Tons of flukes, will Prazipro kill my fish because of it?

[lba4590]

I guess I underestimated the amount of flukes my 2 fish had (they’ve been in QT going on 3 weeks, my last 2 survivors after uronema....). I put them in a sterile tank 2 days ago I believe, and wanted to make sure they were settled in and eating well before dosing prazi.

Just dosed about an hour ago, slightly under 1/2tsp (10g tank) due to wrasses being sensitive and OMG there are so many flukes twitching around on the bottom of the tank, it’s crazy. My wrasse immediately reacted poorly but I read that can be normal with a bad infestation (swimming erratically, twitching, flashing). Within 5 minutes or so he was acting more normal, but now he’s turned his typical stress colors lying on the bottom of the tank breathing heavily and fast. Blenny is also striped and pale but breathing ok. I have a huge air stone and a HOB filter, entire tank is filled with bubbles.

Could the wrasse be so heavily infested with flukes that the Prazi is killing him? Or could it be the prazi itself? Should I try to do a water change? Thanks in advance.

 

[HotRocks]

I guess I underestimated the amount of flukes my 2 fish had (they’ve been in QT going on 3 weeks, my last 2 survivors after uronema....). I put them in a sterile tank 2 days ago I believe, and wanted to make sure they were settled in and eating well before dosing prazi.

Just dosed about an hour ago, slightly under 1/2tsp (10g tank) due to wrasses being sensitive and OMG there are so many flukes twitching around on the bottom of the tank, it’s crazy. My wrasse immediately reacted poorly but I read that can be normal with a bad infestation (swimming erratically, twitching, flashing). Within 5 minutes or so he was acting more normal, but now he’s turned his typical stress colors lying on the bottom of the tank breathing heavily and fast. Blenny is also striped and pale but breathing ok. I have a huge air stone and a HOB filter, entire tank is filled with bubbles.

Could the wrasse be so heavily infested with flukes that the Prazi is killing him? Or could it be the prazi itself? Should I try to do a water change? Thanks in advance.

It is likely not the prazi itself that is the problem. Unfortunately the Prazi causes the worms to spasm violently when its is introduce before they die off. So with a super heavy infestation the spasming of the worms could have caused gill damage. The way you can prevent this in the future for a heavily infested fish is to perform a FW dip for five minutes prior to prazi treatment. This will gently remove "most" of the attached worms letting prazi take care of the rest. Hopefully he will snap back but I am afraid the damage may already be done.

 

[lba4590]

It is likely not the prazi itself that is the problem. Unfortunately the Prazi causes the worms to spasm violently when its is introduce before they die off. So with a super heavy infestation the spasming of the worms could have caused gill damage. The way you can prevent this in the future for a heavily infested fish is to perform a FW dip for five minutes prior to prazi treatment. This will gently remove "most" of the attached worms letting prazi take care of the rest. Hopefully he will snap back but I am afraid the damage may already be done.

Thank you, that was my fear I did a FW dip on them yesterday and after 5 mins or so I really didn’t see that many flukes come off, so I didn’t think it was as bad as it was. I guess they were just hanging on tight. Was really not expecting to see so many, bet next time I will definitely do a FW dip right before the prazi.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Is this a bare bottom tank? I’m trying to reconcile that you did a FW dip and didn’t see flukes fall off the fish, but after the prazi treatment, you saw things twitching at the bottom of the tank. I’ve seen the opposite: seeing dead flukes after a FW dip, but seeing twitching flukes, hanging off the fish after prazi.
One big issue with bad fluke infestations is that each fluke acts like a cork. If you kill them all off at once, the fish can literally bleed out. In severe cases, I’ll give the fish a 2 minute FW dip to try and just knock off some of the flukes, then wait a day and repeat, then wait another day and start the prazi .
Jay

 

[lba4590]

