parasitic infections & treatment

[Susielyd]

Hi all,
I am just about ready to tell my family that after these fish are gone that we are going to be the only living beings in the house. I am having too much heartache!!
one platie died earlier this week. I think she had external parasites or bacteria and possibly internal parasites. I believe that my remaining female platie has internal parasites (as she has white stringy poo) and I think that my male platie has Ich.
So............. I have treated with teh ich medi. tonight. I put in a tablet of this stuff called "para-ex" - active ing. trichlorphon. My main problem is that my dear husband in his attempt to 'tidy up' has tidied up the instructions - straight into the bin........ So, does anyone know what I should do next?
Why do they die just when you start to get attached

thanks in advance for the help

also, water parameters are all fine. I did a pretty major water change before I put the tablet in (like 50%) there is a bit of salt in the water, can't give an exact quantity because of the recent water changes.

 

[WILDER]

Phone the company up and ask them if they can send you the instructions, good luck.

 

[Susielyd]

ok, i can't find details for the manufacturer, so I went to teh LFS and they got instructions out of the bottle. However, the instructions said no more than "1 tablet for 40l of water.....wash hands after contact with medicine"
Hmmmm, very helpful
So, with anti parasite things, how do you treat with other medicines? I have a feeling I am going to just be down to my plants soon, so I am ready to take a stab in the dark with the medicine.

edit: it also says to take out shellfish until 5 days after treatment ~ if that helps with identification of the meds

 

[Susielyd]

anyone?

 

[reg2k2]

The manufacturer is Wardley's...I was also unable to locate a site for them.

If your question is how to continue treatmt...from this page I get: ev. 3days over the course of 9days.

I'm not familiar w/ this medication, but far as I can tell, this isn't necessarily a treatmt for ich. This site lists targets as anchor worms, fish lice, and gill flukes. In addition, Wardley also puts out a product called 'Ick-away'...

Did it actually claim to treat ich as well?

 

[Susielyd]

hi,
no, it didn't claim to cure ich - I think we have internal parasites as well as ich. Thank you for the information on how to continue treatment, I appreciate it and hope it will save the poor little fish....
thanks
susan

 

[reg2k2]

The three listed above are external parasites.

>>I believe remaining female platie has internal parasites (as she has white stringy poo) and I think that my male platie has Ich.

It's usu. fairly easy to identify ich. Does the male show salt-like spots?
tbh, I think I would run some carbon to clear out this med., and add an ich remedy instead... ei. Rid-Ich+.

After that treatmt's finished, I would address the other problem. Personally, I'd prob. try Pimafix...it's for internal bacterial infection (which I believe white poo can also indicate). Not an actual med.; based on a bay leaf oil. If that didn't help, maybe try something for internal parasite...I believe Jungle puts out something, not tried it tho.
Just my thoughts.

Sry for your frustrations. Good luck

 

[Susielyd]

ahhh, always good to be treating the wrong thing
Thank you for your information - I will try to find Pimafix. I am in quite a small town and it is amazing what is not available here but maybe some of the other Aussie members would know a good mail order place for fish meds?

I have put the ich med. in, it looked like 1 salt spot, but now there is a spot that looks like a white salty scrape. He is getting awfully thin, but still swimming around a bit.

Hoping for the best,
Susan

 

[reg2k2]

Here's one: pimafix. Price seems a little high, maybe you can do better...

 

[Susielyd]

Thanks reg,
I went to a different lfs yesterday, they seem much more knowledgable. He actually recommended pimafix, but they were out but then he said that they use mmmmm, ok, i feel dumb, I can't remember the name. THe fish antibiotic that starts with T. So anyway, after aobut a 10 minute talk aobut symptoms etc he decided that it would help. I thought he was good because instead of selling me a whole bottle which I would (hopefully) never need, he gave me 2 of his tablets & spent quite some time explaining everything.
So,,, fingers crossed we will see what happens.
thanks again for your help
kind regards,
susan

 

[reg2k2]

Maybe tetracycline?...pretty common general antibiotic.
One thing...did you mention to him you had ich med. in the tank? Just want to be careful with mixing med's..as a rule, best not to.
Good luck.

 

[Susielyd]

Yea, that's it - tetracycline! I did take the ich med out with carbon and then took the carbon out and put the other one back in (kept it in another cycled tank while it was out.)
The platie is still going, but I think today I may end it for him because he is just not lookin good at all. The meds may have kept him from dying, but they don't seem to be helping him improve - he is soooooo thin.
Anyway - thanks so much for your help
S

 

[reg2k2]

Sorry about the little guy.

You replaced the carbon? I know there's a bit of debate as to how long it remains active, but I would leave out any carbon during treatmt.

As for any help...welcome.

 

[Susielyd]

yea, i have taken teh carbon out. I had to take the little guy out yesterday and finish him off - boy am I glad that my 5 year old is at school, I couldn't have kept the fish going until after bedtime - it would have been too mean.
Hopefully this tetracycline will help and then we will have happy fishies for a while
cheers