Help: fluke treatment compatible with coopersafe

[tenurepro]

Hi all, so I gave two wrasses in therapeutic levels of coopersafe. I ramped up the levels slowly. Last couple of days, one wrasse seemed out of it and appeared to have jerky convulsive movements. I thought perhaps that he was not tolerating copper. Did a FW dip on a hunch and indeed I found lots of flukes coming out of his gills.

So what should I do now? I gave prazi pro and general cure on hand. Can I mix them with coopersafe ? Should I do 100% water change and start prazi ? Should I continue doing fw dip till copper treatment is done?

Not sure how to proceed - would appreciate your advice! Thanks!

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

You can combine the two just make sure you have heavy surface agitation because Prazi will quickly deplete the water of oxygen. If I ever have to mix I try to use GC and the Prazi dose is a little lower and less likely to have issues. Either way heavy surface agitation will be key to success.

 

[HotRocks]

GC is much safer to mix with copper. Less likely to cause a bacterial bloom.

As mentioned by @Frtdrmrose7 oxygenation is very important when combining meds.

 

[tenurepro]

Ok, i'll try. Just curious, Are there merits to just stopping copper and running GC or prazi on their own ... i was only using copper prophylacticly

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Ok, i'll try. Just curious, Are there merits to just topping copper and running GC or prazi on their own ... i was only using copper prophylacticly

How long has the fish been in copper?

 

[tenurepro]

3 days at therapeutic levels with a 5 day ramp up

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

3 days at therapeutic levels with a 5 day ramp up

You can safely run General Cure with copper, if you choose to stop copper and run Prazi alone I would strongly recommend still running copper for 14 days after if you transfer to a sterile tank or 30 days if you don’t. Wrasses can carry ich, velvet, etc without showing symptoms because of their slime coat. You could put them in your DT and effectively infect your tank with velvet from a healthy looking wrasse. I will say from experience I only run copper on wrasses for 14 days at 1.75 ppm then transfer to a sterile tank because some can be sensitive to meds.

 

[tenurepro]

Ok - thanks. Well if there is no risk with running general cure and coopersafe than that would be the best option. Thanks for the advice

 

[HotRocks]

3 days at therapeutic levels with a 5 day ramp up

If I were in your shoes, I would just add the GC to the copper.

Much easier and less of a risk than removing the fish from copper for the prazi treatment.

Other option is to continue FW dips as needed for relief until fish are through copper and dose two rounds of prazi or GC post copper.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

^^^^^^+1

 

[Pbh-reef]

I lost a wrasse to flukes recently- in similar circumstances. I’d recommend treating with GC during copper. Whatever you decide I wish you luck! Keep us posted, I’d love to learn from your experience.

 

[tenurepro]

thanks all; going with GC.. i'll keep you updated

 

[tenurepro]

Ok - did a fw on the other wrasse as well and a couple of flukes came off. Dosed GC... I’ll keep you updated

 

[dwest]

Hi all, so I gave two wrasses in therapeutic levels of coopersafe. I ramped up the levels slowly. Last couple of days, one wrasse seemed out of it and appeared to have jerky convulsive movements. I thought perhaps that he was not tolerating copper. Did a FW dip on a hunch and indeed I found lots of flukes coming out of his gills.

So what should I do now? I gave prazi pro and general cure on hand. Can I mix them with coopersafe ? Should I do 100% water change and start prazi ? Should I continue doing fw dip till copper treatment is done?

Not sure how to proceed - would appreciate your advice! Thanks!

So the only clue your fish had flukes was the jerky movements of the wrasse? How obvious were the flukes during fw bath? I’m contemplating doing this to my QT fish now. Thanks.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

So the only clue your fish had flukes was the jerky movements of the wrasse? How obvious were the flukes during fw bath? I’m contemplating doing this to my QT fish now. Thanks.

Flashing, yawning, jerking of the head, heavy breathing etc are all signs of flukes. If you do the FW dip and keep it just under 5 min in a dark container you’ll see opaque sesame seed looking things come off.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/flukes-–-general-guidelines.224423/

 

[Pbh-reef]

Flashing, yawning, jerking of the head, heavy breathing etc are all signs of flukes. If you do the FW dip and keep it just under 5 min in a dark container you’ll see opaque sesame seed looking things come off.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/flukes-–-general-guidelines.224423/

For me the symptoms were gill twitching and head spasms, suppressed appetite and decreased activity

 

[tenurepro]

So the only clue your fish had flukes was the jerky movements of the wrasse? How obvious were the flukes during fw bath? I’m contemplating doing this to my QT fish now. Thanks.

having done several FW dips without seeing anything obvious, today's dip on the pintail was something else; i was able to obviously see small round opaque masses coming off the fish - mostly the gills. i think he had a really heavy infestation. He seemed really healthy and eating when i got him last Wed. the fish' activity dwindled over the past couple of days - i assumed that it was the coppersafe that was making him 'off' until i notice the jerky movement and scratching on pvc pipes today. I have two wrasse in my qt right now. the pintail has been looking on his death bed ever since the FW dip, the other one seems ok - hiding but ok. If the pin tail dies, i am not sure i can blame the GC given that he looked bad coming off the dip

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

If the fish doesn’t survive the FW dip he was probably not going to survive anyways. Im hoping he pulls through, but this is why I FW dip all fish as they go into QT.

 

[tenurepro]

One other question; For GC - am i doing based on instructions on the box (1 packet per 10 gallon; repeat dose (1 packet per 10 gallon) after 48 hours, then do a 25% water change...
thanks,
amro

 

[HotRocks]

One other question; For GC - am i doing based on instructions on the box (1 packet per 10 gallon; repeat dose (1 packet per 10 gallon) after 48 hours, then do a 25% water change...
thanks,
amro

Follow the instructions on dosage. Except wait 5-7 days between doses instead of 48 hours.

The reason is praziquantel only kills live worms. Worms in the incubation stage are not terminated. So you have to give them enough time to hatch in order for the second dose to be successful in erradicating flukes. Hence the 5-7 day gap.