Prazi-resistant worms

[Flashy Fins]

Before I explain my current situation, I should mention that I do TTM after 4-6 weeks of normal QT, rather than before. The idea is to lessen stress on new fish, but I'm considering changing this up in the future. As of now, I practice ich management in the QT tank, then use TTM to keep my display tanks ich-free.

Currently, I have 5 fish that were QT'ed for 5.5 weeks, some of which had stringy white poop in that time. I did 2 rounds of Prazi, which seemed to clear it up, but then the stringy white poop returned. I did 2 more rounds of Prazi, and again I thought things were clear. Now, I'm putting the fish through TTM, and guess what I see? A fish that didn't previously have stringy white poop, now does. Today is the last day of their 2nd transfer; 2 more transfers left to go.

I have metroplex and can use that to hopefully clear this up, but I don't want to stop TTM and return them to my QT tank, both because that would cancel out the transfers I've already done and also (this is the big one) because I've just put new fish in the QT tank, ones that are already showing stringy white poop and may have other diseases (no indication of that, but they're on day 2 of QT, so I really wouldn't know).

I'm wondering how long I need to treat with metro? Could I get away with 9 days? If that will work, then I could start tomorrow (the first day of the 3rd transfer) and just add on a 5th transfer to TTM. It would go like this:

4/16 transfer 1 (already complete)
4/19 transfer 2 (already complete)
4/22 transfer 3 (with metroplex)
4/25 transfer 4 (with metroplex)
4/28 transfer 5 (with metroplex)
5/1 transfer to display

I could dose today for a total of 9.5 days of metro, but I'm always a bit nervous on day 3 of transfers, worried the fish are in dirty water. I use Prime in case of ammonia, but I'm never as relaxed as I am on days 1 & 2. I could be worrying over nothing, of course.

Would love some guidance/reassurance/etc. If it matters, the fish are 2 resplendent anthias (the first ones to show stringy white poop in QT), 1 forktail blenny (who suddenly pooped this way today), 1 Lubbock's wrasse, and 1 aurora goby.

 

[Humblefish]

Metronidazole is the drug of choice for intestinal worms (white stringy poop), whereas prazi is better at eradicating gill flukes and turbellarians (i.e. black ich). However, every now & then you have to resort to hypo or using formalin for flukes/black ich (prazi resistant strains exist).

Metro does a great job of clearing intestinal worms, but the problem is it can be a slow acting drug. So, you might need to treat with it for up to 3 weeks to completely clear the fish.

 

[Flashy Fins]

Eeek, not the news I was hoping for, but I'm glad I asked before moving forward. Time for a new plan!

4 of those 5 fish are meant for a new display tank I have, which is cycled but has no fish in it. I started with dead rock, so only nitrifying bacteria is in there. If I continued with TTM to rid them of any possible ich and started metro during transfers, then put the fish in the new display and continued treating with metro for a few weeks, would that cause any lasting problems in the tank? I plan to add corals down the road. Would the rock absorb the medication, as it does with copper?

If I can't do that, my options are adding the fish back to their old QT, which puts them in with newly acquired fish (maybe not the worst thing, since they're also pooping white strings, but if they have anything else, it could be disastrous), or I can start a new QT that isn't cycled. I normally keep a sponge in my display sump to allow instant QT cycling, but I just used the one I had with a fish I scored from Diver's Den. Lots of fish QT happening here!

 

[Humblefish]

What I would do in your situation is dose metro in the water so long as the fish are in QT, and then switch over to soaking their food with metro (using Seachem Focus as the binder) once they are in the DT. Before I tweaked my QT protocol, I had a few fish with intestinal worms slip thru and soaking their food with metro worked every time.

 

[Flashy Fins]

Will that work with frozen food? I didn't convert them to dry foods in QT (wish now I had). I fed it once or twice and only saw the goby and wrasse go for it, so I'd have to get the others interested.

This does explain why I've had problems in the past getting rid of worms using only Prazi.

 

[Flashy Fins]

On a related note, I have another display tank (separate from all other tanks mentioned; I have a lot of tanks!) that a couple of months ago had an anthias in it who started pooping white strings, even after I'd "cured" her with Prazi in QT. Not long after, she disappeared. I never found a body, and I've been a super pooper snooper with the other fish since then. No signs of white poop from any of them. Do I need to be concerned that these "worms" (parasites?) are in the tank, just waiting for a fish to infect? Is there any way to clear the tank of them, or a fallow period? Or should I not be concerned, since no other fish seem to have caught the worms?

 

[melypr1985]

On a related note, I have another display tank (separate from all other tanks mentioned; I have a lot of tanks!) that a couple of months ago had an anthias in it who started pooping white strings, even after I'd "cured" her with Prazi in QT. Not long after, she disappeared. I never found a body, and I've been a super pooper snooper with the other fish since then. No signs of white poop from any of them. Do I need to be concerned that these "worms" (parasites?) are in the tank, just waiting for a fish to infect? Is there any way to clear the tank of them, or a fallow period? Or should I not be concerned, since no other fish seem to have caught the worms?

Usually intestinal worms are transmitted by one fish eating an infected fish's poop. So if there's no more poop to eat from the infected fish (and the others haven't already consumed some before he died), then I'd say the risk is low.

 

[Humblefish]

Will that work with frozen food?

Yup. Just thaw first and use Focus to bind the medication to the food, to prevent leaching out. I also run carbon as an insurance policy (just in case a little leaches out).

 

[Flashy Fins]

I have been feeding frozen food laced with metroplex and focus. It has cleared up the stringy white poop in some of the fish, but not all. It's been about 6 weeks feeding them the drug-laced food. I use the scoop in the medication bottle and measure out one scoop of metroplex, 5 scoops of focus, and combine it with several cubes of thawed mysis/brine/other frozen foods. I started out using 8-10 cubes, since the fish hated the taste of the medication, but as they got used to the taste, I slowly decreased the number of food cubes and now use 4 cubes to that amount of medication. Should I be making it even stronger, trying another drug, or just continuing on as I have? Like I said, it has worked with some of the fish, so not a total wash. I just hate seeing how skinny the affected fish are and worry about them.

 

[melypr1985]

I usually just use two cubes of food and 1 scoop med, 1 scoop focus. It could just be that the cured fish are eating more of the food than the others.

 

[Humblefish]

I usually just use two cubes of food and 1 scoop med, 1 scoop focus. It could just be that the cured fish are eating more of the food than the others.

^^ Or possibly getting reinfected over & over by eating stringy white poo. When you food soak metro it only clears out whatever worms happen to be in the intestines at the time the medication passes through. If more worms are consumed (via poop), the fish gets reinfected.

 

[Flashy Fins]

Hmm, ok, I will go with Meredith's ratio and see if that helps. Whenever I catch a fish pooping a long string, I'll try to siphon it out of the tank, so no other fish can eat it. Ugh, I can't believe I have poop eating fish; not ladylike behavior at all, beautiful anthias!