Hi everyone,
I just started quarantining a baby hippo tang from my LFS on Friday. The tang is less than two inches long or so, but it's in a 20g long QT tank right now and eventually it will go into my frag tank before I have to rehome it to a larger tank. I saw at the store that it was healthy for a couple weeks and was eating, but didn't sell. It seems really healthy and active, except I noticed some scratching this morning, which makes me think of flukes immediately. Here is what I know about the fish, what was occurring at the LFS, and what medications/treatments that I have on hand:
- Many of the tangs in that system at the store have flukes
- The system was treated with paraguard within the past few weeks
- The tang is very healthy, except for the scratching I observed today
- The tang eats pellets, flakes, frozen food, need to try nori and caulerpa as well
- I have prazipro, ruby reef rally pro, copper, focus, freshwater dips, and antibiotics
The only complication here is that I am leaving for vacation on Thursday for a week (Not ideal, but there was another person who suddenly wanted to buy the hippo, so I purchased it early). What is my best course of action to treat the flukes or potential disease while I am gone? I will have an automatic feeder that feeds pellets and flakes, and some caulerpa in the tank as well for algae grazing. I have two oversized sponge filters and a powerhead in the tank, with additional ceramic rings for biological filtration. Should I perform a freshwater dip to check for flukes/relieve any symptoms? I want to treat with prazipro or rally pro, but I don't know if I should do it before, during, or after vacation?
Any advice is appreciated, thanks for taking the time to read this and reply!
I just started quarantining a baby hippo tang from my LFS on Friday. The tang is less than two inches long or so, but it's in a 20g long QT tank right now and eventually it will go into my frag tank before I have to rehome it to a larger tank. I saw at the store that it was healthy for a couple weeks and was eating, but didn't sell. It seems really healthy and active, except I noticed some scratching this morning, which makes me think of flukes immediately. Here is what I know about the fish, what was occurring at the LFS, and what medications/treatments that I have on hand:
- Many of the tangs in that system at the store have flukes
- The system was treated with paraguard within the past few weeks
- The tang is very healthy, except for the scratching I observed today
- The tang eats pellets, flakes, frozen food, need to try nori and caulerpa as well
- I have prazipro, ruby reef rally pro, copper, focus, freshwater dips, and antibiotics
The only complication here is that I am leaving for vacation on Thursday for a week (Not ideal, but there was another person who suddenly wanted to buy the hippo, so I purchased it early). What is my best course of action to treat the flukes or potential disease while I am gone? I will have an automatic feeder that feeds pellets and flakes, and some caulerpa in the tank as well for algae grazing. I have two oversized sponge filters and a powerhead in the tank, with additional ceramic rings for biological filtration. Should I perform a freshwater dip to check for flukes/relieve any symptoms? I want to treat with prazipro or rally pro, but I don't know if I should do it before, during, or after vacation?
Any advice is appreciated, thanks for taking the time to read this and reply!