Medicating corys...

[ginagv]

I don't know where else to put this, so if a mod can move my question about medications to the right place, I would appreciate it. My question is this.

I have noticed my fish in my 20 gal aquarium, occasionally scratching themselves (flashing) on the edges of some slate I have in the tank with them. I examined them and see no external evidence of any disease, no wounds, bumps or spots. I think there is a parasite to blame. With this in mind, I want to treat the tank with some PraziPro. I know that corys are very sensitive to chemicals and medications, so I was wondering if PraziPro is safe for them. In the tank are also cherry barbs, Otocinclus and a trumpet snail that arrived as a stowaway on a live plant.

Any help would be appreciated, as I don't want to cause any damage or kill anything other than the parasites that don't belong there.

thank you in advance,

Gina

[MatsP]

Praziquantel, the active ingredient in PraziPro is an antihelminthic (removes internal parasites, particularly worms), which is known to be very gentle with fish, so I don't see any problem with your fish, and I'm pretty sure the trumpet snails will be OK too. Having said that, ALWAYS read (and understand!) the instructions and check for yourself that it's OK with the creatures in your tank before using any medication.

I just want to make sure that we're talking about real flashing, and not just "common itching" - just like us humans, fish sometimes needs to "scratch themselves" because they have an itch, and the way fish do that is by flashing. It is normal for fish to do this now and again, but if you see them constantly flashing (as in every time you look at the tank for more than a few minutes, you see one or more fish flash), then there is a problem.

We don't have a specific forum about medication, because it's such a complicated subject, and it highly depends on the fish in your tank. So, if it's about medicating a tank with corys, then this is the right place to post. The other place, if it's more a generic question about medicating your tank, would be in "Tank Talk".

I will edit the title of this thread, as it may improve the chances of someone else who knows/are interested in medication of corys to read and comment.

--
Mats

[ginagv]

I got a bottle of the PraziPro and will add the medication on Saturday.. The instructions say to let it stay for a week before changing the water... I will do my normal water change, add the medications and take the carbon out of the filter for the week. After that time I will again do a partial water change and add the carbon back in. Hopefully the one dose will do it.

I love having this board to lean on. Not even my husband understands my infatuation with this little charmers, but I don't care!

Gina

[ginagv]

Hi again,

Please!! I am desperate for help. Last saturday as planned, we did the partial water change, gravel clean and took the carbon out of the external filter. We carefully measured the proper dosage of the PraziPro and we were going to let it stay for the week, do another 50% water change, clean the gravel and put the carbon back in the filter. Well.. 5 hours after introducing the medication, I look over.. and everyone is doing fine.. the cherry barbs, the Otos, my c. julii.. but my c. elegans are clearly dying. They were listless, the fins were clamped, breathing hard.. I could just tell they were in trouble... They are, Im ashamed to admit, my favorites in the tank.. they have so much personality and are so close.. but I digress.. In a panic, we did a 60% water change and put the charcoal back in the filter.. the female recovered first and started acting more normal in a couple hours.. the male, however, took longer to respond.. almost a day. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I was very scared and upset that I had killed my fish!...

It is now Wednesday and everyone is behaving normally, except they are all still scratching on the slate rocks.. Please... what can I do to get rid of these parasites?

Gina

[corypandas]

Hi,
Have you had your water parameters tested recently? High nitrates can cause flashing. How often do you change your carbon? It should be replaced every 2 weeks at the most because after that it will re-release chemicals back into the tank. Another cause for flashing is external paracites so a half dose of trichlorfon can be affective. I would first replace your carbon and then get your water tested at your local fish shop.I am a vet nurse and can tell you in Australia we only use Prazi for internal worms. Best wishes,

[MatsP]

I don't believe activated carbon releases anything adsorbed - it obviously doesn't adsorb any MORE material once it's been saturated, but the re-release of the material is minimal,as stated here (and other trustworthy places on the internet): http://www.algone.com/aquarium-articles ... ted-carbon

Once the activated carbon has been used up the re-release of the adsorbed substances back into the aquarium is minimal.

--
Mats

[MatsP]

Further, I would make sure the medication has a chance to run it's course. Five hours is not the duration the medication should be used for.

