Internal parasite treatment with inverts and coral

[mattybecks]

Hi guys,
New on this forum and to saltwater, but have been keeping and breeding freshwater fish for many years now. I decided 2019 was the year I was going to try my hand at marine and I can really understand now how different, interesting and captivating it is. I spent/spend a lot of time researching and reading past posts on this forum which have helped tremendously, so thanks for that!

So to my first question - I have set up my first marine aquarium. A 1m long, 170L tank (I think this is around 40gal) with about 12 - 13kg of live rock (I got some of the last avaliable live rock from the LFS display tank before LR was banned here). Got more than enough filtration and consistent stable parameters. I can give more detail if needed. Got some new purple coralline algae growth on the LR, and loads of interesting life forms coming of out the LR that I didn't realize was there. But thats beside the point.
The current stock is now at
6 red legged hermit crabs
4 blue legged hermit crabs
2 cleaner shrimp
2 ocellerious clownfish

I only have soft corals for now, a bunch of mushrooms and Xenia both of which have been doing splendidly these last few weeks.

My question is what internal parasite medication can I use for the clowns, that won't harm the various life (tiny crustations, little worms, fan like trumpt things etc ) in my live rock, my corallime algae, my corals or my inverts..
I have always used API general cure in my freshwater tanks, but I believe metronidazole is not safe for soft corals or inverts...
I only recently added the clowns, and last night I noticed one piece of their fecal matter that had a white part attached to a clear stringy part then the brown part. As I mentioned they are new additions, and other than the poop, seem healthy, curious and ready to take food. They aren't skinny and look to be perfectly normal. But I would rather hit any internal parasites sooner rather than later..

On another note I was thinking of adding 2 firefish gobies (I believe two is the way to go) and an azure damselfish or a coral beauty. What are your thoughts on this? maybe you have other recommendations?

 

[Big G]

Welcome to R2R! You could consider feeding General Cure + Focus directly to the fish in very small amounts. Keep a turkey baster handy to remove any uneaten food from the tank.
Firefish are great additions but they don't do well in pairs. Eventually one will punish/kill off the other.
Check out the Sapphire Damsel. Very good fish to keep in small schools. Beautiful coloration and great tankmates. Peaceful too. Most damsels are pretty aggressive but not the Sapphire.
Coral Beauties are so nice looking. They do much better in a mature tank. They are grazers. They hunt and peck around for food. New tanks are too barren for them and they can literally starve to death, wearing themselves out looking for food to eat.

 

[mattybecks]

Welcome to R2R! You could consider feeding General Cure + Focus directly to the fish in very small amounts. Keep a turkey baster handy to remove any uneaten food from the tank.
Firefish are great additions but they don't do well in pairs. Eventually one will punish/kill off the other.
Check out the Sapphire Damsel. Very good fish to keep in small schools. Beautiful coloration and great tankmates. Peaceful too. Most damsels are pretty aggressive but not the Sapphire.
Coral Beauties are so nice looking. They do much better in a mature tank. They are grazers. They hunt and peck around for food. New tanks are too barren for them and they can literally starve to death, wearing themselves out looking for food to eat.

Thanks for your insight and feedback. It is much appreciated. Ill keep and eye out and do some research on the Sapphires!

 

[Katrina71]

New Life Spectrum makes a pellet food called Hex Shield for internal parasites. The whole line is great!

 

[mattybecks]

Thanks Katrina! Ill check out the LFS today for these. Although the clowns now seem to be ok and back to normal. Maybe it was related to stress when being newly introduced into the tank. Do these sort of things usually go away when the immune system bounces back?

 

[Katrina71]

I'm not 100% sure about that. I've read some posts that have led me to believe that they can be a long term issue without constant symptoms. I would guess the fishes immune system suppresses them. I do think sometimes stool changes are environmental with a sudden change in diet.

 

[Lasse]

I only recently added the clowns, and last night I noticed one piece of their fecal matter that had a white part attached to a clear stringy part then the brown part. As I mentioned they are new additions, and other than the poop, seem healthy, curious and ready to take food. They aren't skinny and look to be perfectly normal. But I would rather hit any internal parasites sooner rather than later..

IMO - stringy white poop is not automatically a sign of internal parasites as diplomonads (hexamite like flagellates) - it can be but in that case it is - IMO - always in connection with other indications like - dark colour, fish get shy and it have stop eating. The white stringy thing is just the mucus from the intestine and many conditions can make fish excrete that, starving is on cause and other things - like stress - that irritate the digestive tract too. See this thread.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[mattybecks]

IMO - stringy white poop is not automatically a sign of internal parasites as diplomonads (hexamite like flagellates) - it can be but in that case is - IMO - always in connection with other indications like - dark colour, fish get shy and it have stop eating. The white stringy thing is just the mucus from the intestine and many conditions can make fish excrete that, starving is on cause and other things - like stress - that irritate the digestive tract too. See this thread.

Sincerely Lasse

Thank you! This is quite insightful.

 

[Jrsyhomegrown87]

New Life Spectrum makes a pellet food called Hex Shield for internal parasites. The whole line is great!

I was looking into this product as i use the regular non medicated pellets already. Is the HEX shield safe for a tank loaded with corals as well as fish?