Quarantining from Dr. Reef

[Gone Reefin’]

I have ordered my last few fish from dr reef. Here is my advice. If you are going to QT again, don’t use copper or prazi as he already has. Use a hypo treatment for 30+ days to get past any possibility of prazi resistant flukes.

Know this will void the warranty, but for me it’s worth the “risk”. I’ve done this with every one of my fish from him and have not lost one yet.

 

[jonelder68]

Thanks for mentioning this. Can you tell about your source? One issue with Prazipro depends on the tanks ability to degrade it thus making it ineffective. At least some articles state that this is the major problem (or misdoing or some other problem with the medication). I believe the the recommendation here is to do an additional treatment (i.e. 3), If there is an issue @Jay Hemdal

Believe Jay even mentioned some flukes are getting through Prazi treatments and his new recommendation is hyposalinity. The other fish medic forum has mentioned multiple cases of flukes after Prazi treatments as well.

My case of it is was my own doing as I fully trusted Dr. Reef on being clean. He saw my post about loosing my diamond goby and just sent a free one/well 3! One was DOA and the other two seemed off. I’ve ordered every fish from Dr. Reef and still do! But this surprise free fish caught me with QT tank shut down for cleaning/sterilizing so I just added the two to DT. Both died within days! Following that both my tangs started flashing, scrapping, and then full lethargic. They passed away a week or so later regardless of treatments in QT. I then dosed DT with prazi for two treatments and confirmed flukes were gone with aquabiomics dna test. All remaining fish are doing good months later now.

Dr. Reef replaced all fish lost plus I think gave me a discount on an additional fox face added on. I don’t blame Dr. Reef in any way. As vetteguy stated “it’s on us” and against better judgement added them knowing something was off. QT is never 100% guarantee so again I highly recommend observation/acclimation in a remote tank. Shipping is stressful etc and things can pop up from it.

But I highly recommend Dr. Reef even today! Minus the gobies every fish has arrived healthy, fat, energetic. It makes the process so much easier! Plus he stands behind his fish and will make it right always! I’ve been ordering from his affordable aquaria lately and just doing my own 30 days of copper and 2 prazi treatments with zero loses and healthy clean fish. Helps they are received in super healthy shape! His affordable aquaria fish are already dewormed and believe bacteria treated but for my sanity I perform another QT process as I’m reaching my last fish additions.

But I need to read more into hyposalinity treatment to full understand it and the process. It’s the sure thing from what I’m hearing. That will be the process going forward once I know how to implement it.

 

[DmitryB]

How would people do hyposalinity in a separate tank? Put the fish at 1.025 and then gradually lower it so they acclimate over time?

 

[me & my baby]

No matter where you get your fish from you should always QT before going into the main display.Either passively or actively . I have never order from DR reef so I cannot speak on his practices but things happen, things can slip by , You are trusting someone else with your tank .

 

[mmorrison55]

Have you asked him what he recommends? He may not honor the warranty if they end up dying while in your QT.

I’ve bought QT fish from him and have gone straight to the display. I’ve had
No problems with fish from him that survived the trip. I did have one doa on my 1st order and he made it right on my next order.

 

[MnFish1]

Believe Jay even mentioned some flukes are getting through Prazi treatments and his new recommendation is hyposalinity. The other fish medic forum has mentioned multiple cases of flukes after Prazi treatments as well.

My case of it is was my own doing as I fully trusted Dr. Reef on being clean. He saw my post about loosing my diamond goby and just sent a free one/well 3! One was DOA and the other two seemed off. I’ve ordered every fish from Dr. Reef and still do! But this surprise free fish caught me with QT tank shut down for cleaning/sterilizing so I just added the two to DT. Both died within days! Following that both my tangs started flashing, scrapping, and then full lethargic. They passed away a week or so later regardless of treatments in QT. I then dosed DT with prazi for two treatments and confirmed flukes were gone with aquabiomics dna test. All remaining fish are doing good months later now.

Dr. Reef replaced all fish lost plus I think gave me a discount on an additional fox face added on. I don’t blame Dr. Reef in any way. As vetteguy stated “it’s on us” and against better judgement added them knowing something was off. QT is never 100% guarantee so again I highly recommend observation/acclimation in a remote tank. Shipping is stressful etc and things can pop up from it.

But I highly recommend Dr. Reef even today! Minus the gobies every fish has arrived healthy, fat, energetic. It makes the process so much easier! Plus he stands behind his fish and will make it right always! I’ve been ordering from his affordable aquaria lately and just doing my own 30 days of copper and 2 prazi treatments with zero loses and healthy clean fish. Helps they are received in super healthy shape! His affordable aquaria fish are already dewormed and believe bacteria treated but for my sanity I perform another QT process as I’m reaching my last fish additions.

But I need to read more into hyposalinity treatment to full understand it and the process. It’s the sure thing from what I’m hearing. That will be the process going forward once I know how to implement it.

