Purple tang has flukes :(

[THE WOOKIE]

So i did a FW dip for a minute and saw them at the bottom of the bowl, they looked like tiny clear dots. I want to treat him with prazi but i am not sure if it will mess with my inverts and coral. Any ideas besides copper and hypo in a QT tank? As a last resort i can set up my 29 but that is very small for a 3 inch tang.

 

[Yariel0527]

Hey I just treated my tank like a month ago with prazi and everything it's ok IMO every system it's different but in mine everything still alive even my shrimps...

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[Andy V]

Considering hypo and copper don't work for flukes, I wouldn't start there There are several kinds of flukes, and there are three treatments. The most experienced people I know use all three methods, because flukes can be hard to see even if there are there, and to the best of current knowledge, only if you do all three treatments will you cover all known strains of flukes. The treatments are:

Freshwater dips
Prazi
Paraguard (or Formalin)

Usually people go in that order. If you are actually interested, let me know and I can help you through, I know things got out of hand in your other thread with a bunch of misinformation, but hopefully you've figured out who/what you want to rely on for info at this point.

BTW, is this the same purple tang that had ich?

 

[THE WOOKIE]

yup same one. It is doing better and recovering slowly from the ich but yesterday i saw it spazzing and frantically breathing, then it would stop and look fine. I did a bit of research and decided it may have gill flukes so i did a FW dip just to see if some would fall off and they did. I had to use a magnifying glass just to see them at the bottom of the bowl.

 

[Andy V]

I would do two more freshwater dips followed by prazi. With the behavior you are describing, you are getting close to the end...good thing you did the FW dip. Hopefully the fish isn't too far gone.

 

[THE WOOKIE]

Can i get Prazi from the vet or do i have to order it online?

 

[Andy V]

Order it online or a lot of stores carry it. Remember...DO NOT DO MULTIPLE TREATMENTS simultaneously! Do the FW dips, and then after a few days begin the prazi. I would just order it from Amazon because you don't need to start it immediately since you are in the middle of the FW dips.

 

[THE WOOKIE]

So my ro waters ph is at 7.9 and my tank water is at 8.2, how can i raise the ph of the FW without a ph buffer?

 

[Andy V]

The water should be aerated with an air stone for at least an hour...if that does not work, then you have to use a buffer. Matching the temp and ph is critical

 

[acrofragger]

baking soda baked for 30-1 hr measure and use calculator

 

[Andy V]

Keep in mind that in a small container, the amount you need will be VERY small

 

[THE WOOKIE]

I am having second thoughts about another FW dip. Think it will stress the fish out more?

 

[acrofragger]

your fish probly just still has ich in his gills and is gasping ,and you keep stressing him out by relieving the ich with the fresh water dip and then it getting right back in his gills when he goes back into the ich infested tank . really should just try and take the preventitive measures instead a moving him around

hope this helps in some way

 

[THE WOOKIE]

i just noticed a spot on the fish that has no spots at all.How can the rest of the fish be peppered with dots but one spot be bare?

 

[Andy V]

Ok. Let's stop everything right now. You are all over the place here.

If you are seeing white spots then the fish has ich. Ich can infect one fish and not others, because fish can build a temporary immunity. The fish does not need to be covered in white spots either.

Stop the freshwater dips for now. Do the copper treatment, using Cupramine and NOTHING ELSE. If you use anything else, everything will die. You will need the seachem copper test as well. Once you get those two items, let us know and we will walk you through the process. Do it fast because if your fish is already gasping, it's going to die very soon without treatment. It still may be too late, so if the fish dies, don't blame the treatment.

 

[THE WOOKIE]

It was only gasping for 2-3 mins. It looked like it had something stuck in its mouth and it was trying to spit it out. That is why i did the freshwater dip, i read that that was a sign of gill flukes. Afterwards i took a look in the bowl with a magnafying glass too see if any had dropped off and i could see the large (compared to what i think are the flukes) white ich spots, and smaller almost clear dots. The RC thread i was reading said that those are the flukes, not sure how reliable that info is.

 

[niftyjosh]

If they were flukes, you would not need a magnifying glass to see most of them.

In past exp, it takes more than a few minutes for them to die from a fw dip and the entire time they wriggle and squirm like crazy.

If one fish had flukes, and you are positive they are flukes, you better start doing a whole tank treatment or do the right thing and have a qt from the get go.

 

[Andy V]

Ok. First, you need to actually develop a plan. What you are doing now is going to kill your fish rather than help them. Seeing as you can't figure out what your fish actually has (it's not always clear because diseases and symptoms are similar), you should focus on what is most likely. The two most common diseases in our tanks are ich and velvet. Both of these are cured using the same exact medicine and method, which is copper.

Your fish will not live long with velvet, but it can go awhile with ich or flukes. My recommendation would be to treat with Cupramine for 14-21 days, followed by a week of observation. It might make sense at that point to move to other treatments, but let's get to that point first.

BTW, velvet and ich are easily passed to every fish in the tank while flukes are not. I would definitely do the copper.

Also, what is in your display tank right now? You have to have EVERY fish out of the display and in quarantine, otherwise you are doing this all for nothing and totally wasting your time.

 

[livewire]

Where did you get the tang from out of curiosity??

 

[THE WOOKIE]

Where did you get the tang from out of curiosity??

It came from NYaquatics.