fish, they don't give you lots of time. Mine were all 6-13" in length and had tapeworm streamers 6" long. Ironically, it was a wild caught Gold Saum that brought the tapeworm. I shoulda known better than to introduce a w/c untreated into a community -Anyways the GT died, 2x Red Terrors, Jag, and Salvini survived.

I'd replace the substrate, boil the orniments, scrub the filteration system and start from scratch if it were me. Internals can be a real pain in the arse.
 
Woah, didnt realize giving an opinion on what medication to use would result in some one jumping down my throat. I work at a reputable aquarium store and frequently use a wide array of medications. I use that dip very often with great results. As far as Bio-gold goes, i like it alot and do think its a great food. If you have another preference, great, but you really didnt need to be a massive dick about it. I did say it was my opinion.
 
Rara12;4864425; said:
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.
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Rara12;4864486; said:
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.
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aclockworkorange;4865467; said:
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?
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Rara12;4870764; said:
Woah, didnt realize giving an opinion on what medication to use would result in some one jumping down my throat. I work at a reputable aquarium store and frequently use a wide array of medications. I use that dip very often with great results. As far as Bio-gold goes, i like it alot and do think its a great food. If you have another preference, great, but you really didnt need to be a massive dick about it. I did say it was my opinion.
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I didn't say anything about your medication. I've also worked in the industry at a very large importer/wholesaler and have personally used about every med out there. We even had a licensed pharmacist on call that would recommend new treatments. Your treatment actually sounded good, haven't used it exactly like that personally, tend to shy away from copper whenever possible.

As far as the food goes, I just disagree that hikari makes the "best cichlid food by far" and gave ingredients as one of the reasons, and if that makes me a "massive dick," then so be it. You don't have to agree, and you can feed as much hikari as you want. But when you recommend a food to someone else, I think giving input so that person can be fully informed with their decision about what to feed is a good thing.
 
I agree with you giving an opinion Rara 12 people seem to be rude as hell..Guys allow people to give there opinions! I for one like Hikari bio gold!
 
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