Ich in my community tank

Yes you can use liquid dewormers on freeze dried & flake foods, however they aren't that good when mixed with flake. Freeze dried or frozen (but defrosted and with the liquid drained off) is better than flake.

Flake food absorbs the liquid medication quickly and easily but also loses it quickly when put in the aquarium water. So if it isn't eaten instantly, there is a chance the medication can leach into the water and the fish don't get treated. The bulkier food like freeze dried bloodworms or frozen (but defrosted & drained) bloodworms hold the medication for longer when they are in the tank water, so there is more chance of the fish eating the medication on the food.

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Liquid dewormers are not always as good as the dry tablet form because the liquid breaks down the active ingredient quicker and they need to add preservatives to keep the Praziquantel viable. And if the liquid medication is kept warm it will break down faster than if kept in a cool environment. The best place for medications and test kits is in a cool dry place. I kept mine in a plastic icecream bucket in the bottom of the fridge.
*NB* Make sure children and animals cannot get the medications or chemicals/ test kits because most of them are poisonous. Praziquantel is pretty safe tho.

The same with test kits and any medications be they liquid or dry. Heat destroys them so check the expiry date before buying them and make sure they are not being kept in a fish room or near a heat source or in a warm area. On a shelf in an air conditioned shop is fine but if the medication is sitting on a window sill or next to a refrigerator and the air around the product feels warm, it might be stuffed.

Hey thanks Colin. Unfortunately, Roseanne (the betta with tapeworm) won’t eat, still. So I’m treating the water. Like I said, she’s in her own 1 gallon bowl right now with a spare sponge filter. It’s been at least an entire week since she’s eaten so I am worried about that, but this morning I noticed the some of the tapeworm had broken off or died. But she still had more string hanging from her. It’s API general cure, it specifically says it treats tapeworm and several other parasites including gill flukes and skin flukes. It contains metronidazole and praziquantel. There’s no carbon in the sponge filter so it shouldn’t interfere with the meds. Today is day 3 of treatment for her so I added another dose according to the directions. Water change in 48 hours.

Regarding the Cory, that makes sense what you said about the bacteria, because bacterial is the best way I can describe the appearance of his dorsal fin right now. It looks like pebbles flintstone’s hair. I put him in a breeder like I said but he’s still active and eating. His tail fin and dorsal fin are pretty much gone. Pic attached. I can move him to another tank like you suggested, Colin. Considering this is he second Cory to go through this, and the first one died, should I move and treat all of the Cory’s or just the one with obvious rot?

I would probably remove all the cories and treat them separately in a cooler tank. Then leave them isolated for a few weeks after they have stopped dying and then move them back into the main tank. Just monitor them for whitespot, there shouldn't be any left but watch them anyway.

Get it treatment from a store but a safe alternative would be to turn up the heater by a few degrees but dial it back down after a week or less, also you can drop 1 piece of garlic per 2 gallons

Can some people help me out here
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/indian-mudskipper-help.448410/

I haven’t checked in in a couple of days so here’s an update.

I lost that Cory with the rotted fin. So that’s 2 Corys now gone. Also one of the tetras turned pasty pale white, floated at the top of the water for a few hours, and then died.

I have been reducing the temperature of the tank slowly over the past 24 hours, since all that happened, back to normal temps. It’s at 80 now. In the morning I’ll turn it down another degre, then another after work, until I get it down to 76/77.

This is supposed to be Roseanne’s last night in quarantine, according to thr meds directions, but she still isn’t eating. I’ve seen her expel a lot of tapeworm. I have cleaned a lot of it out of her hospital tank. It keeps coming, though. Just when I think she’s finally done, more comes. It’s been well over a week now since she last ate. I tried again today to feed her but no interest. So I’m thinking she might be in quarantine a bit longer than originally scheduled. At least until her appetite returns.

When I put Roseanne in quarantine, the other bettas immediately started fighting, so I have them floating in betta cups in the main tank right now. It’s helped me control their feeding and watch them for issues, though, and I’m confident none of them have tapeworm and that they were just getting fat. But I’m concerned about how much longer I’m going to have to keep the bettas separarated like this. I’ll be changing Roseanne’s hospital water tomorrow so we’ll see if her appetite returns when she’s in fresh clean non-medicated water. If not she might be getting another round of meds.

Keep the sick fish isolated and in quarantine for at least 2 weeks after she is back to normal. She needs to be eating normally and show no symptoms for 2 weeks.

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When you try to put the fish back together, move everything in the tank, basically rearrange the decorations to break up the old territories, then put them all in together.

