Purple tilefish acting off

[Brah02]

You are likely seeing flukes which often affect gills, increase breathing rate and reduces appetite. In this case, I recommend Prazi Pro (ONLY) - no other meds and apply the dose at 85% of recommended and apply initial dosage known as an interval for 8 days, do a water change and do one more 8 day dose interval
Use airstone with prazi as it does reduce both oxygen and appetite.

I can get Prazi pro but it looks like quickest shipping is end of week. I read on another post here that API General Cure also has praziquantel and I can pick it up today. Would you still suggest waiting for Prazipro?

 

[Brah02]

I too Do Not trust the alert badge also designed for freshwater use and less reliable once in medication. Its like using test strips. There has been enough medication administered that you can hold off coppersafe for now and stability is ok to use as its also a water conditioner although I favor Amquel which reduces nitrates. If a disease is present , its cycle is active for at least 21 days and we recommend 30 days- not good recommendation by LFS. Observe fish for now and add stability to power filter on a sponge or filter pad. Assure carbon is removed from filter pad which will remove copper and other medications.
Is fish eating today?

Yes, as soon as we did the freshwater dip he got more energy and was swimming around, we fed him and he ate everything up immediately.

A little background, I bought these fish, put them in QT, and about 2-3 days later I had an ick outbreak in my display tank. So I was forced to set up a second QT, which thankfully everyone in there is doing well. The issue is now I am going fallow in my display tank. So the tile fish, and his other 4 QT friends are stuck in a 20G long for another 60 ish days.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Just an update, I did a freshwater dip last night, a bunch of "sesame seed" looking white things came off in 5 minutes. We dipped the other three fish and nothing. I'll grab some API general cure today and treat the whole tank. I'll keep an eye on all three. The purple tile did immediately look way better so I am sure that it is Flukes now.

The large flukes that you can see without a microscope are body flukes, they don’t cause rapid breathing. However it is possible for a fish to have body and gill flukes at the same time.

Here is a recent post I made on dosing PZQ:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dosing-praziquantel-pzq.1105700/

 

[Brah02]

The large flukes that you can see without a microscope are body flukes, they don’t cause rapid breathing. However it is possible for a fish to have body and gill flukes at the same time.

Here is a recent post I made on dosing PZQ:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dosing-praziquantel-pzq.1105700/

Would you suggest this instead of general cure?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Would you suggest this instead of general cure?

No - it may have binders and excipients that could cause unwanted side effects, I would jus use General Cure.

 

[drdwl]

I’ve had this purple tile in QT for about two weeks now. He’s been pretty active, always hanging middle/top of the tank. The last two days he will swim around, twitch, then sink down and rest at the bottom for a bit then do it again. Is there something wrong? Just did a water change too. There’s 3 other fish in there qt’ing with him (white tail bristle tooth, dottyback, and a purple firefish) that are all acting normal. He still eats like a pig. Threw in boiled peas today just in case he needs some fiber but just wanted to ask the community.

I love these guys. Have had 4 of them through the yrs. Out in the open, They normally do twitch due to the body shape - Trying to act like an eel to ward off predators. When they have more natural hiding places they will not twitch as much. They love garden worms and squid pieces. Most important to check his breathing to make sure it is not more than 1 per second. Cover the tank and monitor for ammonia esp.