What worm do my fish have

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Hey. I am sorry to hear about your fish....stressful times ahead...

I have not read each sentence in the thread but it seems to revolve around metro and prazi.

Metro is for internal parasites, bacterial too.

Prazi is for flat worms...internal and external like flukes...plus some external protozoan parasites like thrichodina and probably a few more but pretty limited in general. Its very safe to use in fish tanks though so no harm trying...Flat worms are common for wild caught fish generally.

What you have not tried....that can cause the flashing and scraping...is treating for internal round worms...capillaria and the likes. I normally always say Kusuri Wormer plus (flUbendazole based...you can order it from the UK) which is very safe, not harmful to fry, but not for inverts...snails, shrimp, detritus worms, planaria..will be killed..if the proper dose is given..If dosed in two consequitive doses, it also has an effect on hex....so its one you may want to try after you've given proper water changes in between treatments....and if what you've tried so far doesn't work...

A similar med to kusiri with a broad effect is levamisole hydrochloride...but I've never tried it....Its a bit more touch and go to treat with...can't be overdosed but covers the same spectrum as Kusuri womer and effective against round worms including the dreaded callamanus worms....probably a bit better than kusuri in the latter....

Make sure to do plenty of large water changes....during and after treatment for a while...
 
Last edited:
Coryloach said:
Hey. I am sorry to hear about your fish....stressful times ahead...

I have not read each sentence in the thread but it seems to revolve around metro and prazi.

Metro is for internal parasites, bacterial too.

Prazi is for flat worms...internal and external like flukes...plus some external protozoan parasites like thrichodina and probably a few more but pretty limited in general. Its very safe to use in fish tanks though so no harm trying...Flat worms are common for wild caught fish generally.

What you have not tried....that can cause the flashing and scraping...is treating for internal round worms...capillaria and the likes. I normally always say Kusuri Wormer plus (flUbendazole based...you can order it from the UK) which is very safe, not harmful to fry, but not for inverts...snails, shrimp, detritus worms, planaria..will be killed..if the proper dose is given..If dosed in two consequitive doses, it also has an effect on hex....so its one you may want to try after you've given proper water changes in between treatments....and if what you've tried so far doesn't work...

A similar med to kusiri with a broad effect is levamisole hydrochloride...but I've never tried it....Its a bit more touch and go to treat with...can't be overdosed but covers the same spectrum as Kusuri womer and effective against round worms including the dreaded callamanus worms....probably a bit better than kusuri in the latter....

Make sure to do plenty of large water changes....during and after treatment for a while...
Click to expand...
I don't do WCs during medicating unless the directions specifically tell you to. WHen you remove water , you remove the medication and have re-add it over and over. Best to just do a large WC before medicating and another after the medication has run it's course
 
  • Like
Reactions: Coryloach
Frank Castle said:
I don't do WCs during medicating unless the directions specifically tell you to. WHen you remove water , you remove the medication and have re-add it over and over. Best to just do a large WC before medicating and another after the medication has run it's course
Click to expand...


Yes, I absolutely agree...The best is to follow the recommended treatment...This is effective providing your water is not the issue in the first place....Everyone knows their own way of keeping fish ...The water needs to be pristine to help fish recover, with or without meds...That's all I tried to say. If one sticks to the treatment...no water changes(.and no re-dosing as alterntive)...I think its very important to do big water changes after treatment..every other day if possible for a few weeks....
But the fist treatment should always be several large back to back water changes...before jumping into conclusions and filling the medicine rack.

One large water change, unless its 100%...which is extremely stressful to the fish and probably detrimental to stressed fish....would be ideal...but not desirable. Three 70% water changes 3 days in a row before treatment is more likely to bring any possible toxins/protozoan/bacterial build up down to a tolerable level and fish would be ready for treatment if they haven't shown a sign of improvement by then... Its just my thinking....but you can't go wrong with water changes...If fish act spooked at first...its because they are not used to water changes...but wait and see how they stop minding it whatsoever...I am only trying to help...and its my way of dealing with "fish"things :)
 
Last edited:
Coryloach said:
Yes, I absolutely agree...The best is to follow the recommended treatment...This is effective providing your water is not the issue in the first place....Everyone knows their own way of keeping fish ...The water needs to be pristine to help fish recover, with or without meds...That's all I tried to say. If one sticks to the treatment...no water changes(.and no re-dosing as alterntive)...I think its very important to do big water changes after treatment..every other day if possible for a few weeks....
But the fist treatment should always be several large back to back water changes...before jumping into conclusions and filling the medicine rack.

One large water change, unless its 100%...which is extremely stressful to the fish and probably detrimental to stressed fish....would be ideal...but not desirable. Three 70% water changes 3 days in a row before treatment is more likely to bring any possible toxins/protozoan/bacterial build up down to a tolerable level and fish would be ready for treatment if they haven't shown a sign of improvement by then... Its just my thinking....but you can't go wrong with water changes...If fish act spooked at first...its because they are not used to water changes...but wait and see how they stop minding it whatsoever...I am only trying to help...and its my way of dealing with "fish"things :)
Click to expand...
100% WC isn't going to hurt anything. I do them from time to time.