Roseanne stopped expelling tapeworm (no more stringy white poo). In fact she’s stopped going poo altogether. She hasn’t eaten in at least 2 weeks now. I’ve tried to feed her every day but 10 or 20 minutes later she still hasn’t touched it so I take the food out. Now she has clamped fins. She’s been clamped like this all day. Pic attached.

She’s been through 6 days of API general cure, which I believe has taken care of the tapeworm, her last dose of meds was 2 days ago, and her water has been twice changed since. But she’s acting worse, not better. What can I do for her? Fresh water perks her up for a few hours, but she still doesn’t eat, and then she’s back to moping. I don’t know what else to do other than give her fresh water right now. She used to be the same size as the bettas in the sorority but she’s much smaller now. Almost like she shrank over the past 2 weeks from the tapeworm.

Check the water quality and temperature. Make sure there is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and nitrates are less than 20ppm. Make sure the temperature is 24-28C (75-82F).

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What are you feeding her?

Try live food like brineshrimp, mozzie larvae or daphnia. You should be able to get live brineshrimp and possibly live daphnia from petshops. Mozzie larvae can be found in buckets of water with plant leaves in, sitting outside under a tree or in the garden.

Raw or cooked prawn/ shrimp will get most fish to eat. Get some prawn and keep it in the freezer. Take one out and defrost it. Remove the head, shell and gut (long thin black tube from the body) and throw in the bin. Use a pr of scissors to cut the prawn into small bits and offer 1 or 2 bits at a time. Feed until fish is no longer interested.
Remove any uneaten food straight after feeding so it doesn't cause water quality issues.

Prawn has a strong smell and most fish will take it. If she ignores it then get a needle and thread and tie a small knot in the end of the thread. Push a piece of prawn over the needle and slide it down the thread until it comes to the knot. Then gently jiggle the bit of prawn about in the water. The movement should attract her attention and as long as the knot is not too big, she should be able to grab the food and pull it off the string (over the knot).

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Try putting a mirror next to her tank and see if she if her behaviour changes.

Just checking in with an update:

The community tank is, for the most part, put back together. Ich treatment is well over with now, and no new illness or parasites have shown themselves. The only exception to this is Roseanne.

Roseanne is still in a hospital tank, but she has finally started eating. She'll only eat one pellet per feeding, even if I give her more, but I found she'll eat flakes too, even after eating a pellet. No interest in frozen bloodworms, still. So I might just let flakes be her staple diet right now. I'm just happy to see her eating again. She went nearly 3 weeks without. Along with her appetite, her energy level is starting to slowly rise. To the point where I put a hiding place in the tank for her, and she immediately showed interest and swam laps around it, investigating it. Last night she slept in it.

Now that she's getting back to normal, I will monitor her for 2 more weeks before attempting to put her back in the main tank. In the mean time, she's in a bare bottom 2.5 gallon hospital tank. She's getting 50-75% water changes every second day, and I'm actively cleaning up any leftover food and fish waste as I see it. I might put more items in the tank for her to interact with, but I don't want to overcrowd that tiny tank. I have not seen any tapeworm hanging from her since the first week of being in quarantine, and she's now in the middle of week 3.

Thanks for all the help and advice along the way, everyone. I think we've got this taken care of. I did lose 2 corydoras and 1 neon tetra during this crisis. But the crisis appears to be over (knock on wood), and the bettas and loaches all survived.

Good to hear she is looking at food again. Just feed her as much as she will eat, regardless of if it is flake, pellet or frozen/ live food. The main thing is to get her eating properly again, not just picking a bit here and a bit there. But keep doing what your are doing

Did you treat her for whitespot too?

Colin_T said:

Good to hear she is looking at food again. Just feed her as much as she will eat, regardless of if it is flake, pellet or frozen/ live food. The main thing is to get her eating properly again, not just picking a bit here and a bit there. But keep doing what your are doing

Did you treat her for whitespot too?

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Just picking a bit here and there is what she's doing right now, but it is an improvement, as she wasn't even doing that before. I suspect that within the next couple of days her appetite will continue to improve and she'll be back to normal soon.

She was in the main tank when I started the heat treatment for whitespot, but I took her out of that tank a few days later, due to the long tapeworm hanging from her. Once in quarantine, I *only* treated her with the parasite medication, not heat. She's been in quarantine ever since. So she didn't get the full round of heat treatment that the main tank got. But, she never showed white spots to begin with. I don't think she was infected with ich.

Hopefully she was free of whitespot when you moved her and she won't have any issues. But watch her over the next 3-4 weeks or so and if she gets any spots, start treating her.