heres my dilemma:

parasite clears box is somewhat unclear about treatment. if i am teating for flukes, what would be the best method? also, is it safe for use with plants?


i have a dojo loach and an albino cory that are in the same tank as my comet (lurch). i think my comet has flukes. actually, im convinced. i put the two other fish in with my comet after the symtoms seemed to cease. at the time, i was ignorant and thought they had "gone away". yeah, i wish! the cory and the dojo have never even come close to exibiting any symtoms. ever! theyve been in with lurch for about 2 months too!they have all been through 2-3 malachite green/formalin tretments. i didnt have a hospital tank then. thats my only reason for keeping the other two in there.

my water params have been perfect. aside from keeping my nitrates below 40-50. with my new addition of plants, it should get easier.

can you use parasite clear on corys or loaches? if so, should i keep them in with lurch and treat the whole tank (just in case)? or, should i put my dojo and cory in the q-tank and treat lurch and his tank?i dont want to infect the q-tank but, i also want whats best for my fish!

anybody have any experience with any of these variables? im lost.

I used parasite clear with corys, they didn't seem to mind it. Also my plants don't seem to mind it either. If you are sure (or reasonsably sure) its flukes, medicate the tank, then medicate again after 7-10 days (to get the eggs?? or so I hear.. can't remember the reason). Some people recommend doing it 3 times, every 4-5 days. But for sure medicate them again after at least a week.

I would personally dose the whole tank, parasite clear seems pretty safe in my limited experience. Make sure to take out the carbon!

that sounds about right because flukes are actually born with embryos already inside of them. and, those embryos also have an embryo inside them! but im still a little unclear on the treatment.

what does one treatment consist of? 1 tablet every 7-10 days and then repeat for 3-4 weeks? maybe longer (ive read that flukes can take a while to eradicate/supress)? could you be a bit clearer for me? im sorry, i just want to be sure.

When I treated my tank for flukes with Parasite Clear I did this:
Day 1 - 2 tabs (for a 20 gallon)
Day 5 - 2 tabs
Day 9 - 2 tabs
Day 16 - 2 tabs

That's one dose every 4 days for 3 doses, then I dosed once more after a week (partly for safe measure, partly to use up the meds).
After that point I did a couple water changes, and then added a 0.3% salt concentration to the tank for a week....just to be extra sure.
Anyways, after all this, 2 of my 3 fish look great....the third though is definitely looking better....he was sick for a long time, so he may just still be healing.

Good luck with the treatment!

Also, remove the carbon, and be sure that the tank is well airated.
I also had no problem with my cycle using this med...so you shouldn't have to worry about that.

hiya bubblegoose ,

so your babies arent scratching anymore? what about the one that is still a little ill? is he scratching? do you see any scratching at all, anymore? scratching, scratching, scratching..........sorry, i went out on a rant there. these little buggers are hard to beat and if you arent seeing anymore scratching then there might be hope for lurch yet! i really do appreciate the help! that last treatment of mg/f only seemed to do the trick temporarily. hes back to scratching quite often! poor lurch. im gonna git them varmints! its either them or me and i aint givin up that easily! @!#$&% flukes must die.....every last one of them! ill kill em all! let me at em! put me in coach! woah, sorry! i went out on another tangent. *counts to ten while taking deep breaths

I treated with parasite clear for anchor worms, did the same as bubblegoose, but did 25% water change in between adding the tabs.

It seems to work fine, I actually only had to treat twice...

Didn't mess up my cycle either.

But be careful, if your ph fluctuates, it can mimic the appearance of parasites also. My fish started flashing, and I thought oh no, what parasite do they have now, but it turned out to be a reaction to a water change with lower ph water than was in the tank. Thank goodness I checked and figured it out before unnecessarily medicating!

Laura

Toothless - you're hilarious! I completely sympathize with you. I've been fighting those freakin' flukes for months now. My fish do look better now though. The little one still gasps a bit, but the scratching is definitely all but gone...I occasionally think I see him doing it, but I'm hoping that's all in my head.

Anyways, as Starsmom said, you should do a 25% water change before each treatment, I forgot to mention that.

Good luck!

thank you all for the quick replies. i added the first treatment about 2 hours ago and within 30 minutes he stopped scratching, so far. anyway, im really counting on this working for him because its driving me batty! not to mention lurch! i just want to reach in there and give him a good scratching under the gills and on his sides like you would any dog with fleas.