2 fishes died within an week, help needed.

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Small update;

Found a tank second hand with everything needed to start a reeftank, a hobbiest stopped taking care of one. Just finished setting it up, added the eSHa gdx and the rest of the fishes. Not using a skimmer, I do use a spongefilter (without carbon), an airstone, heater and a wavemaker.

Midas was swimming the whole time at the top 1/3 of the tank, trying to breath at the surface and saw him hitting the sand couple of times. I hope this treats them all.

Worst part, I'm leaving for 4 days . Neighbor will add the remaining dose, on day 2 and 3. Already warned him, the tank is an Intensive Care tank. I do hope some of them survive.

My question;
Is it correct that i need to keep it isolated for atleast 21 days? Or longer?
Any other tips or something I forgot?

And ofcourse, many thanks for the help so far!

Yeah, leaving during a treatment is tough.

Sorry, I thought you were going to treat your display. That works best because it stops the fluke life cycle. Otherwise, you’re going to need to leave the tank fishless for 30 days for the flukes to die out.

I’m concerned about a couple of things - does this treatment tank have any biological filtration? If not, the ammonia level is going to spike, and will harm the fish. Also, I don’t like their treatment spacing - that’s designed for freshwater livebearing flukes. For marine egg laying flukes, you should dose 3x, each dose 7 days apart.

 

[Docthrox]

Yeah, leaving during a treatment is tough.

Sorry, I thought you were going to treat your display. That works best because it stops the fluke life cycle. Otherwise, you’re going to need to leave the tank fishless for 30 days for the flukes to die out.

I’m concerned about a couple of things - does this treatment tank have any biological filtration? If not, the ammonia level is going to spike, and will harm the fish. Also, I don’t like their treatment spacing - that’s designed for freshwater livebearing flukes. For marine egg laying flukes, you should dose 3x, each dose 7 days apart.

Thank you for your reply, i added a sponge filter (added bacteria to it), but prob wont be enough. Ill transfer a bag with ceramic beads from my main tank ( which were there from the start) to the quarantaine tank. I was thinking of adding seachem, but it binds to the medication too, so wont help.

Does the esha bind to the beads and leak out if I put it back at the end of the treatment?

So marine fluke treatment needs to be 3x every 7 days? With the treatment added every first 3 days?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thank you for your reply, i added a sponge filter (added bacteria to it), but prob wont be enough. Ill transfer a bag with ceramic beads from my main tank ( which were there from the start) to the quarantaine tank. I was thinking of adding seachem, but it binds to the medication too, so wont help.

Does the esha bind to the beads and leak out if I put it back at the end of the treatment?

So marine fluke treatment needs to be 3x every 7 days? With the treatment added every first 3 days?

STOP! There is some issue with the name of the drug that you have and its ingredients. I have a printed formulary from www.bsavalibrary.com that says that eSHA gdex is praziquantel. However, some of your comments about dosing and binding to a substrate doesn't sound like praziquantel. I ran an AI search and got two DIFFERENT results! One says that this is praziquantel (reef safe) but the other says is it copper and formalin (not reef safe).

This is the safe product:
https://eshalabs.com/products/esha-gdex/#ABOUT

 

[Docthrox]

STOP! There is some issue with the name of the drug that you have and its ingredients. I have a printed formulary from www.bsavalibrary.com that says that eSHA gdex is praziquantel. However, some of your comments about dosing and binding to a substrate doesn't sound like praziquantel. I ran an AI search and got two DIFFERENT results! One says that this is praziquantel (reef safe) but the other says is it copper and formalin (not reef safe).

This is the safe product:
https://eshalabs.com/products/esha-gdex/#ABOUT

i think its the same one, correct me if i'm wrong. Also asked the LFS where i bought it from. She said it was the right one.

The manual does state that its not save for shrimps or other corals etc. Also, AI does state to not use the biomedia back in the display tank, as it could seep medicine back into the tank and might kill of the corals/shrimps/snails.

What is your (or others experience with it)? Thankyou again.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

i think its the same one, correct me if i'm wrong. Also asked the LFS where i bought it from. She said it was the right one.

The manual does state that its not save for shrimps or other corals etc. Also, AI does state to not use the biomedia back in the display tank, as it could seep medicine back into the tank and might kill of the corals/shrimps/snails.

What is your (or others experience with it)? Thankyou again.

The issue for me is that I don't use that product here in the US. If it is 100% praziquantel, then it is safe to use in reef tanks with all invertebrates at a dose of 2 to 2.5 ppm

 

[Docthrox]

The issue for me is that I don't use that product here in the US. If it is 100% praziquantel, then it is safe to use in reef tanks with all invertebrates at a dose of 2 to 2.5 ppm

Understandable, i'll just keep the stuff of the quarantainetank separate. And hope the fishes gets treates right. Will keep it updated.

 

[Docthrox]

An horrible update;

Most of the fishes didnt survive;

Only 1 fire fish went back to the main tank, however still in doubt if it was fluke or not, did 2 treatment with the medication (2 sessions of 5 days).

The midas died on the 12 of june. After first treatment.

Today; first a firefish (not skinny) and then a kardinal (looked a but skinny, but was eating day before). Checked the parameters, there was no ammonia to be found.
Temp 25.8
Sg 1.025
3 days prior, 75% waterchange.

Thinking maybe the quality of older second hand pumps (Rust?), because I had to buy it quick.

Also, do you guys know what that little bump is on the side of the firefish?

I'm at my wits end. Had 7 fishes, and left with 1. Hope the last one survives.
I wont be getting new fishes till everything settles. Thats for sure.

 

[Gregory Stephens]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I had some difficulty trying to evaluate the issue from the Reddit thread, it would be better to start fresh. Here is a post that explains that:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...sease-treatment-and-diagnosis-section.775547/

Sometime this just happens. Difficult to explain why.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

An horrible update;

Most of the fishes didnt survive;

Only 1 fire fish went back to the main tank, however still in doubt if it was fluke or not, did 2 treatment with the medication (2 sessions of 5 days).

The midas died on the 12 of june. After first treatment.

Today; first a firefish (not skinny) and then a kardinal (looked a but skinny, but was eating day before). Checked the parameters, there was no ammonia to be found.
Temp 25.8
Sg 1.025
3 days prior, 75% waterchange.

Thinking maybe the quality of older second hand pumps (Rust?), because I had to buy it quick.

Also, do you guys know what that little bump is on the side of the firefish?

I'm at my wits end. Had 7 fishes, and left with 1. Hope the last one survives.
I wont be getting new fishes till everything settles. Thats for sure.

Sorry to hear. The photos of dead fish are tough to use as a diagnostic tool, but that doesn't look like flukes. Rust from the pump is unlikely to have been an issue. The midas blenny looks thin.