Is this a bare bottom tank? I’m trying to reconcile that you did a FW dip and didn’t see flukes fall off the fish, but after the prazi treatment, you saw things twitching at the bottom of the tank. I’ve seen the opposite: seeing dead flukes after a FW dip, but seeing twitching flukes, hanging off the fish after prazi.
One big issue with bad fluke infestations is that each fluke acts like a cork. If you kill them all off at once, the fish can literally bleed out. In severe cases, I’ll give the fish a 2 minute FW dip to try and just knock off some of the flukes, then wait a day and repeat, then wait another day and start the prazi .
Jay

I saw 5 flukes after the dip, 2 of which turned opaque on the fish but didn’t fall off - I didn’t want to do too long of a dip so I put them back in the tank and hoped they’d fall off. I don’t know how many but have seen far more after the prazi treatment. I’ve attached a video, not sure if it will work, but you can see a few flukes twitching by the wrasses tail.

 

[lba4590]

Is this a bare bottom tank? I’m trying to reconcile that you did a FW dip and didn’t see flukes fall off the fish, but after the prazi treatment, you saw things twitching at the bottom of the tank. I’ve seen the opposite: seeing dead flukes after a FW dip, but seeing twitching flukes, hanging off the fish after prazi.
One big issue with bad fluke infestations is that each fluke acts like a cork. If you kill them all off at once, the fish can literally bleed out. In severe cases, I’ll give the fish a 2 minute FW dip to try and just knock off some of the flukes, then wait a day and repeat, then wait another day and start the prazi .
Jay

Here’s a picture of the blenny after his first FW bath about a week ago, photo taken at 5 mins, and you can see the flukes were still attached

 

[vetteguy53081]

Here’s a picture of the blenny after his first FW bath about a week ago, photo taken at 5 mins, and you can see the flukes were still attached

Yep - flukes. Hate to say but dip again. You dont want them falling off in your tank to reproduce.

 

[lba4590]

Yep - flukes. Hate to say but dip again. You dont want them falling off in your tank to reproduce.

I think it’s too late at this point right? Seems like they’ve all come off after the prazi? And won’t the prazi eventually kill the ones that have fallen off?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I think it’s too late at this point right? Seems like they’ve all come off after the prazi? And won’t the prazi eventually kill the ones that have fallen off?

It should

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I think it’s too late at this point right? Seems like they’ve all come off after the prazi? And won’t the prazi eventually kill the ones that have fallen off?

One round of prazi won’t kill the eggs if they are egg layers. You’ll need to retreat in 10 days and then a third time 10 days after that.
Jay

 

[lba4590]

It is likely not the prazi itself that is the problem. Unfortunately the Prazi causes the worms to spasm violently when its is introduce before they die off. So with a super heavy infestation the spasming of the worms could have caused gill damage. The way you can prevent this in the future for a heavily infested fish is to perform a FW dip for five minutes prior to prazi treatment. This will gently remove "most" of the attached worms letting prazi take care of the rest. Hopefully he will snap back but I am afraid the damage may already be done.

Amazingly, his color has returned (kind of) and he ATE! Still breathing hard (not fast) but hopefully this means there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.

I swear this group of fish has been sooo hard on me. Fairy/flasher wrasses are some of my absolute favorite fish and so far I’ve had 2/3 die on me. One to a broken jaw/mouth, one to uronema, so I’m really, really rooting for this guy. My fiancé thinks I’m losing my mind checking on these guys every 30 mins. But I’m taking this as a learning process, already writing down my day by day QT process for the next batch lol.

 

[lba4590]

Sadly the wrasse is now dying of something unrelated. He survived ich, uronema, flukes and subsequent treatment, and now he appears to have a swim bladder issue, decompression issue, or spinal injury. I’m wondering if it’s the uronema in his spine (I’ve read about that happening but know next to nothing about it). He’s swimming in sort of a “C” shape, struggling to not tumble around with the current, head up tail down. I don’t think there’s much hope for him. So upsetting because we were in the home stretch!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Sorry to hear, there are a couple of recent threads with these wrasses acting like this, not sure of the cause. Uronema definitely can live internally, I’ve never heard of it involving nerve tissue, but could be...
Jay