Yes - I believe it's been discussed, and the solution is doing 3 Prazi treatments as compared to 2. One also has to be careful with too many natural substrates that can hold bacteria that can degrade Prazipro.

 

[jonelder68]

Yes - I believe it's been discussed, and the solution is doing 3 Prazi treatments as compared to 2. One also has to be careful with too many natural substrates that can hold bacteria that can degrade Prazipro.

The “other fish forum” has even done 5 doses without killing off flukes. So not sure Prazi is effective. I plan on adopting Jays hyposalinity going forward.

 

[MnFish1]

The “other fish forum” has even done 5 doses without killing off flukes. So not sure Prazi is effective. I plan on adopting Jays hyposalinity going forward.

I think this is a fine idea - it should do well with Ich or flukes. Just remember that hyposalinity does not prevent velvet nor cure it.

 

[jonelder68]

I think this is a fine idea - it should do well with Ich or flukes. Just remember that hyposalinity does not prevent velvet nor cure it.

Though I say that but yet a double dose/double round cured my DT of the flukes with prazipro. Confirmed with aquabiomics dna test. So it seems what passed through was treated with my dosing of prazipro. Proper 7-8 day dosing.

I’ve just read through multiple sources there’s a fluke passing through prazi. Possible there evolving and overcoming it? I don’t know we’ll have to wait on @Jay Hemdal and what he thinks. The “other fish medic forum” has discussed it and seems so. Rarer but seems it’s becoming more frequent.

Agree I would do copper treatment first as velvet is the quick/instant killer and then follow up with hyposalinity. I need to read up on it as I don’t fully understand the procedure and timelines with it. Jays articles are like Randy’s for me…hard to process/understand. I need a translator

 

[lawdawg11]

I never want to talk bad about people in the business, but i was pretty frustrated with my dr. reef experience. I got several fish, spent around 3k, says that most were in stock already quarantined but shipping still took 3 months almost 4. It was a brand new tank, i had bought a new display and even though i had good luck with fish before, i for some reason was determined to keep all disease out but in a lazy way where i wouldnt quarantine myself, so i thought i would pay a little premium for dr. reef. Well long story short, got velvet, was an absolutely miserable several months of watching fish die in a quarantine i had to make anyways that i was trying to avoid and a very long fallow phase. he did re-ship like 3/4ths back but i was constantly surprised by how poorly thriving the fish arriving were.

 

[christinna77]

Here's my own experience with prazi-resistant Neobenedenia fluke (confirmed with a FW dip).

This was in a new clean quarantine tank, so the biofilter shouldn't have had any medication eating bacteria in it yet.

I brought two fish home and noticed they were already shaking and twitching their heads. I dosed the recommended amount of GC three times pretty much right away, 6-7 days apart. The fish looked okay for a few days, but then the head shaking and twitching came back.

After that I dosed pure prazi powder twice, 5 days apart. They were still shaking their heads and twitching.

Shortly after I found one fish got really sick almost overnight - breathing heavily, with slime over its head and one cloudy eye. I was sure it did not have flukes after all the meds, but I did a FW dip anyway, and it revealed at least 20 that dropped off the two fish...

I started hyposalinity after and it looks like it did the trick, but the jury's still out since I had to cut the treatment period a bit short (20 days at 1.010-11) because of a work trip.

I've treated flukes successfully with prazi and GC before, so I'm pretty confident my doses were right. These ones were just really REALLY stubborn.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

How would people do hyposalinity in a separate tank? Put the fish at 1.025 and then gradually lower it so they acclimate over time?

Here is an overview on running hyposalinity:

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2024 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Here's my own experience with prazi-resistant Neobenedenia fluke (confirmed with a FW dip).

This was in a new clean quarantine tank, so the biofilter shouldn't have had any medication eating bacteria in it yet.

I brought two fish home and noticed they were already shaking and twitching their heads. I dosed the recommended amount of GC three times pretty much right away, 6-7 days apart. The fish looked okay for a few days, but then the head shaking and twitching came back.

After that I dosed pure prazi powder twice, 5 days apart. They were still shaking their heads and twitching.

Shortly after I found one fish got really sick almost overnight - breathing heavily, with slime over its head and one cloudy eye. I was sure it did not have flukes after all the meds, but I did a FW dip anyway, and it revealed at least 20 that dropped off the two fish...

I started hyposalinity after and it looks like it did the trick, but the jury's still out since I had to cut the treatment period a bit short (20 days at 1.010-11) because of a work trip.

I've treated flukes successfully with prazi and GC before, so I'm pretty confident my doses were right. These ones were just really REALLY stubborn.

Just to clarify - the term "prazi resistant flukes" gets bandied about quite a bit in the forums. However, true chemical resistance has not be observed. What happens is a combination of bacterial degradation of praziquantel by heterotrophic bacteria along with the eggs not being affected at all by prazi, and it has been documented that a single egg can restart a Neobenedenia infection.