Internal Parasites in Clown Fish

[Edulas]

I have several clown fish that are wasting away with white faeces. They also seem to be losing appetite. I have tried metronidazole and fenbendazole. No improvement. Microscope reveals two organisms that seem prolific. A large one with a split tail(bottom right) and a smaller tear drops (bottom left). Any thoughts?

 

[fishguy242]

Hi , welcome to the reef,
#fishmedic

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I have several clown fish that are wasting away with white faeces. They also seem to be losing appetite. I have tried metronidazole and fenbendazole. No improvement. Microscope reveals two organisms that seem prolific. A large one with a split tail(bottom right) and a smaller tear drops (bottom left). Any thoughts?

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

The biggest issue with looking at fish feces is to ensure that you don't collect any non-parasites at the same time. In the first slide, the animal with split tails seems to be a rotifer, and is not a parasite. The smaller ciliate protozoans are too mobile and too elongate to likely be parasites as well. The two things to look for are the flagellate Hexamita and eggs from worm parasites (the worms themselves don't show up in the feces).

How did you dose the metronidazole and Fenbendazole?



The middle organism below is Hexamita:

Jay

 

[Edulas]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

The biggest issue with looking at fish feces is to ensure that you don't collect any non-parasites at the same time. In the first slide, the animal with split tails seems to be a rotifer, and is not a parasite. The smaller ciliate protozoans are too mobile and too elongate to likely be parasites as well. The two things to look for are the flagellate Hexamita and eggs from worm parasites (the worms themselves don't show up in the feces).

How did you dose the metronidazole and Fenbendazole?



The middle organism below is Hexamita:

Jay

The metronidazole was mixed into pellet food as per seachem directions. Fed for 10 days. Fendendazole (Panacur) was added to food and fed for 4 days. No visible improvement noticed.

The water parameters are fine.

Will be doing more investigation on Hexamita and worm eggs in fish feaces.

Could myoxazoa be a possibility? I only hold fish(no snails or tube worms, etc)

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

The metronidazole was mixed into pellet food as per seachem directions. Fed for 10 days. Fendendazole (Panacur) was added to food and fed for 4 days. No visible improvement noticed.

The water parameters are fine.

Will be doing more investigation on Hexamita and worm eggs in fish feaces.

Could myoxazoa be a possibility? I only hold fish(no snails or tube worms, etc)

The instructions for Metroplex given by SeaChem are problematic - they use volume measurements, but metronidazole needs to be dosed by weight/percentage in food (see below) Too high of a dose and the food is too bitter and fish will spit it out. Too low of a dose and it won't work.

If you haven't seen it, one of our Fish Medics, @threebuoys developed a medicated food calculator:

Fish Weight Calculator / Medicated Fish Food Mix Calculator

If you follow threads on the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis forum, you know that whenever oral medication is the recommended treatment, @Jay Hemdal cautions that achieving the proper dosage is critical to success. He often refers to his article Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods. That...

www.reef2reef.com

Here is my article on proper dosing of medicated foods:

Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods

This article offers information about developing medicated foods for aquarium fish

www.reef2reef.com

Luckily, both metronidazole and fenbendazole can be dosed by % in food, not the usual "amount of medication per gram of fish biomass" which is so difficult to calculate:

Metronidazole is usually dosed at 1% by weight and Fenbendazole is dosed 0.5% by weight.


Jay