advice for scratching on my meleagris wrasse

[reef4life!!!]

Hi everyone,i noticed 4 days ago that my female meleagris started to have white poops(not the stringy poops,just the regular poops fishes produce) and also started scraching a liitle bit. 2 days ago i called to a pet shop and they told be that it might be internal parasites so they adviced me to buy a medicine called flagyl ( Metronidazole) and soak it with garlic in the fish food.I've done my research and a topic in reef2reef forums https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/metronidazole.298762/ but it says for white stringy feces and not the regular fish poop.I also found the topic for praziquantel but it says it is a little bit dangerous for wrasses(i have 1 carpenteri flasher wrasse and the meleagris).The fishes are not showing any other syptoms only the meleagris is scraching some times.What should i do here?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Be careful mixing metronidazole in food- you need to calculate the dose carefully, you can’t just soak food in it. It can be toxic if overdosed and is very bitter, and this can put the fish off their feed. 50 mg / kg of fish weight, fed daily for 3 to 5 days is a mid-range dose. Take a look in the library section here for an article I posted a few months ago on medicated foods.
I dose wrasse with praziquantel all the time with no issues. If you use the hobbyist formulation, prazipro, and don’t increase aeration when dosing, some fish will react negatively to lower oxygen levels....and that would include wrasses.
Jay

 

[reef4life!!!]

Be careful mixing metronidazole in food- you need to calculate the dose carefully, you can’t just soak food in it. It can be toxic if overdosed and is very bitter, and this can put the fish off their feed. 50 mg / kg of fish weight, fed daily for 3 to 5 days is a mid-range dose. Take a look in the library section here for an article I posted a few months ago on medicated foods.
I dose wrasse with praziquantel all the time with no issues. If you use the hobbyist formulation, prazipro, and don’t increase aeration when dosing, some fish will react negatively to lower oxygen levels....and that would include wrasses.
Jay

ok i understand this,i probably won't start this kind of treatments until i am sure about the dosage and the real type of parasite that perhaps is inside my wrasse.My question is what is my potential parasite here?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

ok i understand this,i probably won't start this kind of treatments until i am sure about the dosage and the real type of parasite that perhaps is inside my wrasse.My question is what is my potential parasite here?

Two different symptoms really: the flashing/scratching is more a sign of external flukes, so treating with praziquantel indicated. The white stringy feces can be from issues with its diet, or internal protozoan disease, and metro in the food would be a treatment for that.
Jay

 

[reef4life!!!]

Two different symptoms really: the flashing/scratching is more a sign of external flukes, so treating with praziquantel indicated. The white stringy feces can be from issues with its diet, or internal protozoan disease, and metro in the food would be a treatment for that.
Jay

Sorry but i might not undertand something here.In every article i am reading about white stringy feces but mines are not stringy..they are regular poops but white,isn't that different or it's just the same thing?So it's better for me to treat with praziquantel right?Also 1 more question,i am about to start phosguard is it ok to leave it on while i treat with prazi?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Sorry but i might not undertand something here.In every article i am reading about white stringy feces but mines are not stringy..they are regular poops but white,isn't that different or it's just the same thing?So it's better for me to treat with praziquantel right?Also 1 more question,i am about to start phosguard is it ok to leave it on while i treat with prazi?

Oh, so the feces aren't hanging off the fish, they are dropped without ever being attached? In that case, it is much less likely that it is internal parasites and more likely that it is something in its diet.

Just double checking - the flashing you are seeing isn't just the wrasse searching in the sand for food?

I've never used Phosgaurd at praziquantel at the same time, so I can't advise you on that...just be sure to increase the aeration if you are using prazipro.

Jay

 

[reef4life!!!]

Oh, so the feces aren't hanging off the fish, they are dropped without ever being attached? In that case, it is much less likely that it is internal parasites and more likely that it is something in its diet.

Just double checking - the flashing you are seeing isn't just the wrasse searching in the sand for food?

I've never used Phosgaurd at praziquantel at the same time, so I can't advise you on that...just be sure to increase the aeration if you are using prazipro.

Jay

yeah they are regular feces but they are white.She only eats spirulina and yesterday ate the whole nori i put in the tank,i can't make her eat anything else like frozen(she is 2 weeks in the tank).

yeah it is definitely a flashing.I've had previous fishes like tangs,wrasses,trigger etc and they did the same thing that my meleagris does.When she hunt copepods she just picks them not scratching in my rock and my sand

Ok i won't put phosguard just in case..and yeah i will turn my wavemaker in to the tanks surface