to garlic or not to garlic for possible parasites

[sardesign]

ok... i have a 'skinny' clown loach and assume it's internal parasites causing it as it is swimming, eating, and socializing extremely well... but it's body is fairly wasted away (not too bad) and has been like that for some time while the other clowns are bulking up.

i bought some Kent Marine Garlic Xtreme as (believe it or not) i could not find any garlic extract in the grocery store... talk about expensive. i've been soaking their food in the garlic (2) drops per frozen block of bloodworms. what else should i be doing? any other medications or treatments i should be looking at? i certainly don't want to Levimasole if i don't have to. i also don't think that the parasites are spreading to any other of my fish... that guy has been in there for nearly a year.

suggestions, comments, reading material (other than that necropsy article someone posted about roundworms in fish)?

 

[spiff]

I had a couple clown loaches with that same problem and garlic eventually cleared it up. Now I mix minced garlic and the juice with the food everyday as preventative maintenance. I can't say with 100% certainty the garlic is what fixed it, but they had the problem for a couple months before and it cleared up after about 1.5 weeks of the garlic treatment.

 

[JakeH]

The garlic will work great, but it is expensive! Make sure that particular loach gets some food, since the garlic will cause them all to frenzy. A few weeks of that & he will be nice & fat! I also use Jungle "Parasite Clear" to treat food for new CL's, but you have to use the garlic too or they wont eat it. Its pretty safe & you get a 1-2 punch of garlic & Levimasole.

 

[sardesign]

The garlic will work great, but it is expensive! Make sure that particular loach gets some food, since the garlic will cause them all to frenzy. A few weeks of that & he will be nice & fat! I also use Jungle "Parasite Clear" to treat food for new CL's, but you have to use the garlic too or they wont eat it. Its pretty safe & you get a 1-2 punch of garlic & Levimasole.

excellent... i will stick to the garlic. i'm sure i will find a good place to buy a large stock of it so i can afford it long term...

all of my CLs eat... none of them get left out even the skinny one so i'm not worried about them getting food. i've also tried mixing some of the flake food i have with a small bit of water and the garlic juice and let it soak in... should work just like the frozen food soaking in garlic juice.

sure stinks!

 

[aquatic_wonders]

Nice to hear that garlic might be the cure anyways levamisole or levasol is not easy to find I think right now there's a backlog for 1yr anyway there's also a Medicated Fish food called POND Anti Parasite made by JUNGLE the active ingredients are Metronidazole,Praziquantel and Levamisole it's made for Ornamental Pond fish maybe good for that skinny thing with CL's too.

 

[Muske]

Any free tanks to QT and power feed him alone?

 

[sardesign]

Any free tanks to QT and power feed him alone?

I have one 10 gallon tank that i could do that with but i do not have the energy to empty it, clean it, buy a filter, etc. the other fish love the garlic... and if garlic really helps, then it will keep would-be parasites out of my other loaches and fish. believe me when i say this... the skinny guy eats a TON. he's aggressive enough to get to the food... and he his stomach is huge after a good feeding.

 

[~ocean]

garlic always works!

~ocean

 

[JakeH]

Good luck finding a big supply. I still haven't found it outside of the one LFS that carries it in my area. I tried grocery stores, ethnic markets, specialty grocers & even a spice booth at the flea market. Nuthin. One bottle lasts forever, though. You should only be using a drop or 2 at each feeding... Use the Jungle food, too. Its great stuff.