Crashjack
Well-Known Member
I've had to deal with intestinal parasites in my DT a couple of times. I've also been battling dinos, which are getting better with elevated nutrients and removal. I believe the toxins from the dinos killed my firefish and my C. Isoceles wrasse... the wrasse was in quarantine for a month, medicated, and died within about an hour of adding her to my acclimation box in the display... yes, temperature and salinity were matched. My lawnmower blenny went from being an obnoxiously fat glutton that was always out in the front of the tank, to a reclusive fish I thought had died a few times when I didn't see it for days at a time on multiple occasions.
My lawnmower blenny has recovered somewhat in that it spends more time out in front again, and I see it out front every day. It is also feeding on fish food and back to feeding on algae on the glass. However, it is very skinny and still nothing like the voracious eater it used to be. My higher nutrients have presented a nice field of hair algae, and though my LMB used to love hair algae, it won't touch it now. Though I know toxins were an issue, I'm not sure the LMB doesn't also have intestinal parasites. I've been checking fish for white stringy poop, and my harptail blenny had a little white poop yesterday, though it wasn't jagged and stringy like what I've seen with the other infestations I've dealt with. Also, when the fish darted, the poop fell off, which isn't typical for what I've seen in the past.
In my experience, infected fish that aren't eating/acting well with internal parasites usually bounce back after 2-3 days of treatment (I always treat full-term but see improvement in eating/behavior after 2-3 days). My thought is to treat with medicated food (Metro/Focus) for a few days to see how the LMB responds. If it starts eating more, I'll treat full-term. If it doesn't, I'll stop treating so all the fish in the display aren't needlessly treated full-term. Thoughts?
My lawnmower blenny has recovered somewhat in that it spends more time out in front again, and I see it out front every day. It is also feeding on fish food and back to feeding on algae on the glass. However, it is very skinny and still nothing like the voracious eater it used to be. My higher nutrients have presented a nice field of hair algae, and though my LMB used to love hair algae, it won't touch it now. Though I know toxins were an issue, I'm not sure the LMB doesn't also have intestinal parasites. I've been checking fish for white stringy poop, and my harptail blenny had a little white poop yesterday, though it wasn't jagged and stringy like what I've seen with the other infestations I've dealt with. Also, when the fish darted, the poop fell off, which isn't typical for what I've seen in the past.
In my experience, infected fish that aren't eating/acting well with internal parasites usually bounce back after 2-3 days of treatment (I always treat full-term but see improvement in eating/behavior after 2-3 days). My thought is to treat with medicated food (Metro/Focus) for a few days to see how the LMB responds. If it starts eating more, I'll treat full-term. If it doesn't, I'll stop treating so all the fish in the display aren't needlessly treated full-term. Thoughts?
