Higher Form Parasite Med?

[rabbut]

Hi,

I belive I am dealing with a higher form parasite, but want a second opinion first. Two of my Discus have gone dark, now have pale gills, excess slime and are flicking and rubbing. Three have white dots on them, that are similar to whitte spot but larger. Three are off their food and all four are genaraly sulking

I have run a full course of Protozin, origionaly thinking this to be a protozoan issue, but the symptoms have gradualy got worse. I replaced the carbon to remove the meds today, and am looking to try something else to clear this. Just to reiterate, I have run a full course of protozin for protazoan parasites already to no avail.

Thanks for any recomendations
Rabbut

 

[WILDER]

The pale gills and excess slime, and flilcking and rubbing points towards flukes, but not with the spots.
Is it possible to load a pic up.
How many spots are on the fish.
Do the spots have any red tinging to them.

 

[rabbut]

Hi wilder,

No, no red areas on or arround the spots. On the least affected fish, there are mebe 10 spots, on the worst, upto 20, so not many. Can't get pics at this time tonight. The fish are about 4-5 inches in length, and the spots are randomly scattered all over the body, and I can see the odd spot on the gill protrusions. The gills are realy easily noticable as paler, and breating is hevier than normal.

I have been poking arround, and found Costasis that fits symptom wise, but the protozin hasn't cleared it when it should. Costatis is protozoan, so mebe try another protozoan med?

Thanks
Rabbut

EDIT to add; I don't have access to a microscope anymore, or I would have done a swap test on the worst affected fishes skin, and taken a detailed look at its gill internals, cince it is in a real bad way ATM. The microscope is the only way I know of making a definate diagnosis with flukes in discus, since they are suceptable to protazoan infections with identical symptoms. I have done more research into the condition following my last ordeal with them

 

[WILDER]

Is there a greyish white film on the fish.
it does sound like it's a parasite.
Whats the fish breathing like.

Have you noticed when you do a search on different sites that the symtoms can be different, it amazes me.

 

[rabbut]

Yes, breathing is heavy and labored. There is a greyish film, like excess slime.

The info I have found on Costiasis is below. What do you think?

costiasis information

Fish showing similar symptoms

The photos in the lower of those two links, showing the angel with large white dots is similar. The dots on my fish don't appear as large, but are similar in shape. Obviously I don't know the size of the angel, but to be in scale with my own fishes spots, it would need to be about 2-3 inches

Thanks again Wilder
Rabbut

 

[WILDER]

The greyish white film matches costia
The costia parasite is a bean-shaped flagellate .
The links are not working or fetching the info up.
Look under costia to see what you think.
http/www.fish-disease.net/diseases.htm

 

[rabbut]

Yes Symptoms fit perfectly Well at least I have a more definate diagnosis now.

What treatment would you surgest?

All the best
Rabbut

 

[WILDER]

Not sure to be honest.
Waterlife do a med for costia and thats about it.

 

[rabbut]

My research indicates malachite green, formalin and copper to be effective. I know Protozin contains a mixture of all three, but it hasn't worked. Do you know of any other meds with these active ingreadiants?

Best Regards
Rabbut

 

[WILDER]

Done a search and all it fetches up is kio treatments for ponds.
Though you can use pond meds.
Take a look in the uk meds directory might be one there.
Found this describes parasites well.
http/www.koicarp.org.uk/koi_parasites.htm

 

[WILDER]

It says to be treated the same way as whitespot get you some info.
http/www.exoticpetvet.net/aqua/parasites.html

 

[WILDER]

Jbl meds are not bad there one called punktol for costia.
[URL="http/www.jbl.de/dl_documents/uk/uk_WWW4.pdf"]http/www.jbl.de/dl_documents/uk/uk_WWW4.pdf[/URL]

 

[rabbut]

Thanks once again for all the help Wilder

I am now running the Interpet med for whitespot, rather than Protozin. I am also gradualy adding salt, to 5ppt as advised in that article. I am aware that this may upset the Discus, but I'll keep an eye on things, to see if anything gets worse. If it does, I'll stop adding. They are at 2ppt at the moment, slowly been rising since yesterday night.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[WILDER]

Ok good luck.

 

[rabbut]

OK, plan C...

The Interpet med hasn't made any visible impact as yet, but the spots appear to have stopped spreading. I think this would be down to the salt though, as the Interpet med had two out of the three active ingrediants that Waterlife have in their Protozin med, no others

After 4 days, doing daily aditions of the med I would expect to have seen some results by now, but haven't. Do you think I am best off doing a prolonged salt bath, or is there something else I could use?

I'm not sure if it's connected, but there appears to be long strands of something comming from one of the fishes gills I only noticed it as air bubles had attached to it, but it would be about 2cm long and thinner than a human hair Some type of worm? It appears to be attached to one of the spots on the section of gill closest to the gill opening, but couldn't tell for shure.

Any ideas as to where I should go from here? If I am dealing with some type of worm, what treatment is available? I have Sterazin laying arround and remember that it mentions something about worms, but I recall it being for internal ones only

I have tryed to get some photos, but the fish wern't co-operating, and when they were, the camera wasn't

Thanks all for any additional help
Rabbut