When you look on the package the direction of Metroplex for example tell you to "add 1-2 scoops for every 10 gallons of water. Repeat every 2 days for 2 weeks or until symptoms disappear"

In this instance no WC was directed therefore, no WCs for 2 weeks is simply allowing the medication to run it's course. IF you do a WC it screws up the cycle of meds. In this rare instance, I would allow the tank to go 2-3 weeks w/out a WC and just keep heavy filtration and plenty of oxygen during that time

I actually just did this w/ Polyguard and did my 1st WC today in 3 weeks for that specific tank
 
From the top of my head...its been a while..., metronidazole is ineffective after about 8 hrs or a day...or so...There's absolutely no reason not to do water changes...while redosing...especially certain meds like metro...I think not doing water changes is more important about meds that are stable in the water,...when you can't afford accidentally dropping the concentration as it would allow certain pathogens to survive.....But that's still just lack of skill and learning about the meds being used...However If I am certain about my water quality(not talking about ammonia and nitrite here because anyone's tank should read 0 for that) but talking about tank's water being as fresh as it can be....I'll have no problem not doing water changes when medicating..but I'd certainly have no excuse for after.

I honestly, in healthy fish do only about one 50% water change weekly....Unheatlhy fish...70% -sh every second day....

I quarantined a few fish(rasboras) at christmas(bought as a present to myself)....to put eventually in my smallish pond...They are not monster fish... (cause I am a small fish lover) but I got ....two new clown loaches too. The rasboras brought columnaris.(Same tank I quarantined them in had healthy fish for years which I had just moved to my indoor pond) Two of the new fish died 3 days apart until I figured what was happening.... Clowns weren't looking great either. They were rather poor looking in the shop as well.. but I got them because of the odd markings. They all went through a one week course of antibiotics as soon as I saw the mouth and saddle rot on one of the rasboras that died shortly after.....I did a big water change every second day during the treatment. Then massive water changes after the treatment as usual....70% every second day...its been 13 water changes now.. in about 23 days. They are all ripe as apples now, hungry...colourful and look great for what they were initially....

Water changes have always helped my fish...big ones...You don't need to wipe, disinfect, fiddle with the biomedia...or even siphon..Just drain and fill. .The established diversity of biofauna is essential to fight off harmful pathogens but sometimes we shift it in a negative direction....and promote harmful pathogens thrive over others.....Water changes are the way to get things back on track.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Frank Castle
Coryloach said:
From the top of my head...its been a while..., metronidazole is ineffective after about 8 hrs or a day...or so...There's absolutely no reason not to do water changes...while redosing...especially certain meds like metro...I think not doing water changes is more important about meds that are stable in the water,...when you can't afford accidentally dropping the concentration as it would allow certain pathogens to survive.....But that's still just lack of skill and learning about the meds being used...However If I am certain about my water quality(not talking about ammonia and nitrite here because anyone's tank should read 0 for that) but talking about tank's water being as fresh as it can be....I'll have no problem not doing water changes when medicating..but I'd certainly have no excuse for after.

I honestly, in healthy fish do only about one 50% water change weekly....Unheatlhy fish...70% -sh every second day....

I quarantined a few fish(rasboras) at christmas(bought as a present to myself)....to put eventually in my smallish pond...They are not monster fish... (cause I am a small fish lover) but I got ....two new clown loaches too. The rasboras brought columnaris.(Same tank I quarantined them in had healthy fish for years which I had just moved to my indoor pond) Two of the new fish died 3 days apart until I figured what was happening.... Clowns weren't looking great either. They were rather poor looking in the shop as well.. but I got them because of the odd markings. They all went through a one week course of antibiotics as soon as I saw the mouth and saddle rot on one of the rasboras that died shortly after.....I did a big water change every second day during the treatment. Then massive water changes after the treatment as usual....70% every second day...its been 13 water changes now.. in about 23 days. They are all ripe as apples now, hungry...colourful and look great for what they were initially....

Water changes have always helped my fish...big ones...You don't need to wipe, disinfect, fiddle with the biomedia...or even siphon..Just drain and fill. .The established diversity of biofauna is essential to fight off harmful pathogens but sometimes we shift it in a negative direction....and promote harmful pathogens thrive over others.....Water changes are the way to get things back on track.
Click to expand...

Can you show me that Metro is ineffective after that amount of time? Something concrete that I can read would be helpful since I have been re-using the water in the soaking dish and reusing the Epsom Salts already in it. I was still adding Metroplex daily but sometimes I would add enough pellets for a 2 days or so. ...... if that's the case, letting them soak overnight would leave the medication in it useless
 
  • Like
Reactions: Coryloach
I know you guys are well into your treatment regime but just throwing this out there. Ihave always had great results with parasite gaurd (dosing the tank) and freding espom soaked pellets.

GL with the illness
 
Frank I wouldn't advise allowing water changes to cease completely for two weeks regardless if the meds don't mention them. Just my .02 since you can guesstimate how much you've taken out and reapply the appropriate amount of medication. that's just what I've always done as I feel water quality is just as important as the meds themselves. I can understand the no water change scenario too though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom