Not sure what Parasite

[Irish1983]

I got a bunch of rescue fish and the guy told me "they had ich but..." He feed them lots of high quality food with garlic and it "went away"....Anyway I setup a 40gal QT with ammonia badge, 40 gal air filter sponge, and a power head (some plastic hiding spots (PVC etc). I Have had them in Cupramine for a little over two weeks (I use a hanna meter), and today when I checked on them I noticed the clowns are acting distressed and I can see what I assume is parasites on their fins and body in spots. The Bengai and File fish's dont seem to care or have anything on them at all. I can clearly see whatever it is on the clowns. I gave all the clown fish a 5 minute fresh water dip and nothing fell off. The parasites extend off the fish towards the tail end of the fish. I dont have prazipro but I do have general cure and a jar of dry format prazi-power. Does anyone else think this is something else? I have never had flukes not fall off with a 5 minute dip before. I didnt find a single parasite at the bottom of the bath container. (ZOOM in with the last pic to see them clearly)

 

[vetteguy53081]

I got a bunch of rescue fish and the guy told me "they had ich but..." He feed them lots of high quality food with garlic and it "went away"....Anyway I setup a 40gal QT with ammonia badge, 40 gal air filter sponge, and a power head (some plastic hiding spots (PVC etc). I Have had them in Cupramine for a little over two weeks (I use a hanna meter), and today when I checked on them I noticed the clowns are acting distressed and I can see what I assume is parasites on their fins and body in spots. The Bengai and File fish's dont seem to care or have anything on them at all. I can clearly see whatever it is on the clowns. I gave all the clown fish a 5 minute fresh water dip and nothing fell off. The parasites extend off the fish towards the tail end of the fish. I dont have prazipro but I do have general cure and a jar of dry format prazi-power. Does anyone else think this is something else? I have never had flukes not fall off with a 5 minute dip before. I didnt find a single parasite at the bottom of the bath container.

Not flukes but looks like bacterial lesions associated with brooklynella. Can use a couple closer pics to fully confirm. If it is, often there will be mucus which generally starts at the facial area as well as gills and spreads across the body producing lesions as it progresses often confused with ich and can turn into secondary bacteria. Other symptoms will be lethargic behavior, refusing to eat and heavy breathing from the mucus.
Typical treatment is a formalin solution is mixed with in a separate container with either fresh or saltwater. Start with a quick dip in the formalin at a higher concentration then performing treatment in a prolonged bath of formalin base at a lower concentration in a quarantine tank. The longer the fish are exposed to the formalin treatment the more effective it will be at eliminating this issue.
If a formalin solution is not available for immediate use, temporary relief can be achieved by giving the fish a FW bath or dip in water same temperature as display tank. Even though this treatment will not cure the disease, it can help to remove some of the parasites, as well as reduce the amount of mucus in the gills to assist with respiration problems.
Treatment is best done in a QT tank using either quick cure (more effective but now harder to find) or Ruby Rally Pro. Ruby takes a little longer and initial treatment generally takes 2-3 days to really start going to work.

 

[Irish1983]

Not flukes but looks like bacterial lesions associated with brooklynella. Can use a couple closer pics to fully confirm. If it is, often there will be mucus which generally starts at the facial area as well as gills and spreads across the body producing lesions as it progresses often confused with ich and can turn into secondary bacteria. Other symptoms will be lethargic behavior, refusing to eat and heavy breathing from the mucus.
Typical treatment is a formalin solution is mixed with in a separate container with either fresh or saltwater. Start with a quick dip in the formalin at a higher concentration then performing treatment in a prolonged bath of formalin base at a lower concentration in a quarantine tank. The longer the fish are exposed to the formalin treatment the more effective it will be at eliminating this issue.
If a formalin solution is not available for immediate use, temporary relief can be achieved by giving the fish a FW bath or dip in water same temperature as display tank. Even though this treatment will not cure the disease, it can help to remove some of the parasites, as well as reduce the amount of mucus in the gills to assist with respiration problems.
Treatment is best done in a QT tank using either quick cure (more effective but now harder to find) or Ruby Rally Pro. Ruby takes a little longer and initial treatment generally takes 2-3 days to really start going to work.

Thanks for the reply. I dont have any of that sadly. Ive seen brook before though (Not new to the hobby by any means). I could see why youd go there with it being just the clowns though...

