Para-Cide

[schoemana]

Hi - I am concerned that my seahorses (H.Reidi) may have external parasites, as they seem to be scratching themselves on the artificial rocks I have in the tank. I would like to treat the whole tank, as all three my ponies are doing this. I have found a product here in Australia called PARA-CIDE from Blue Planet and was wondering if anybody could confirm that this is safe for seahorses? Each tablet contains 20mg Trichlorfon and the recommended dose is one tablet per 40 liters.

I have a 200 liter Tank (Jewel) with internal heater, filter and skimmer, as well as an external canister filter and chiller. There are only three sea-horses in the tank, with a couple of snails.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi - I am concerned that my seahorses (H.Reidi) may have external parasites, as they seem to be scratching themselves on the artificial rocks I have in the tank. I would like to treat the whole tank, as all three my ponies are doing this. I have found a product here in Australia called PARA-CIDE from Blue Planet and was wondering if anybody could confirm that this is safe for seahorses? Each tablet contains 20mg Trichlorfon and the recommended dose is one tablet per 40 liters.

I have a 200 liter Tank (Jewel) with internal heater, filter and skimmer, as well as an external canister filter and chiller. There are only three sea-horses in the tank, with a couple of snails.

Trichlofon/Dylox is pretty potent stuff, and you need to be careful handling it (I stopped using it years ago because of that).
I have never dosed seahorses with it, but it does cause reactions with sharks and rays and lionfish.
Personally, I wouldn’t use it on seahorses unless I had a confirmed infestation of leeches or copepods. Otherwise, I would use praziquantel.
Jay

 

[schoemana]

Thank you - I have arranged for a consultation with a vet. The distributor in Australia confirmed your advice - so thank you again.

 

[Shorething]

Have you thought of a freshwater dip?

 

[schoemana]

Have you thought of a freshwater dip?

Hi - yes - I did consider doing a Freshwater Dip however, as all the ponies are scratching, my vet made the recommendation to treat the whole tank with Formalin. We are using a very low dose (0.5ml / 40 Liters) and so far it does seem to be working.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

How are the seahorses doing?

 

[schoemana]

How are the seahorses doing?

Hi Krista.
Thank you so much for asking. They are doing so well now. No more scratching at all and we will definitely look at doing this whenever we notice them scratching.

 

[las]

Hi - yes - I did consider doing a Freshwater Dip however, as all the ponies are scratching, my vet made the recommendation to treat the whole tank with Formalin. We are using a very low dose (0.5ml / 40 Liters) and so far it does seem to be working.

So what did you use? Regular formailin? Do you have a link? After reading your post, i saw a seahorse "scratching". Sounds crazy i know.