Internal Parasite

[Amunet]

Pretty sure a rainbow fish in my 125gal has an internal parasite.
It's still active, but appears to have the sunken belly look going on and it's starting to swim funny.

Thinking that if this fish has it, then more than likely there are others in the tank that do as well. Obviously not showing the same signs, but that doesn't mean much right now.

What med should I get and will it be safe to use for the entire tank?

I saw a video of a guy soaking his fish food in the meds, are they all like that? Would frozen blood worms and brine shrimp soak up the meds enough to treat the tank?

Do parasite meds have any negative effect on the beneficial bacteria?

 

[Uriel]

You could use a product called "Fluke Solve". It's active ingredient is praziquantel which is a wormer. It states on packaging that it will not effect plants or biological filter. My personal experience is in using it for Marine fish.

 

[mbsqw1d]

can you see any parasites anywhere on the fish? sometimes they stick out of the anus slightly.. possibly Callumanus Worms? If so Levamisole is the active ingredient you're after. And depending on where you live ( UK , USA ? ) the meds are different.

 

[karin]

I use API General Cure with metronidazole and praziquantel. I hear it is very popular in the commerical end of tropical fish. Has never affected the bacterial filter, easy to use, and the fish act completely normal.

If the fish is eating, try to get it to eat soaked food. The medication works much better if you can get it inside the fish.

Good luck

 

[Amunet]

Thanks everyone.
No... nothing sticking out of the fish's bum.
Just took a good look at the fish that I could actually see in the tank and none of them are showing any signs of internal parasites. They're still plump and healthy looking.

The general cure sounds like the way to go. I'll see if I can find some. Think it would be better to try to soak their food in it rather than treating the whole tank? Would be a ton of meds trying to treat a 125 gallon tank.

 

[Amunet]

Bought some Tetra Parasite Guard from petsmart. Was $10 cheaper than the API brand. Hope it works the same.
Just put it in to the tank. FX that it works and the current sickly fish gets better asap.

 

[Amunet]

Ok..... so now, the fish are breathing heavily at the top of the tank. The cory in the tank are darting to the top. The loaches are breathing heavy...... uuuuuuugh. Even saw the black ghost knife dart to the top once and I've never see that fish do that before.
I dosed correctly so not sure what's going on here.
Doing a water change now. Hope it helps.


EDIT:
Did a 50-60% water change. Unfortunatly lost one of the barbs. Poor thing.
Think if I had waited any longer, there would've been a lot more dead fish to get out of the tank.
Even my poor black ghost knife was out not looking too great.

The water change seems to have helped though. Hopefully it stays that way. Will probably do another tomorrow. I wake up a few times during the night and will check up on the tank then as well.

What the hell went wrong?
Filter was working. I checked the water as I was doing the water change and everything came back normal.
Sigh... hope this doesn't cause any of the rest to get sick. I'll be PO'd and sad if any of the others die.

 

[Amunet]

Damage this morning.... a rainbowfish is dead... and not even the sick one. Sigh.
Tank water is cloudy as well, but that's kind of expected since the tank did have 2 large water changes yesterday. One before the meds, and then one after.
Checked water parimeters and everything is where it should be. I'll keep an eye on it though if the cloudiness doesn't dissipate.

Fish look more normal, but not quite. Fish are still breathing heavily... just not at the surface. Saw some of the cories foraging in the substrate, and one of the tiger barbs pecking at some algae, so taking that as a half way decent sign. Just hope it stays that way.


Going back to bed.... fingers crossed that I won't wake up to more dead fish

 

[Louiseness]

I don't know about that particular med but I do know some meds have the side effect of reducing the amount of oxygen in the water. Maybe someone who knows more can tell you if this is your problem or not? Gasping suggests it might be.

 

[hanny93]

A lot of parasite meds drastically reduce oxygen content in the water. LArge water changes are the key here, increase surface agitation to increase gas exchange.

Get the sick fish into a hospital tank and treat it singularly, and watch out for symptoms in other fish.

Use myxaxin (i think its that one), its better than the parasite meds that dont always work.

 

[Amunet]

Wish I had known that beforehand lol.

The tank has pretty good aeration b/c of the filter outlet, but I guess it wasn't enough.

Fish appear to be doing well now though and the tank water isn't cloudy any longer.

 

[karin]

Boy sounds like a mini-cycle. Sorry for you. I'm treating a tank with API General Cure now as I lost a loach to what I think is internal parasite. So treating whole tank with no problems so I was talking from experience. And I've treated another tank a couple months ago and no problem with O2 or mini-cycles. Tank is clear and after 5 days I'm getting ready for the big water change. What is the medication in the product you bought? What were the directions?

Sorry again for you.

 

[Sesshis_grl]

I would almost blame the tetra brand. I've had different illnesses in my tank in the past and everytime I used the fungus med or parasite guard from them it made everything so much worse. And the fish ended up dying either immediately or eventually.

 

[Amunet]

Yeah, probably should've spent the extra money on the API brand.
The directions on the meds were to drop in 1 tablet per 10 gallons of water.
If you were treating a tank larger than 40gal, soft water or something else, then you were supposed to dissolve the tablets in some water first, then dump it in.

I'm not going to worry about it any longer unless more fish start to look ill.
The sickly one is still hanging on. Can't tell if it has gotten any better, but it still begs for food along with the other fish like a champ.