gill flukes

[tanzy]

My blue Turquoise is breathing hard from one gill, I know that this is gill fluke, she is the only fish affected in the tank. I had done one treatment of Prazi but then had to postpone the second treatment due to needing to use Metro for Hex.

should I attempt another two treatments of Prazi or give a Formalin dip a try.

Mary Sweeney author of Discus breeding and keeping recommends to use 20 drops of formalin to 2 gallons of well aerated water in a bucket for one hour. Has anyone had success or tried such a treatment. Formalin sounds like very nasty stuff.

Thanks

Kell

[ILLUSN]

i DONT LIKE formalin, did you concider a PP dip instead? 8-10mg/L works well for 10 min or as long as the fish can take it.

[tanzy]

I have been doing a bit of reading about pp, it sounds quite nasty also.

Do you buy pp at the chemist? What kind of effect does it have on the fish? Do they lose their slime coat, change colour, drop over, ect.

Thanks

Kell

[ILLUSN]

I've had nothing but fantastic results with PP, again i MUST STRESS THIS YOU MUST WATCH THE FISH FOR THE ENRTIRE TREATMENT AND AT THE FIRST SIGN OF DISTRESS (lying sideways, darting, smashing, thrashing about etc) REMOVE THE FISH AND MOVE BACK TO A CLEAN HOSPITAL TANK!
it will strip the slime coat, this is rebuilt quickly with the addition of salt (2tsp/10gal) and a shot of hagen aquaplus water conditioner.

PP is an oxidative agent, similar to bleach, but much much milder, the flukes wont know what hit them.

i steal my PP from work but you can buy it from a chemist, its not anyhare near as expensive as other drugs.

[tanzy]

OK I am going to give this a try. How many times do you need to do this treatment?

Also what salt do you mean, rock salt or sea salt? In all my reading it varies greatly.

Also I use Seachem (Prime) is this Ok to replace hagen aquaplus?

Thankyou

Kell

[ILLUSN]

rock salt will be fine, sea salt would proably be better (low grade sea salt is often sold as rock salt).

the aquaplus contains Aloe, which is nice and gentle on the fish, it activly coats them to help the slime coat re-establish, prime i believe uses various salts to stimulate slime production, if your going to use prime use a 1/2 to 1/3 dose.

repeat the treatment after a week or 2 if you still see symptoms of flukes.

[tanzy]

I have managed to get some PP, and I wish to treat my fish in 5 liters of water in a bucket. How do I accuratly measure 50mg of PP. The container of PP is 50g, I do not have any scales that would measure such a small amount.

Thankyou

Kell

[ILLUSN]

1 level tsp of pp is 6 grams (use cooking tea spoons).

Disolve this in 60ml of water. that will give you a stock solution of 100mg/ml. Put this in a brown glass bottle, wrap it in foil and store it in the fridge.

Go to a chemist and get a small syringe (1ml works best). Put 0.5ml of your stock solution into 5L of water and you'll have 10mg/L or if your nervous 0.3ml=6mg/L or 0.4=8mg/L.

[the german]

1 level tsp of pp is 6 grams (use cooking tea spoons).


:shock: whats when she has a different spoon,big no no from my site.
go to a chemist and ask him to weight you the amount you need for your stock solution.

[ILLUSN]

cooking spoon sets are a standard size ($10 from kmart), they are sold as Measuring Spoons. Buy the sets that are australian standard and make sure that the volume is LEVEL with the handel and top of spoon (should be flat from the handel all the way across. Every fish room should have a set, one of the cheapest and most practial sets of equiptment you can buy. otherwise its $650 for an analytical balance.

[the german]

like i said i would go to a chemist,i would not even think about it using a spoon to make an measurement with PP.
the chemist wont cost you 650$ :wink:
but i guess everyone can do what he think is the best,he has to carry the risk by himself

[tanzy]

Thankyou for your quick replies, we contacted our local chemist and he was able to weigh down to as little as 20mg. He measured out enough for 2 x 5lt treatments at no cost.


Thanks again. Kind regards Kell

[tanzy]

Wow, the treatment went really well, but this certainly is not for the faint hearted. I was a nervous reck, especially when the water turned dark purple, leaving visibility very difficult.

I believe that Delyla is on the road to recovery, she is still breathing quite fast so I hope that this is normal until she has fully recovered.

I honestly cant thank you enough, you are all truely amazing and kind people.

Kind Regards

Kell

[tanzy]

My turk, is still breathing hard from one gill but not always. She has been through the PP dip and a full treatment of Prazi. I dont know what else I can do to help her. She is a fat and healthy fish apart from the fluke and was also told that after my family bought her for me that she was stunted. She eats really well and is always at the front of the tank.

Could she have permanete gill damage? Can she survive living with the fluke?

I would do another PP dip. Maybe a bit longer than 10 minutes. Her first dip did burn her fins a little and it took about a week to heal. Is this normal and OK.

I really am desperate to get her better.

Thanks

Kell

[samir]

you can buy a mg scale off ebay, not sure if the fins should burn with pp, i use 10mg/l for 20-30 minutes and haven't had a burnt fin yet.

try a 3% salt dip,though not for the faint hearted, if PP scared you, this will have you terrified. 1 kilo of no additive salt per 33 litres of water. quite effective and very scary :shock: Discus usually tolerate it for around 30 seconds.

btw I hereby declare that Trichlorfon and Praziquantel, bought from your lfs, are now an absolute waste of time and money. :roll:

[ILLUSN]

btw I hereby declare that Trichlorfon and Praziquantel, bought from your lfs, are now an absolute waste of time and money

Prazi still works well on tapeworms, but i tend to agree, less effective against fluke, even when given orally.

[DiscusWorld]

hi you should invest in a UV we have been breeding for years and have not had a case of gill fluke in that time as we have run UV's for this time
as a treatment try prazi in conjuction with salt.