"Advanced" internal parasite treatments for DPs?

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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Steelgeek
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"Advanced" internal parasite treatments for DPs?

Post by Steelgeek »

So internal parasites (ips) are a big problem with the dps I have been getting from Petsmart. I have been trying for quite a while to figure out a way to treat them, and which medicine to use.
So, here are some thoughts of mine, does anyone have anything to add?


1) Medicines - known dewormers
Great Link for info

Praziquantal - available as Prazipro at a 5% solution

Levimisole - The active ingredient in an older dewormer. THe company went out of business however. However options are out there:

Link


panacur - I have some from a prescription from our vet, used for dogs.

Metronidazole - many folks swear by this, not sure where to get it.


2) Treatment

The best way to deworm is orally, usually by food. The biggest problem I've had with this is that IME DPs won't eat medicated food.

So a bath or immersion so that they can absorb it through their gills, perhaps.

Parasites and osmosis -
A well known treatment for certain external parasites is adding salt, which mucks with their osmosis regulation, basically dehydrating them.
What about IPs? What would a change in osmosis do there, considering FW fish don't drink and SW fish drink constantly?
Also, how would osmosis affect medication absorption? Can it be used or avoided in bath/immersion with meds?

What are peoples thoughts and theories on this?
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Post by Pufferpunk »

I was just thinking this morning--what happened to your list of puffermeds?
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

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Steelgeek
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Post by Steelgeek »

Pufferpunk wrote:I was just thinking this morning--what happened to your list of puffermeds?
When my hard drive died it went with it :-(
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Post by Feathers&Fins »

SteelGeek wrote:When my hard drive died it went with it :-(
That totally bites!

You can purchase 25 grams of Metronidazole Powder for $11.25 @ http://www.fishyfarmacy.com. If you just want a little to experiment with I can send you some. Although, receiving a little baggie of white powder in the mail might raise some eyebrows… :wink:
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