Advise needed

[soumendu]

Hello Carl 

I hope you are doing great . Its been sometime that i posted anything here, but as i always tell - this is the only site where i come to whenever i need some help either for myself or my aquatic friends (disease related). I cannot count the number of times - it has saved my fishes. 

Recently i had been having a very bad time with one of my tanks - i mostly keep Discus , a little bit of shrimps (separate two tanks for them) and tetras. 

One good news - i had finally succeeded in breeding Discus (although had not been able to keep all the fries - had my learnings since it was my first time) and have 5-6 babies who are more than 3 inch size now. 

I had recently been facing a major outbreak in a 200 litre tank (where i keep my baby Discus along with neons , rummy nose , minnows) and had been fighting an ichh attack (i saw spores - powder like - first appearing in my tetra's) which suddenly in a span of 2 days infected my Discus with cloudy eyes , whitish mucus like over their body , clamped fins etc (the Discus never showed ichh or maybe i missed it). I first treated with kanamycin + nitrofuran - but since it did not help - i later resorted to Potassium Permangante baths/dips after which most of my Discus regained (but i lost 2). 

Meanwhile i lost all my neons (which were in my tank for over 6 months). 

After that i followed a tank treatment with Sulphamethazol for 4 dosages - but although my Discus are fine and eating vigorously - i am still seeing rummy nose tetra's now dying (these were about 3+ years in my tank). Today i started in tank Paraguard + Metronidazole treatment. 

i was going through your awesome medication pages again (i have been revisiting those sections - every other day now i think) and i came across Naladixic Acid as a treatment - but was not able to find the dosage for it (except the  AAP Naladin product which i have no way to procure). 


I think i can manage some over the counter human medicine (tablet form) which has Naladixic acid in it but am not sure what the dosage would be. 

Would be really grateful if you can let me know about the same. 
 

symptoms which i could observe are :

1. gills cover inflamed or open up 
2. It seems like i can see their gills opening / closing
3. Some black neons show whitish patches in their stomach (sorry don't have a pic)
4. It is as if they are having a bit laboured breathing
5. Sudden death of rummy nose tetras

I am not much used to seeing or catching symptoms in small fishes (larger fishes - its easier i feel) - so not sure if this will help.

On another note - i really also had bad time with Discus babies seeming getting gill problems - had tried PP baths (which sometimes work) , fluebendazole (some branded product) , API General cure (contains prazi i think) - but it seems to come back (though i have completed the treatment dosage to the best of my abilities and understanding). i am not even sure now if its gill flukes or some other parasitic / protozoan disease - but its certain that their gills become inflamed and they have laboured breathing  and the infected ones also did show a sunken body (maybe internal parasites ?). 

I had even tried Dylox - but it came back again after a few weeks. 

I was lucky to find piperazine citrate and am waiting for it to arrive (should be in a day or two). 

If you can shed some valuable advise for this - it would be of immense help

Best Regards

Soumendu

[Carl]

The Paraguard + Metronidazole treatment is a good idea based on your earlier issues/losses.

As for Naladixic acid, this 250-300 mg per 10 gallons with a water change after 24 hours

If you had success with Dylox, I would consider repeating. Piperazine is for internal parasites, generally not for gill parasites

Carl

[soumendu]

Thank you Carl for your valuable advise.

For Naladixic acid - how long should be the treatment ? From the reference of Naladin - its just one dosage ?

I am continuing with Paraguard + Metronidazole ...i lost 2 more rummy nose today - but i guess that was nothing i could have helped (too late in the game). I am hoping it will arrest the situation and prevent further escalation.

I had considered getting Piperazine - because some of my baby fries were sunken , weak (like internal parasites symptoms).
Also www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquatronics.html#pipzine talks about it being much superior to Parazi (which seems to be given generally for de-worming - again i might be wrong). I understand it should be tank dosed as well as fed via food.

I hesitated to give Dylox - because the fry's were too young - so i resorted to PP baths with lowest strength (4ppm strength).

For general adult Discus - what should be the de-worming process ? I do not give them live food , but feed them mostly with Australian Black worms and DIY Goat heart meat - and i never followed any continuous de-worming process. I have a feeling - that i am not doing that right. If you can please provide your guidance on a regular frequency with what all medicine to administer (mostly i used metronidazole once in a while) - so that i can consider my Discus free from external and internal worms.

Thank you again for all your help !.

Regards

Soumendu

[Carl]

*Generally one dose of Naladixic acid, but sometimes I've used two

*Piperazine is definitely more effective than Praziquantel from my experience

*Dylox can be hard on fry, but then Potassium Permanganate is a very strong oxidizer and is just as hard if not harder on fry

*As de-worming, live food is not needed.
See these articles:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Medication.html#food_delivery
www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2007/03/trematodes-and-nematodes-in-fish.html

Carl

[soumendu]

Thank you Carl !