Shrimp safe internal worm medication?

[Stormhaven]

Hi Guys .
Is there any other options on treating internal worms other than Metronidazole.
I can't catch the fish or the cleaner shrimps and metro killed the last pair I assume as they died a weeks after treatment.
Thanks for any help.

 

[Stormhaven]

Forgot to mention.
It was blended with Focus and added to food.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Metronidazole is an antiprotozoal drug and wouldn't have much/any effect on metazoan parasites such as worms. Praziquantel is one choice, Fenbendazole is another. I've had toxicity issues with the latter though.

Do you know what worm your fish have, or are you treating based on external symptoms? The reason i ask is that Prazi doesn't work well for nematodes.

If the fish have cestodes or digenean worms (which require a secondary or tertiary host species) I normally don't even treat, because without the proper host(s), those diseases are self-limiting.

I have some issues with the idea of blending meds with Focus - the dose is totally uncontrolled: you have no way to determine how much medication is getting into the fish. Many medications have a 30 to 50% "slop" in their dose, but any less and there is no cure and too much and the fish may die. I'm working on a medicated food protocol that takes into account the weight of the fish and the amount of food being fed, but I haven't gotten it posted here yet....


Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Low dose praziPro and ruby rally Pro

 

[Stormhaven]

Thanks for the responses .
It's white stringy feces and weight loss .
I feed enough to maintain some body weight.
It's just the one clown that is suffering from it .
Assuming no other fish has injested it's poo to pass it along .