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View Full Version : Gill and skin flukes



DiscusMad
Sat Apr 16, 2005, 03:04 PM
I have had a death in the family sad to say and may loose another due to fluke. :cry: But this had myself thinking........

1) I have not introduced any new fish to my tanks or any new plants for about over 6 months now and wondered where they came from

2) Can they be comming from the aged tap water that goes into my tank for water changes

So I have done a little research on the topic and this is what I have come up with as follows

Fluke infestation affecting one or more fish can be due to overcrowding, polluted water, poor water quality, low oxygen levels or high temperatures.

In good water parameters most fish can cope haveing a small amount of flukes and other parasites but a higher temperatures and poor parameters they can mulitply quite rapidly (so it seems that fish that live in the higher temperatures are more prone to get them such as our beloved discus)

Fresh water flukes can survive up to 0.3% in salt solutions

Its best to with hold food for treatment if fish are still eating because they use up four times the amount of oxygen after eating as well as adding more oxygen to the water.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong but this is from what I had found in my search for answers

why I myself had water problems was that my heater in one of my tanks started leaking from the seal and blew the power to the house (some times thoese powre boards don't always work) and I had to wait untill the next day for somebody to come around and fix the problem. thoese battery operated air pumps you can go through a lot of battries lol :roll:

Merrilyn
Sat Apr 16, 2005, 04:09 PM
I don't think you ever really get rid of flukes, more that you just get them down to acceptable levels that the fish's immune system can cope with.

We used to be able to kill gill flukes with just salinity and heat treatment, because most gill flukes can't survive in temperatures over 30 degrees. This recent strain of flukes that we have had can survive the higher temperatures, and so we have to hit them with ever stronger doses of medications. Unfortunately, sometimes even that isn't enough. The gill membrane can be so damaged that the fish simply suffocates to death.

DiscusMad
Sat Apr 16, 2005, 09:03 PM
thanks Merrilyn