I think checking the nitrate levels in the tank is a good thing to do, as is checking nitrite and ammonia levels. But also check the KH levels. If KH drops too low, then it's entirely possible that the bacteria in the filtration system suffers as a follow-on.

I would also try to ascertain WHAT the parasite is. Try to get help from someone locally that is familiar with fish and their illnesses - it is almost impossible to "see" what the problem is with ill fish "over the internet" (unless it's a very obvious symptom, like white spots, growths, visible worms, etc). Depending on what the actual illness is, you may need to adjust what medication is being used.

--
Mats

[ginagv]

Hi thank you for all the advice.. I know that 5 hours was no where near enough time.. my fear was that those 2 cories were dying... and I sort of freaked out.. Stripey (the male) and Spelunky (the female) are my favorites in the tank.. and I just got intent on saving them from what I felt was the medication making them worse... I could not believe how, well, sick they looked.. the other fish in the tank were all behaving normally. I know that cories are very sensitive to chemicals and we do do weekly water changes.. I will go out and get a better test kit though.. mine is just one of those unreliable test strip kind. I have inspected them closely and can see nothing external.. no wounds, spots, growths..

Gosh I sound like a nervous new mother taking her baby to the doctor dont I?

Gina

[Coryman]

Hi Gina,

After reading through the posts I would say that if there is indeed a parasite infecting your Corys, it is one that is on the surface of the skin. I the case of Corys it is almost impossible to see such animals, because they can only reach the skin by getting under the body scutes and to be honest there are very few parasites that affect Corys. Wild fish can and often do carry internal worms and I always treat any new wild fish with a anti worm treatment. The other problem area are flukes, there are skin flukes (livebearing) and gill flukes (Egg laying), these can and do make Corys flick.

I am not sure what products you have for this in the USA, but I would tread your tank with a propriety fluke remedy.

Ian

[ginagv]

Thank you Coryman for the advise. My question then becomes what medication for fluke can I give them safely? I know they cannot handle anything say... copper based.. is there something there that you would use that I could perhaps try to cross reference for here in the USA?

I just want to get it right..

Gina

[MatsP]

I don't know what Flubendazole based medication you can get in the US, but that is the active ingredient you are looking for on Gill Flukes.

--
Mats

[Coryman]

Kusuri have a product called total wormer, not sure if it is available in the USA though. The active ingredient is Flubendazole.

I would check with your LFS to see what they recomend.

Ian

[ginagv]

thank you very much everyone for your recommendations!

Love when I can talk to people who share my love for corys

Gina

[ginagv]

Hi

I got my new API Freshwater Master Test Kit today and immediately set about testing everything.

Recalling I have
C. Elegans
C. Trilineatus
Cherry Barbs
Otocinclus
and 2 MTS that stowed away on a plant I bought

my results are:

Ph 7.5
Ammonia 0.0-0.25 was hard to tell
Nitrite: 0.0
Nitrate:40

My water temp hovers around 77-79 f.

The fish are still occasionally flicking.. its not a persistant thing.. no body is rubbing a wound into themselves trying to get something off. I checked around for flubendazole and it is not available here in the USA. After the prazipro incident I'm a little hesitant to give them any chemical treatment.

Would perhaps a more natural treatment be good for all the fish in the tank.. For example, how about Indian Almond (catappa)leaves? Would all the occupants in the tank tolerate that?

thank you all again,

Gina

[PanzerFodder]

Hi

I used this to treat an Angelfish that I thought was sick, "Jungle Labs Parasite Clear" http://www.junglelabs.com/pages/details.asp?item=TB635
http://www.bigalsonline.com/Parasite-Cl ... tc=default
I also had about 9 small corys in the tank at the same time and they did not mind it one bit.
I just checked my box and it says that it's effective against gill flukes, as well as some other stuff, you should have no problem getting hold of it in your area as jungle labs are based in Texas.

Hope that this was usefull, cheer's...PanzerFodder...

[MatsP]

Gina,

what is the nitrate level of your tap-water. 40ppm isn't very high, but if your tap-water is much lower level, then I'd suggest making more frequent and/or bigger water changes. Lower nitrate is ALWAYS better (until it's so low that the plants start to suffer from lack of nitrate).

--
Mats