Possible gill flukes in pink tail trigger

[ReefHog]

So I have this pink tail trigger that made it through 14 days of chloroquine phosphate followed by two doses of prazi pro in a separate observation tank. He was treated with another smaller Huma trigger. Both did great never stopped eating and put on weight through out. The pink tail would harass the Huma occasionally but didn’t seem to really bother him. On day 20 of observation the Huma started hiding abd not coming out for food. I thought it was due to the pink tail harassing him so I put a divider in the tank. He still did not come out and stayed wedged in his sleeping spot all day. After five days I removed him to a separate tank for closer observation. He started swimming erratically when disturbed and stayed hiding. I didn’t see anything obvious wrong and thought maybe he had an organ or spine injury. That night he started swimming in erratic circles at the surface and wouldn’t stop. I euthanized him. About four days later the pink tail started hiding just like the Huma did a week or so earlier. I also noticed that he was breathing hard with his mouth open all the time. So I removed him straight away and started a round of general cure thinking gill flukes got by the Prazipro treatment. He responded well only hiding for two days. He’s been eating normal and while not swimming around like he should he doesn’t hide and comes to the front of the tank when he sees me looking for food. I gave him the second dose of general cure after 48 hours and then placed him in a third tank 48 hours later. I am keeping him in this tank with methylene blue at half dose and heavy airation for ten days. It says do water change every 48 hours and redose MB for 10 days. I have formalin coming next week if needed. Problem is that he is still breathing very heavily all the time. About 160 breaths a minute. I fear that there is permanent gill damage. Is my assessment of gill flukes sound right? Could this be something else? Is there something more/else I can do? If it is/was gill flukes, will they recover?
@Jay Hemdal

In general cure



in methylene blue.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Well, unfortunately, that is the issue with a single visible symptom (rapid breathing) it can be caused by a number of different issues. I always try to see if there is a second clue/symptom that helps narrow things down, but there isn't in this case.

I see there is good aeration, so we'll rule that out. It could be: a water quality issue (see below), Velvet that got past the CP, gill damage from flukes, secondary bacterial disease from the flukes, uncontrolled flukes (some are tough to treat).

One thing - methylene blue is really "old school" and people have forgotten over the years that it is pretty inhibitory to nitrifying bacteria. You should monitor your ammonia for the next week or so. It doesn't look like your dose is that high, but you don't want to get caught with high ammonia on top of what this issue is....

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Unusual to see sand in a quarantine setting not that its causing issues.
Is the sponge filter the only filtration in the tank? If so, what is your ammonia -ph-nitrate levels and what test kit(s) are you using ?

 

[ReefHog]

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081

I’m 55 so I guess I’m “old school” .

I dosed 5ml/10 gal MB. I pre soaked sponge filter in fritz bacteria and add a squirt daily for that reason. The thin layer of sand is from an established tank. Sand really doesn’t affect CP or GC and I find fish less stressed with it I typically use ammonia alert badges in QT but color contrast doesn’t really work in MB. I’m dosing Prime every day do 50% water change every other day. I doubt it’s velvet that got by CP as it’s been over a month and there are no other symptoms. Also he’s doing better since the general cure treatment, Just not good. If he doesn’t get better and makes it to next week, is formalin my next step? And yes, no other signs of anything. One day swimming like normal then next hiding and breathing heavy. I should add that the Huma was about a third of the size of the pink tail so if it was flukes they would conceivably overwhelm him first.

 

[vetteguy53081]

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081

I’m 55 so I guess I’m “old school” .

I dosed 5ml/10 gal MB. I pre soaked sponge filter in fritz bacteria and add a squirt daily for that reason. The thin layer of sand is from an established tank. Sand really doesn’t affect CP or GC and I find fish less stressed with it I typically use ammonia alert badges in QT but color contrast doesn’t really work in MB. I’m dosing Prime every day do 50% water change every other day. I doubt it’s velvet that got by CP as it’s been over a month and there are no other symptoms. Also he’s doing better since the general cure treatment, Just not good. If he doesn’t get better and makes it to next week, is formalin my next step? And yes, no other signs of anything. One day swimming like normal then next hiding and breathing heavy. I should add that the Huma was about a third of the size of the pink tail so if it was flukes they would conceivably overwhelm him first.

There are various cures for flukes but assure they are appropriate based on the level of flukes.
FW dip is the easiest wat to determine you have them and can help but will not treat fish if they are in the gills of the fish. You can also maintain hyposalinity which will address both adult and juvenile flukes.

You mentioned formalin. you can give the fish 30-45 minute formalin dips but not my favorite method.

Praziquantel is the safest and effective method used and preferred. It causes flukes to spasm, fall off fish and eventually die. This method does lower appetite and oxygen. Increase o2 with an airstone when using this method.

 

[ReefHog]

There are various cures for flukes but assure they are appropriate based on the level of flukes.
FW dip is the easiest wat to determine you have them and can help but will not treat fish if they are in the gills of the fish. You can also maintain hyposalinity which will address both adult and juvenile flukes.

You mentioned formalin. you can give the fish 30-45 minute formalin dips but not my favorite method.

Praziquantel is the safest and effective method used and preferred. It causes flukes to spasm, fall off fish and eventually die. This method does lower appetite and oxygen. Increase o2 with an airstone when using this method.

Already treated with Prazipro 30 days ago. And with general cure sat-tue. So he’s had two praziquantel treatments in last five weeks. Wondering if I should try hypo and hold off on the formalin. I don’t like using that either which is why I don’t have it in my arsenal. I don’t even like using copper which is why I use chloroquine phosphate instead. Can hypo be done with methylene blue?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Already treated with Prazipro 30 days ago. And with general cure sat-tue. So he’s had two praziquantel treatments in last five weeks. Wondering if I should try hypo and hold off on the formalin. I don’t like using that either which is why I don’t have it in my arsenal. I don’t even like using copper which is why I use chloroquine phosphate instead. Can hypo be done with methylene blue?

With Prazi - should have been 8 days followed by water change and another 8 day treament

 

[ReefHog]

With Prazi - should have been 8 days followed by water change and another 8 day treament

Yup. That’s how it was done. If it’s flukes, it just be the hard to kill ones. Btw, I did a fresh water dip on the Huma and nothing fell off. But I thought gill flukes would be too small to see without microscope. So possible the Prazipro wasn’t enough.