Possible internal parasites and treatment?

[shpobble]

Hello there,

I wanted to reach out to the hive mind before I do something silly.

I have 2 clowns, a yellow clown goby and a possum wrasse (tanakas) in a 60l observational qt system. They have been there for over a month (mostly as my DT cycle is doing strange things!) but I have started seeing the occasional stringy light poo from a few of the fish and very very occasional flashing, everyone has been normal and active and eating (wrasse is only eating pods in the tank but eating constantly), until yesterday one of the clowns looked bloated and uncomfortable, choosing to rest on her pvc pipe intermittently and flopping to one side before swimming off - she has improved over night a lot but still not normal. They are fed a variation of frozen foods, various pellets and flakes as well as pods in the tank, I did add some more pods to the system last night so not sure if piggy clown just stuffed herself on them due to the timing, but given the (very) occasional flashing and white poop I suspect something else may be at work.

I am in the UK, but I have sourced some API general cure (prazi & metro) and I also have fluke-solve (prazi) - firstly are either of these safe for my possum wrasse? Should I use at a lower dosage because of him?
Also there is a trochus snail and cleaner shrimp in this set up, are they safe from these meds (I can remove them)?
I suspect they have intestinal parasites, and I know the gold standard is to bind them using focus and feed but the wrasse wont eat what I put in due to pods population and i cannot seem to source seachem focus in the uk...so can i just dose the tank or is this likely to be ineffective to internal parasites?
Finally are intestinal parasites contagious from fish to fish, or once fish are removed will they remain in this system for future fish? How does it work?

Think that's all for now TIA!

 

[JaimeAdams]

General cure has a lower level of praziquentel. I don't know what to tell you about the wrasse not eating prepared foods, but super common for them to have internal parasites. I would remove the shrimp and snails and simply mix the General cure with the food.

 

[shpobble]

General cure has a lower level of praziquentel. I don't know what to tell you about the wrasse not eating prepared foods, but super common for them to have internal parasites. I would remove the shrimp and snails and simply mix the General cure with the food.

thank you but if I just mix it in the food the wrasse wont be getting dosed is the issue (and I expect he had the parasites first before passing them on - assuming its contagious) so to treat him I will need to dose the tank...just not sure if its safe to as wrasse are a bit sensitive sometimes and he is my favourite

 

[JaimeAdams]

yes, wrasses can be sensitive to praziquentel. The dose in general cure is low. It usually is not a problem for wrasses at that strength. You can coat the food for the other ones but since there is no binding agent some will make it into the water column.

 

[shpobble]

ah I see...any tips on how to work out the dosage this way and how long to dose for? Is the metro part of GC safe for wrasses?