Wrasses and QT protocols (prazipro and Copper)

linus.chan · Jul 25, 2017

Hello-

So i have read in several places that wrasses (in my case a Hooded Fairy Wrasses) can be sensitive to medication such as prazipro and copper.

I think some have posted for copper it means raising to therapeutic levels slowly (perhaps double the time).

Would people recommend that for prazi as well?

What other signs should i look for that the fish is not tolerating the medication well- and would people recommend stopping treatment, or reducing the dosage or how to proceed?

saltyhog · Jul 25, 2017

I have never had any issues with Prazi or General Cure with Halichoeres, Macropharyngodon, fairy or flasher wrasses. Wrasses are so easy to get eating (with notable exceptions such as Macropharyngodon ) that I prefer to do tank transfer instead of copper. Of course if Brook or Velvet are the problem that's not an option.

They may not eat well for a day or two with Prazi but not usually bad enough to be a problem.

lilchris_357 · Jul 25, 2017

I have zero success with wrasses and prazipro. (I think I might have over dosed.) @Humblefish has a write up in the fish disease forum about using Prazipro with wrasses. He is trying to determine if Prazipro is too harsh on wrasses. I think he recommends using General Cure instead of Prazipro as General Cure has a smaller dosage of Praziquantel and it's not as harsh. @Evovled (the wrasse expert) uses Prazipro on all his wrasses with no problems. I would go to the disease forum and do a search and read up. As far as copper goes, I think it's recommended to use coppersafe (chelated copper). Yes you are correct to take it slow to reach thearputic levels. I have 2 wrasses in QT now and I 'm not using prazi but I will do a FW dip and if flukes are present, then I'm going to use General Cure instead of prazi. I am using coppersafe, and I've addd 1 ml every 4 to 5 hrs over a 24 hr period with no issues. Signs you should look for are rapid breathing, swimming at the surface or lethargic behavior. Make sure you have a powerhead or air stones as copper will deplete the oxygen in the tank.

Humblefish · Jul 25, 2017

As noted above, TTM is ideal to use on wrasses. However, if velvet is a concern then chelated copper (e.g. Coppersafe, Copper Power) is your best option for wrasses.

I haven't experienced any noticeable difficulty using Prazipro or GC on wrasses, but I'm also not big into them. Maybe I've QTd 10-15 wrasses in the past 5 years?

One strategy you might try is spacing out the dosage. For Prazipro, it's 1 teaspoon per 20 gallons. So if your QT is 20 gals, dose 1/2 teaspoon now and another 1/2 teaspoon in 3-4 hours. Or 1/4 teaspoon every hour for the next 4 hours. So the fish has more time to adjust to the presence of medication in the water.