Parasites? Flukes?

Fishguy1079 · Feb 23, 2023

Hi anybody have any idea what this might be? 125 gallon with live rock. Lost some fish a few weeks ago, didn't see anything on the fish and the water tested ok. But most of the fish were breathing hard and either at the top or bottom. I assumed flukes so I treated with prazipro(and metroplex) and few times and the fish that made it seemed to be better. So after a couple of weeks I added a few new fish and they've all died within 48 hours and now the fish I've had are breathing hard again. Did the flukes maybe come back? Does anyone know something that works better than prazipro?

vetteguy53081 · Feb 23, 2023

chad 1079 said:
Hi anybody have any idea what this might be? 125 gallon with live rock. Lost some fish a few weeks ago, didn't see anything on the fish and the water tested ok. But most of the fish were breathing hard and either at the top or bottom. I assumed flukes so I treated with prazipro(and metroplex) and few times and the fish that made it seemed to be better. So after a couple of weeks I added a few new fish and they've all died within 48 hours and now the fish I've had are breathing hard again. Did the flukes maybe come back? Does anyone know something that works better than prazipro?

based on video and symptoms you describe, I suspect velvet but need further info to confirm. Some symptoms with velvet you will have noticed if velvet are:
Scratching body against hard objects, clamped fins, Fish is lethargic, Loss of appetite and weight loss, Rapid or labored breathing, mucus around the gills and fish with velvet will typically stay at the surface of the water, or remain in a position where a steady flow of water is present in the aquarium.

Jay Hemdal · Feb 23, 2023

The rapid breathing could be velvet or gill flukes. That the fish seemed to respond to the Prazipro, but then got worse again tends to lean towards gill flukes. What can happen is that a single prazi dose kills the adult flukes on the fish and they get better - until eggs in the tank hatch out and the fish get reinfected. However, the rapid loss of the NEW fish does not line up with that - they would have been o.k. for a week or two, until the flukes got to them as well. That seems to point to two possible issues going on here. I think there could be an issue with velvet here. That kills fish very quickly - the best treatment is coppersafe or copper power (no invertebrates of course).

Jay

Fishguy1079 · Feb 23, 2023

Jay Hemdal said:
The rapid breathing could be velvet or gill flukes. That the fish seemed to respond to the Prazipro, but then got worse again tends to lean towards gill flukes. What can happen is that a single prazi dose kills the adult flukes on the fish and they get better - until eggs in the tank hatch out and the fish get reinfected. However, the rapid loss of the NEW fish does not line up with that - they would have been o.k. for a week or two, until the flukes got to them as well. That seems to point to two possible issues going on here. I think there could be an issue with velvet here. That kills fish very quickly - the best treatment is coppersafe or copper power (no invertebrates of course).

Jay

Thanks Jay. Yeah I thought it was weird that the new fish dies so quickly, especially since I thought flukes would take longer. The other thing I thought might have been the cause was although I waited a couple of weeks before I initially added fish after the prazipro and metroplex. I didn't do a water change because the water was fine, all I did was add a little purigen to the tank for a day before I added cupramine to the tank. Then got the fish the next day. My thought was maybe purigen doesn't remove old medicine as quickly carbon? And maybe the medication mixed? But I've been running carbon for 24 hours and turned my UV back on so I'm thinking you're right it's just velvet.

Jay Hemdal · Feb 24, 2023

chad 1079 said:
Thanks Jay. Yeah I thought it was weird that the new fish dies so quickly, especially since I thought flukes would take longer. The other thing I thought might have been the cause was although I waited a couple of weeks before I initially added fish after the prazipro and metroplex. I didn't do a water change because the water was fine, all I did was add a little purigen to the tank for a day before I added cupramine to the tank. Then got the fish the next day. My thought was maybe purigen doesn't remove old medicine as quickly carbon? And maybe the medication mixed? But I've been running carbon for 24 hours and turned my UV back on so I'm thinking you're right it's just velvet.

Cupramine is a bit more toxic and more reactive than coppersafe or copper power is, but I would not expect it to react with prazipro or metroplex. Never use Cupramine with any reducing agent (ammonia removers of excess dechlorinators). The chemistry isn't well know, but the worry is that these compounds will break the ammonia/copper bond releasing some amount of free copper into the water.

Jay