Gill Fluke Treatment - How Soon Should I See Improvement?

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tanksalot

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Hi,

I'm treating my tank for gill flukes at the moment and I'm on day 8 of a 10 day course of Sterazin, but the main sufferer (a platy) is still flicking off the plants and substrate quite frequently.

As there are only 2 days to go in the treatment, I was thinking by now he'd have shown some improvement, but he's behaving pretty much the same as he was before.

How long does it take for Sterazin to kill off the flukes and for the flicking to stop? This isn't a problem I've faced before, so I haven't a clue. :/
 
I'm still combating gill fluke 6 months down the line!
Are you 100% certain it's gill fluke?
Have you taken a mucus scrape or done a gill biopsy?
I ran a course of sterazin with little to no improvement then after a month tried a double course one week apart again with little to no improvement.
I switched to fluke solve treated for 3 weeks and had good improvement but not complete loss of symptoms.
A month on I am treating with fluke solve again but for 4 weeks this time. I'm 2 weeks in and the fish are practically back to normal.
Flukes are notoriously hard to combat because of their life cycle and the eggs are not affected by meds until they hatch into larvae.
You could try giving your platy salt baths twice a day for a few days. I did this with my most affected fish and they appeared to get some relief from it.
Alison
 
I'm still combating gill fluke 6 months down the line!
Are you 100% certain it's gill fluke?
Have you taken a mucus scrape or done a gill biopsy?
I ran a course of sterazin with little to no improvement then after a month tried a double course one week apart again with little to no improvement.
I switched to fluke solve treated for 3 weeks and had good improvement but not complete loss of symptoms.
A month on I am treating with fluke solve again but for 4 weeks this time. I'm 2 weeks in and the fish are practically back to normal.
Flukes are notoriously hard to combat because of their life cycle and the eggs are not affected by meds until they hatch into larvae.
You could try giving your platy salt baths twice a day for a few days. I did this with my most affected fish and they appeared to get some relief from it.
Alison

Thanks, Alison.

I'm as sure as I can be from observation and reading.

If Sterazin doesn't work, I'll give the Fluke Solve a go. :good:

I'd better investigate salt baths as well.

Oh, the joys of fishkeeping :/ All the best with your treatment - 6 months sounds like a nightmare :no:
 
It has been!
I tried everything, various treatments, testing water for ph fluctuations, testing for ammonia spikes after feeding. Tried twice weekly water changes,salt baths, changing dechlorinator, stopping the use of ferts.
In the end I bought a scope and positively identified fluke and fingers crossed seem to be getting somewhere at last!
If you have no luck with the sterazin and you have ruled out other possible causes then fluke solve is an excellent med and seems to be the most effective of the ones I've tried.
Good luck
Alison
 
Just updating this.

Sterazin had no result, so I did a big water change, ran carbon in the filter for a couple of days then gave the tank a dose of Fluke Solve, which went in last Saturday.

By Wednesday there didn't seem to be much change in behaviour, so I changed 50% of the water and added a proportional dose of Fluke Solve back in with the return water (just felt like I needed to do something :rolleyes: ).

Today (Thursday) I think my platy is flicking as much as ever, if not slightly more. I haven't seen other fish flick, but they seem...restless, a bit dart-y.

Alison - or anyone else around who's used Fluke Solve - can I ask what your experience was when using this med? How much/how often did you dose and what were your observations during the treatment period?

I've googled till my head hurts trying to find information about people's practical experiences with this, but I've found very little, and I feel like I'm flailing around in the dark right now. Beginning to wish I'd stuck with just shrimp, snails and plants...I can handle those. :(
 

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