I've got Flukes, Help!

Sawdonkey

Sawdonkey

Premium member
So I bought some anthias a few weeks ago, quarantined them, and then put them in the DT. They looked fine in qt, got harassed for a couple of days in the DT, and then behaved normally. I noticed my pbt, tusk, and picasso trigger are flashing and rubbing their sides on the sand. There are no signs of ich. Believe me, I know what it looks like. I talked to the LFS guy and he told me it may be flukes and to do a fresh water dip to one of the new anthias. If it's flukes, you'll see them come off the fish almost immediately.

So, I chased my male anthias around the tank for about 30 minutes and finally caught him. I put him in a gallon baggie with freshwater. Almost immediately, flukes started peeling off of him and coming out of him. There were at least 30-40 of them. They looked like sesame seeds (I'll try to get a pic of them in the baggie). Problem diagnosed! Now what?

From what I read, Prazipro is the go to treatment? I still have my old 90 gal setup with lights, skimmer, heater, etc. I could set this up pretty easily for a QT. However, my fish are pretty big and I'm not sure how long they will be able to take it in this tank. I'm also reading mixed info on the amount of time the DT needs to go fallow.

I've read that Prazipro can be used with corals with little ill affects. Do I dare just treat the DT (I know this is generally a no-no). I've barely got any coral and my fish are much more important to me than a small hammer, a small frogspawn, and a toadstool leather.

Any advice or experiences you could share would be greatly appreciated.
 
ive used prazi pro in my sps tank only lost one scallope and that could of been coinsindece . i have no clue if u can clear flukes with prazi though? maybe maybe not read the bottle
 
I've done a bunch of research on Prazipro and I've decided to treat the DT. I know this generally thought of as a bad idea, but I've read a bunch on it, weighed my options, and made the decision. I've read a lot of good things about this stuff and its ease of use.

I've ordered the Prazipro from Aquacave, but I don't think it will arrive until tomorrow or Wed. I'd like to start treatment tonight because my fish aren't happy. Does anyone know of an LFS that sells this in the City (not burbs)? Or, does anyone reading this have any spare Prazipro they could lend me? I'd be happy to replenish your supply once mine arrives.
 
Sawdonkey said:
I've done a bunch of research on Prazipro and I've decided to treat the DT. I know this generally thought of as a bad idea, but I've read a bunch on it, weighed my options, and made the decision. I've read a lot of good things about this stuff and its ease of use.

I've ordered the Prazipro from Aquacave, but I don't think it will arrive until tomorrow or Wed. I'd like to start treatment tonight because my fish aren't happy. Does anyone know of an LFS that sells this in the City (not burbs)? Or, does anyone reading this have any spare Prazipro they could lend me? I'd be happy to replenish your supply once mine arrives.
Click to expand...

Ocean design carries it
 
Most stores carry it. I'd just call whoever is closest to you. IMO, I would dose your DT since you have so few coral and it's reef safe. You will need to turn off your skimmer and remove all chemical filtration such as carbon. You can probably expect your nutrients to rise a little bit and may need to increase your wc's until the treament is done. Remember to add more prazi accordingly after wc's. Your 3 coral should be fine the treatment and/or increased nutrients. They may not be happy, but they wont' die. If you decide to setup another tank, then I'd just set something up small for the coral. This would be so much easier than catching all your fish.
 
Butterflies and angels have em all the time to so hard to catch cause u cant c until scratching and some times cloudy eye good luck man hopefully u caught in time
 
Thanks for the well wishes. I hope to have caught it in time before too much damage is done. It seems that every fish in my tank is affected, but no cloudy eyes yet. Everyone is eating like a pig still. The PBT is acting the craziest, but I've seen them all itching a little. From what I've read, the Prazipro starts to act almost immediately. People claim to see the flukes dropping off within 15 minutes after dosing.
 
Are you treating ALL the fish? I'm thinking you probably need to keep that DT fallow for a while, just like treating crypt.
 
I am presently treating for skin flukes in my fowlr, which are a bigger pita to treat than gil flukes because the skin flukes can hide under the scales where they don't get exposed to the water/prazi easily. As Joe mentioned it only effected some of my butterflys and my Regal Angel. The butterflys seem to get cured after a few days but the **** angel can't seem to shake them. I put the Angel in Qt with prazi and will leave him in there until I am positive he is cured, and then another couple weeks. (He seems to be the carrier that re-infested my tank after I thought I got them the first time.)

A fluke only lives for about a week and drops eggs which hatch out within 2 to 4 days. If the larvae doesn't find a host it dies and will die even faster swimming around in prazi water. So in theory, a 2 week treatment of prazi should rid the tank of all worms and freshly hatched larvae. Or if you leave your tank fallow then 2 weeks would clear the cycle.
I thought I killed them all but then they came back. This time I will treat once every 5 days for 15 days in my DT where the butterflys are and probably go at least another 10 days in the Qt for the angel.

The thing that stinks about the skin flukes is that they don't all come off in FW dips because they can hide between the scales.
 
I'm treating all fish in my DT. I found Prazi at a LFS and will begin tonight. Eric, do you think I should FW dip tonight too? It might provide some relief to get the adult flukes off the skin of the affected fish. Or do you think the stress of it will be more harm than good when combined with the introduction of Prazi?

There is another reef site that you've heard of that has a really good thread on Flukes. Google the words "Mysterious fish deaths are more common now. The reason why - FLUKES"
 
Sawdonkey said:
I'm treating all fish in my DT. I found Prazi at a LFS and will begin tonight. Eric, do you think I should FW dip tonight too? It might provide some relief to get the adult flukes off the skin of the affected fish. Or do you think the stress of it will be more harm than good when combined with the introduction of Prazi?

There is another reef site that you've heard of that has a really good thread on Flukes. Google the words "Mysterious fish deaths are more common now. The reason why - FLUKES"
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you wont get in trouble for naming other sites here.
 
They will be breathing fast, sometimes using only 1 gill, flashing off of rocks/substrate & often you can even see the "bugs" sticking out of their gills.
 
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