Please help! Dosing General Cure for Suspected Hexamita (to protect living fish)

[Mola]

Hi All, thanks in advance for the help. I am relatively new to fish keeping (~6 months) and new to this forum (first time registering/posting today).

I have a 20 gallon heavily planted tank:

• 5 Neon Tetras
• 7 Pristella Tetras
• 1 Mollie
• 2 Platy

Some context:

• Until recently I also had 2 Bolivian Rams and 1 additional Neon Tetra (which came as a group with the other 5 neons).
• About 2 months ago I noticed that 1 Neon had white bumps/lesions (not ich) and a curved spine -- it was isolating, not doing well, and it died that night. No other fish showed any symptoms of anything.
• Two days later I found 1 of the 2 Bolivia Rams dead. It did not appear to have any issues before that.

My water params are always awesome... 0, 0, <5, PH around 7.4 - 7.6, not sure about GH and KH (but generally fine when I've tested).

Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago:

• Noticed the remaining Bolivian Ram with white stringy poop once. Otherwise, it seemed fine, was eating, no problem swimming, etc.
• Then last week, the Ram developed some white spots on it's head above both eyes. Still eating and seemed fine except for the spots.
• I dosed the take with Paraguard for several days and the spots nearly completed disappeared. All was good.
• Then this past Saturday morning the Ram went into hiding. Later that morning we found it on the bottom of the tank on it's side -- still alive but very close to then end, so we euthanized with clove oil.

Based on the symptoms and fairly extensive reading, I'm thinking it's Hexamita (parasite/protozoa). I have a box of API General Cure that I bought in October after the two fish died.

My questions / where I need help:

• The remaining fish are asymptomatic. They all seem completely fine.
• I am considering dosing with GC proactively. Is this a good idea?
• If the fish aren't sick right now, will General Cure harm then in any way?
• If I should use GC, do I...
  1. Mix GC with food (seems like a popular choice but hard to get them to eat it)?
  2. Dump the powder into the tank (2 packets per dose according to the directions, though I seem some people use less)?
  3. Both 1 and 2?
  4. Something else?
• If I dump the powder into the tank, do I wait 5-7 days (as some people seem to advocate) or dose again in 48 hours (per the instructions on the box)?
• I've heard that some people experience fish loss with these meds? How likely is that?
• Will it harm the beneficial bacteria?

Lots of conflicting information!

THANK YOU again for your help!

 

[CassCats]

Okay so what i would do...

Dose the GC to the tank.
Then get some plain unscented undyed epsom salt.

Make up 1 gallon of water in the fridge, put in 1 tbsp of epsom salt. Take the food they eat (flakes or pellets are good) and soak them in this epsom water mix. Enough to saturate the food but no excess water. Then feed them this 2-3 times a day for 1 week.

Its helpful with hexamita and internal parasites and can be used in combo with the GC. It helps flush out their system to get out the parasites, but some studies also show epsom salts to be toxic to parasite lifeforms as well, and is generally fish safe.

Problem with internal parasites is you have to do dosages for a long period of time too. For several consecutive weeks to kill off any eggs or babies the parasites have.

 

[Mola]

Okay so what i would do...

Dose the GC to the tank.
Then get some plain unscented undyed epsom salt.

Make up 1 gallon of water in the fridge, put in 1 tbsp of epsom salt. Take the food they eat (flakes or pellets are good) and soak them in this epsom water mix. Enough to saturate the food but no excess water. Then feed them this 2-3 times a day for 1 week.

Its helpful with hexamita and internal parasites and can be used in combo with the GC. It helps flush out their system to get out the parasites, but some studies also show epsom salts to be toxic to parasite lifeforms as well, and is generally fish safe.

Problem with internal parasites is you have to do dosages for a long period of time too. For several consecutive weeks to kill off any eggs or babies the parasites have.

Awesome, thank you for the quick response! Really appreciate it.

 

[Colin_T]

What you need to do is post pictures and video of the fish so we can identify the problem.

Adding chemicals willy nilly without knowing what the problem is can cause all sorts of long term issues including drug resistant bacteria that kill people and fish.

 

[Mola]

For sure. Currently all of my fish are symptomatic so I didn't post pictures. I'm planning to dose GC to prevent the other fish from getting sick (following fish loss due to what I'm fairly convinced is hexamita).

Definitely will post photos if one of them has symptoms. Thank you!