What's the best internal parasite med?

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lix.ma14

Hydrolycus Armatus
MFK Member
Jan 7, 2011
7,182
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Ontario, Canada
i suspect that one of my fish has internal parasites. I see clear yellowish white poop in my tank. i'm wondering what's the best med to give to my fish.
All my fish seems pretty active and such. How do I get them to eat it? Parasite pellets don't seem too tasty. I used to have some pellets and my fish never even got lose to it. They were Jungle parasite pellets BTW.

How can i confirm that it is 100% internal parasites? signs? WHAT'S THE BEST MED TO USE?

thanks
 
Prazi is said to treat external as well as internal parasites...That is pretty much the only medication I keep on hand these days.
 
Just as a heads up to the OP, the Jungle Parasite Tabs are not meant to be used as a pellet food i don't think... rather, you are meant to dissolve it in the tank water, or another option which a lot of puffer keepers do, is to soak the food you plan on feeding your fish with tank water + an appropriate amount of meds such as Prazi...

Let the food soak for at least a few hours in the tank water + med solution, then feed the food to your fish so that you can try and get them to take the meds orally as much as possible...
 
Soaking food in epsom salts and water mixture is also good. The magnesium kills the parasites without being absorbed by the fish.
 
I actually prefer Metro over prazi when it comes to dinoflagellates. prazi works better for worm issues

If the fish are eating, the best method IMO would be to soak their food in the epsom salt treatments as it is natural but you could also add metro to their food or just in the tank


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depends what species your treating.

IP's usually are indicated by a few thing ime...

-always hungry yet the fish never seems to bulk -up ( in spiney eels and rays I've seen, the stomach seems full/bloated yet the head is "boney" and the rest of the fish appears emaciated)

- white stringy poop ( It's not always IPs sometimes foods will cause this, imo its a sign of intestinal unrest if you will.)

- gastro unrest ( undilations of the body, "odd behaviors", either lethargic or can't seem to "rest" )

Any of those 2 symptoms and I usually treat w/ prazi... pre-soaking their usual pellets works ime, or if nightcrawlers are a favored food injecting them seems by general concensus one of the best ways. I directly add it to my water every 4-6 monthes for my live eating fish for the past few years now as a precautionary measure and IPs aren't an issue any longer w/ them.

I also ere on the side of less is more... IN cases where a heavy parasite infestation or young fish is concerned killing all the IPs in one shot can be lethal to fish ( and ime other animals, I've owned my horse almost as long as I've been keeping fish and de-worming is an important part of their routine care as well. I've adapted much of what I learned to fishkeeping in this reguard.) The dead parasites will cause intenstinal bloackage, and rot causing secondary bacterial infections ect. It's not common.. but it's not rare either. I've used prazi to treat my young armatus spiney a few years back by dosing the tank itself once a week after each water change for 6 weeks straight of a particularly aggressive worm case ( the fish went on to live in my care for the next 2yrs before he was rehomed healthy and imo happy) By dosing this way he got very small amounts and never became bound up ( though you could literally see him "blow them")

I honestly do not know if they can/do build up a resistance to this type of treatment... I've never really had anyone say "Yes" or "no" diffinitively... But I've never had to resort to Metro, or Epsom salts ( both from my understanding as safe as prazi.. but prazi is easy to find and I have yet to find a species that reacts negatively out of the gate from it) So I've had no need to use them. ( but trth be told I really should understand them better incase the day comes prazi doesn't do it)

Even after the initial dose if all appears well I do a follow up treatment 4 weeks later as a general rule like anti-biotics... kill them dead 100% or they can and will recover and become "likely" more resistant to treatments in the future.
 
Only Parasite med I keep on hand anymore is Parasite guard. It contains Metro, Prazi, acriflavine and Diflubenzuron. Also prevents secondary infections. I know it is more of a shot gun approach, but since most of us don't keep microscopes and verify the ID of the pathogen we treat without knowing what for.
With this med you are more likely to kill the targeted pathogen with a variety of meds. Most Parasite Meds are target specific. Unless you use Panacur which has a broader target specific kill spectrum. (Kills a larger variety of pathogens)

I treated a new batch of WC Tiger Silver Dollars a while back. The key with parasites is not to treat once for a week and assume all is well if fish seems better. Parasites have cycles, you kill the Parasite with the first treatment but the eggs hatch 7-10 days later and you have more parasites. So after a week you treat again for a week. I personally do three treatments over a 6 week period to be sure I get all new potential hatches. Whatever the pathogen was it made its way to most of the fish over this peiod as 1-2 fish per week showed signs after the prior ill fish got better and started eating. So it made its rounds.
There was no ill effects or deaths with any of the fish.
 
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