Treating Parasites (general and specific questions)

**Tanichthys** · 02-08-2010, 05:07 PM

Hi guys,
I know "diseases" is a better section for health related questions, but I didn't get a huge response there and I'm also wondering about general fish treatment since this is the first time I've attempted to cure a fish of disease.

I recently discovered my white clouds have gill flukes. They must have arrived on a large plant I put in the aquarium 2 weeks ago. Only affected 2 fish, but I gave all the clouds a salt bath 2 days in a row to alleviate symptoms and treated the tank with jungle tabs 2 days ago.

Fish look good. Flukes are gone, gills are not swollen, and none of the fish are flicking their furniture anymore. However, I know the meds don't kill the eggs, so I was going to treat again today after a 25% WC. Does this sound right? And for how long should I do this? I was thinking a week. At the end a 50% WC and add charcoal to the filter?

Thanks!

**frank_zappa** · 02-08-2010, 08:15 PM

prazi-pro is a good medication to treat gill flukes because it does not harm your biological filtration and is considered to be very safe. it is a liquid form of praziquantel....

i think the eggs can be around for 5 days or so but i dont know a whole lot about them. i think their life cycle is dependent on tank temperature, similar to ich...so the temps of the tank may affect your course of treatment. i know white clouds prefer cooler temps so that may force you to treat for longer?? oh and this isnt a disease it is a parasite.

**Tanichthys** · 02-08-2010, 10:53 PM

Thanks Zappa. I've already begun treatment with the jungle tabs, which have praziquantel, so I think I'll keep with this medication for now and see if it works.

My concern is that I will overtreat by dosing every 2 days (even though that's what the package recommends) so I'm tempted to run the filter with charcoal for a few hours before I add the next dose. Any thoughts?

I can't find anything online about the specific life cycle of this little buggers. Just that they're not easy to get rid of.

Thanks for any thoughts--or just general tips about treating disease (like charcoal, water changes, etc).