skin flukes....yet another joy of reefing

[OceanicCorals-Ian-]

Hi Christy,

Flukes suck and it looks like you Butterfly has a real bad case of it.

I would do my best to try and catch it and treat it seperatly.

The picture indicates that the flukes has attacked the gills and is probably causing respitory problems for the fish.

My experiences with flukes is that all Butterflys and Angels should be treated with Prazi Pro (Praziquintal) as they are the most common fish to have flukes.

It will take several dippings to get rid of all the flukes but I am not sure how many treatments is necessary to rid of it all in the DP.

I use Prazi to dip monti eating nudis as well so they are not harmful to Montis unless it is used in a high dosage.

Please try to catch it with a clear plastic container to avoid any more stress, best bet is to use a fish catcher if you have one.

I dip my fish with R.O. water buffered to the appropriate PH level and temp as the DP and generously dose Prazi into the the quarintine tank.

I use an air stone to add extra oxygen because my dips are generally about 20 mins long. Please monitor the fish because if it looks like it is laying down on it's side and not swimming; this is not a good sign and immediately remove it and put it back into the DP or isolation chamber (sump) if you have one.

Your fish looks like it might not do so good with a full fresh water bath so maybe you can take some DP water and fresh RO and lower the salinity to about 1.012 and dose Prazi.

There might be some secondary infection due to the flukes eating away at the fish; so if you can find some Methylane Blue and treat it at the same time with Prazi. Make sure that the water is a nice deep blue and MAKE sure to use an air stone as Methylane blue robs the water of oxygen.

You will need to do this for about 3 days but usually after the first dip if the fish is strong enough; it will start eating again.

If it doesn't, that means that the flukes have attacked it's gills and the fish in unable to feed.

Flukes suck and in my personal experience, it is grossly under diagnosed and I believe that a lot of Copperbands end up dying because people are not able to identify what the cause of the death really was.

So for everybody reading this, please dip all Angels and Butterflys with Praziquintal or Prazi Pro. You will be amazed to see how many flukes are on them that are not visible to the naked eye.

Symptoms of flukes are:

Jerking of the head left to right (like the fish is trying to shake something off).

Cloudy eye (in one eye typically).

Heavy breathing (flukes attacking the gills).

Tattered Fins (flukes eating away at the fish).

Not eating (fish is too stressed out to eat).

Emaciated look and eventual death if the fish isn't treated properly for this monster fish killer.

I hate flukes if you can't tell and they are ugly little things that make my skin crawl every time I see them.

Do yourself a favour and have Prazi Pro on hand all the time. JL has the best price for them IMO.

Thanks.

[christyf5]

Thanks for the info Paul. I decided not to catch the fish out of the display as it would just be too much stress on him. He was stressed out just with me standing in front of the tank taking pictures. I found some prazipro and dosed the tank this afternoon. I was just down feeding the tank now (he's eating even more than he was yesterday) and the majority of the flukes are already gone except for a few on his tail and one or two on his eye. There is a bit of residual looking damage to his side where it looks a bit raw and abraded but I think as long as I can keep him eating he'll likely be fine.

To be honest, after my last QT fiasco I can't really say I was overjoyed at that option and decided to give the tank treatment a go, esp since the other fish were "potentially" infected or at least exposed to the flukes.

Successful so far! The bottle says treatment for 5-7 days so I'll likely let it go for 5 or so then run carbon and do a waterchange.

[OceanicCorals-Ian-]

Glad to hear that he's eating!!

Keep an eye on the secondary infection. It can turn into a bacterial infection quickly and that's not good.

I would feed him often in small quantities so that he has the energy to fight both the fluke and the infection. Do you soak your food in vitamins? If not maybe try doing that and also some garlic guard as well.

Ich tends to rear it's ugly head at this stage as well.

I hate to be a downer and I just want you to know and be prepared just in case.

He's eating is a great sign of recovery.

What is the temperature in your tank?

[christyf5]

Yep I soak my food in garlic, no selcon to be had around here. Currently the tank is about 77-78. I think thats about as low as I want to go. He seems pretty active so hopefully with the extra feedings he'll recover fine

[OceanicCorals-Ian-]

Great Job Christy!!

You know what you're doing.

You don't need me

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by OceanicCorals

Great Job Christy!!

You know what you're doing.

You don't need me

LOL, I only sound like I know what I'm doing Its nice to have you here though for the support!

[Marlin65]

Any update on this I think my clown might have it looks like the same thing?
Not as bad but looks like there is one on her.

[christyf5]

Took about 4 days for the last "suspect" to fall of the raccoons tail. After 5 days I did a 30 gallon waterchange and started running carbon. Everything in the tank is A-OK and fluke free!

[JDigital]

That's good news christy! Congrats

[Delphinus]

Hmmm, bumping this. Looks like I have to find me some Prazipro. Where can one find this? Most LFS's? I'm about to go looking now..