Can fish excrete medication?

Ishy · Jun 16, 2016

Posted this in another section but got no response so thought I'd give it a try here.Reason I ask is we gave our two clowns a Tremazol bath for suspected internal worms. Nems have been fine all along and when the clowns were reintroduced they went straight into them. This morning all the nems are shrivelled and not looking good hence the above question as there was definitely no water with Tremazol introduced into the display. All the water parameters are spot on.

eatbreakfast · Jun 16, 2016

They can, but the volume of medicine would be negligible, that shouldn't be the issue with the anemone.

Ishy · Jun 16, 2016

Ok. well there is actually several nems and a tube worm, the tube worm is un effected which leads me to believe its not in the water column, more of a direct contact thing. They are all looking pretty bad at the moment and the reaction was straight after the clowns were re introduced. Up to this point they all looked amazing.

eatbreakfast · Jun 17, 2016

Did you use Sera brand tremazol? If so the active ingredient is praziquantrel, which is actually pretty reef safe. It would mess with the duster more than the anemones.

Diesel · Jun 17, 2016

Great question!

[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG]

Ishy · Jun 17, 2016

Yes, it was the Sera brand. When the lights went up this morning they all had a move around so something must have upset them but they are making an effort to open up now. Not sure whether to do another water change but we did do one while the clowns were in the bath (6 hours) at that point the nems all looked really healthy.

eatbreakfast · Jun 17, 2016

Water changes never hurt..

Humblefish · Jun 17, 2016

eatbreakfast said:
They can, but the volume of medicine would be negligible, that shouldn't be the issue with the anemone.

I agree with this. However, IME praziquantel is pretty hit or miss for treating internal worms. It does a much better job treating external worms such as Monogeneans aka gill flukes. Metronidazole is preferred for clearing worms out of a fish's intestines.

Ishy · Jun 17, 2016

Humblefish said:
I agree with this. However, IME praziquantel is pretty hit or miss for treating internal worms. It does a much better job treating external worms such as Monogeneans aka gill flukes. Metronidazole is preferred for clearing worms out of a fish's intestines.

Thank's for that but that's a prescription drug over here, can you guys buy that over the counter?

Humblefish · Jun 17, 2016

Ishy said:
Thank's for that but that's a prescription drug over here, can you guys buy that over the counter?

Yes; I don't know if these guys will ship overseas: http://store.nationalfishpharm.com/NFP-products-Metronidazole-Powder-59582.Item.html

Ishy · Jun 20, 2016

So a little update, most of the nems have stopped sulking, just one that hasn't fully opened yet but he is from a split that happened just before treatment. The female clown is fine and the male is spending more time in his nems and his poo is looking more normal after initially pooing out quite a lot of white bits. Both are eating fine so we'll wait and see. Have ordered some Metronidazole from over there in case we need to take further action.
Thank's for the help.