Bicolor blenny ich or velvet?

[Salty87]

@Jay Hemdal Will do. Watching like a hawk. Chloroquine is turning out to be a pain in the back side. The phosphates from the chloroquine phosphate is through the roof. Can't wait for one more week to pull the fish out and into clean water or do I wait till four weeks?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

@Jay Hemdal Will do. Watching like a hawk. Chloroquine is turning out to be a pain in the back side. The phosphates from the chloroquine phosphate is through the roof. Can't wait for one more week to pull the fish out and into clean water or do I wait till four weeks?

Would the phosphate be of any concern in a fish-only QT?

They make chloroquine hydrochloride, but I don't know where to source that.....

Jay

 

[Salty87]

I didn't think extremely high phosphates would be an issue in a fish only qt... But never having dealt with this higher than test kit readable values had me nervous.

The chloroquine phosphate is easily available in tablet form as a malaria medication. Other forms are pretty much hard to come by here.

 

[Salty87]

Update : fish went through chloroquine fine, then came two rounds of general cure for internal parasite clearance as I did notice stringy poop. They did fine except the bicolor blenny decided he had had enough and bit the firefish and the two clownfish. Firefish took the brunt of it with tattered fins as a result. Clownfish developed dark discoloration at the bite site and looked to develop a fungal infection towards the tail end of GC treatment. Firefish was Seperated in an acclimation box and allowed to recuperate. It has slowly recovered his fins but looks emaciated. All fish are eating well. Bicolour blenny was rehomed at the lfs.

Well after all this and careful monitoring, fish were deemed free of parasites and went into DT. All was fine and dandy. Fish were eating like pigs. Clowns slowly recovered from the fungal infection over a weeks time and returned to normal coloration. For the past two days I'm noticing occasional flashing especially at the gill area, some yawning. Poop is normal coloured and no spots visible on any of the fish. Today I observed head twitching mainly in the clowns. General listless behavior and darting and increased flashing as if something irritates them again mostly in the gill or head area. This leads me to believe I have Gill flukes. And general cure with focus in the food won't solve this as far as I ve read. I can't treat the Dt as I have a few pieces of corals. Did a freshwater dip and a few mustard coloured granule like objects dropped off the fish. Got the fish into a bucket and treating with GC again. Will leave the display fallow for 4 weeks. Prazipro is unavailable in my country. I'm looking at other brands of praziquantel if available.

Am I on the right track here? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Salty87]

Planning to do two rounds of GC dosed into the water and spaced 5 days apart. Will that suffice for Gill flukes? Four weeks of Dt going fallow at 25°c for flukes to die off.

On a Seperate note, a coral and algae observation tank got infected with ich (converted black mollies to test medication). The tank got cross contaminated when I started the chloroquine for the saltwater fish. Been running that fallow for three weeks and will continue till the 76 day mark.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Planning to do two rounds of GC dosed into the water and spaced 5 days apart. Will that suffice for Gill flukes? Four weeks of Dt going fallow at 25°c for flukes to die off.

On a Seperate note, a coral and algae observation tank got infected with ich (converted black mollies to test medication). The tank got cross contaminated when I started the chloroquine for the saltwater fish. Been running that fallow for three weeks and will continue till the 76 day mark.

Personally, I would space the GC at 8 days apart, in case the gill flukes are egg layers. Prazi doesn't kill the eggs, so you need to try and time it so the eggs present hatch, infect the fish, then you hit them with prazi before they can lay new eggs - and all of this is invisible to you, so timing can be a real guess.

Jay

 

[Salty87]

Personally, I would space the GC at 8 days apart, in case the gill flukes are egg layers. Prazi doesn't kill the eggs, so you need to try and time it so the eggs present hatch, infect the fish, then you hit them with prazi before they can lay new eggs - and all of this is invisible to you, so timing can be a real guess.

Jay

I did space GC apart 7-8 days last time. I ll follow your advice and do the same again. Can't believe how resilient flukes where to the 2 cycles of GC the last time. I believe some eggs got through and have taken their time to show the symptoms now. The timing seems right. Will 2 cycles suffice or should I do a couple more?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I did space GC apart 7-8 days last time. I ll follow your advice and do the same again. Can't believe how resilient flukes where to the 2 cycles of GC the last time. I believe some eggs got through and have taken their time to show the symptoms now. The timing seems right. Will 2 cycles suffice or should I do a couple more?

My timing is just a guess, just like everyone's is (grin).

One species of fluke, Neobenedenia needs to be dosed 5 times, 7 days apart to eradicate it, and then, it isn't a sure thing (sigh). Your fish don't have that fluke though.

Have you considered a 35 day hyposalinity treatment?

Jay

 

[Salty87]

My timing is just a guess, just like everyone's is (grin).

One species of fluke, Neobenedenia needs to be dosed 5 times, 7 days apart to eradicate it, and then, it isn't a sure thing (sigh). Your fish don't have that fluke though.

Have you considered a 35 day hyposalinity treatment?

Jay

Actually I didn't. I was under the impression that hyposalinity was hit or miss. Can I combine hypo and the GC? By hypo you mean 1.019 or lower? Freshwater dips yielded yellowish colored dots that i assume are flukes. Have you encountered any yellow flukes. All the pics I have seen show a translucent fluke variety. Symptoms seem dead on to flukes though in my opinion.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Actually I didn't. I was under the impression that hyposalinity was hit or miss. Can I combine hypo and the GC? By hypo you mean 1.019 or lower? Freshwater dips yielded yellowish colored dots that i assume are flukes. Have you encountered any yellow flukes. All the pics I have seen show a translucent fluke variety. Symptoms seem dead on to flukes though in my opinion.

Without a microscope, examining dip water is really difficult. Even with a scope, it is tough - the FW causes the parasites (except copepods, isopods and some leeches) to contort into little balls of snot that are tough to see what they are.

Hypo for flukes is typically half salinity for 35 days - so 16 ppt or a specific gravity of around 1.012. If people also want to control ich at the same time, they need to go down to 1.009 SG.

Jay

 

[Salty87]

Without a microscope, examining dip water is really difficult. Even with a scope, it is tough - the FW causes the parasites (except copepods, isopods and some leeches) to contort into little balls of snot that are tough to see what they are.

Hypo for flukes is typically half salinity for 35 days - so 16 ppt or a specific gravity of around 1.012. If people also want to control ich at the same time, they need to go down to 1.009 SG.

Jay

Gotcha. Thanks Jay. As always you have been most helpful and your advice very insightful and I really appreciate it.