 

[Irish1983]

Not flukes but looks like bacterial lesions associated with brooklynella. Can use a couple closer pics to fully confirm. If it is, often there will be mucus which generally starts at the facial area as well as gills and spreads across the body producing lesions as it progresses often confused with ich and can turn into secondary bacteria. Other symptoms will be lethargic behavior, refusing to eat and heavy breathing from the mucus.
Typical treatment is a formalin solution is mixed with in a separate container with either fresh or saltwater. Start with a quick dip in the formalin at a higher concentration then performing treatment in a prolonged bath of formalin base at a lower concentration in a quarantine tank. The longer the fish are exposed to the formalin treatment the more effective it will be at eliminating this issue.
If a formalin solution is not available for immediate use, temporary relief can be achieved by giving the fish a FW bath or dip in water same temperature as display tank. Even though this treatment will not cure the disease, it can help to remove some of the parasites, as well as reduce the amount of mucus in the gills to assist with respiration problems.
Treatment is best done in a QT tank using either quick cure (more effective but now harder to find) or Ruby Rally Pro. Ruby takes a little longer and initial treatment generally takes 2-3 days to really start going to work.

I cant find AP QuickCure for sale anywhere online, and Rally Pro is gonna be over a week out if I order it tonight. I have Paraguard but thats not gonna really cure it (Also have to pull the copper before I can dose that its a reducing agent)? Is there anything else you can use?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I cant find AP QuickCure for sale anywhere online, and Rally Pro is gonna be over a week out if I order it tonight. I have Paraguard but thats not gonna really cure it (Also have to pull the copper before I can dose that its a reducing agent)? Is there anything else you can use?

A 5 minute freshwater dip the same temperature as display tank will buy you some time

 

[Irish1983]

A 5 minute freshwater dip the same temperature as display tank will buy you some time

I've dine the 5 min dip today and I have general cure on hand. WIll that not cure the Brook and just buy me time for Rally pro?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I've dine the 5 min dip today and I have general cure on hand. WIll that not cure the Brook and just buy me time for Rally pro?

General cure good for flukes and velvet and even light cases of ich but for brook you want formalin based or acriflavine which neither is contained in General cure

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I got a bunch of rescue fish and the guy told me "they had ich but..." He feed them lots of high quality food with garlic and it "went away"....Anyway I setup a 40gal QT with ammonia badge, 40 gal air filter sponge, and a power head (some plastic hiding spots (PVC etc). I Have had them in Cupramine for a little over two weeks (I use a hanna meter), and today when I checked on them I noticed the clowns are acting distressed and I can see what I assume is parasites on their fins and body in spots. The Bengai and File fish's dont seem to care or have anything on them at all. I can clearly see whatever it is on the clowns. I gave all the clown fish a 5 minute fresh water dip and nothing fell off. The parasites extend off the fish towards the tail end of the fish. I dont have prazipro but I do have general cure and a jar of dry format prazi-power. Does anyone else think this is something else? I have never had flukes not fall off with a 5 minute dip before. I didnt find a single parasite at the bottom of the bath container. (ZOOM in with the last pic to see them clearly)

Can you post clearer pics or better yet, a short video? The trouble is that the three possibilities (ich, brook or flukes) all have three different treatments, so you need to be 100% certain what direction you are going to go with this.

Jay

 

[Irish1983]

UPDATE: So I am on day 3 of dosing GC and everyone seems to be doing much better. I added in a ridiculous venturi pump to make sure dissolved O2 wasnt an issue with the combined meds.

Thank you for the reply Jay. I had Ich covered with the Cupramine, but I actually sold my bottle of Prazi to a fresh water client previously in the week (South American Cichlids had internal worms). If any of them relapse ill try to get better pics etc. Clowns just never stop wiggling.

 

[Irish1983]

So it ended up for sure being brook. I have been giving them fresh water baths then into fresh seasoned saltwater in a fresh QT (bucket). I keep putting the pump in boiling water to sterile it then cool it off before it goes back in to circulate the water. Does methylene blue kill Brook? Ruby reef rally completely failed to clear it and I lost one out of 4 clowns as a result. everyone is doing better and are eating now that im doing baths and into new qt every other day. I'm having a really hard time finding formalin.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So it ended up for sure being brook. I have been giving them fresh water baths then into fresh seasoned saltwater in a fresh QT (bucket). I keep putting the pump in boiling water to sterile it then cool it off before it goes back in to circulate the water. Does methylene blue kill Brook? Ruby reef rally completely failed to clear it and I lost one out of 4 clowns as a result. everyone is doing better and are eating now that im doing baths and into new qt every other day. I'm having a really hard time finding formalin.

Yes, formalin is difficult to source and pretty toxic to use.

You can use a 150 ppm hydrogen peroxide bath for 30 minutes (19 ml per gallon). the trouble is, like with a FW dip, you would need to move the fish into a non-infected tank, putting it back into the same tank just allows it to get reinfected.

Jay

 

[Irish1983]

Yes, formalin is difficult to source and pretty toxic to use.

You can use a 150 ppm hydrogen peroxide bath for 30 minutes (19 ml per gallon). the trouble is, like with a FW dip, you would need to move the fish into a non-infected tank, putting it back into the same tank just allows it to get reinfected.

Jay

Thats not a problem I have been just moving them to clean 5 gal buckets after each bath. Thank you. I read about H2O2 but in the begingin they were not healed enough for that to not be risky. Now they are ok but still carriers.