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aquatoid
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Originally I thought my silvertips were bullying on of their kind into stress and not eating until it wasted away. They did bully it, and it withdrew and hid away from the rest, not getting as good feeding opportunities. Now having had the fish for about a year, another one of the silvertips is wasting away. This time I have managed to catch and isolate it, along with another one that was exhibiting some odd behavior, seemingly the beginning of wasting away and withdrawing.

Oddly enough the fish that was only starting to show the signs of something being wrong ended up worse after isolation. Maybe the stress of being captured and lifted out (it was an easy catch, no chasing, just scooping it out) was too much and the fish just lay on the bottom of the isolation unit and has later died.

Water parameters (using a test strip so it's not exactly accurate):
NO3      25
NO2      0
GH        6
KH        6
CL2       0
pH        6,8 - 7,0  (I have a CO2 system and monitoring system that automatically opens the valve to adjust the pH)
Temp    22,3 - 23,5 degrees C or 71,6 - 73,4 F (I have a Fluval heater that shows the temperature at the back (hotter), and the other reading is from the temperature sensor of the CO2 computer near the electrode at the front)

Overall the symptoms I have been able to catalogue are isolation, emaciation, stringy poo hanging from the fish, dragging their tail when swimming, swimming near the surface, not being able to swallow food (the really skinny ones still went for the food, they just spat it out almost immediately) and lack of appetite (before isolation) on the one fish that died after isolation. In addition to the fish that clearly have been sick, it appears some of the silvertips are not growing even nearly as well as others. After about a year some are over twice the size of others. Which could also be something to do with parasites leeching away nutrients.

The tank is fairly large 525 liters (115,5 gallons) by outer measurements, but due to plants and rocks and driftwood the internal volume is a fair bit less. 

As far as I can tell, invertebrates and armored catfish and loaches tend to react negatively to parasite medication. I'm not that attached to the snails in the tank sentimentally, but obviously I'd like to avoid killing them if possible. Also there is the dread of about 10 billion malaysian trumpet snails rotting and polluting the water in the tank. I also have some cories and 3 albino spotted hoplos in the tank, and those I definitely don't want to lose. I also have a 15+ years old kuhlii loach I'd like to keep among the living.

Now, what to do? Fritz ParaCleanse doesn't appear to be available in my country. Esha -ndx is generally well recommended but might be harmful to the armored catfish. I could always just treat the sick fish separately, but that is just putting out fires instead of actually improving the conditions of the fish that most likely are all already affected by the parasites. On that topic, is it species related or should I assume all fish irrespective of species are infected?

Sorry if this is a bit of a mess, I tried to give all the relevant info I could think of. I'll give more if needed, obviously. The image is very much out of focus but I just couldn't get the camera to focus on the small fish that kept moving. As far as I can tell the skin is fine and healthy, It's more of an indication of behavior and overall wasted condition. Seems I can't add the gif to this post, I keep getting an 'unknown error' notification. So I attached a blurry still from a blurry video instead... The color on the image is off, the fish is silvery in real life.

image_2022-02-22_195004.png

Edited by aquatoid
weird spaces
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Looks like wasting disease. I recommend Levamisole (Expel-P) or Flubendazole. To be honest, I recommend Flubendazole significantly more, but it's harder to obtain, and harder to work with.

With Levamisole, you can dose the water column, though it may be more effective in the food, if the fish is eating. Flubendazole sees to be better absorbed by the gills, in the situations where the fish isn't eating.

The fish will starve, so my recommendation would be to act fast. I am saying all this having no knowledge of what you can obtain in your country.

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Due to limited availability of meds here on the fringes of Europe, I ended up choosing eSHa -ndx. 

According to the manufacturer (they replied quickly to my email query, which is always a nice sign in my opinion) it shouldn't cause any problems to armored catfish, so I dosed it today, and hope for the worms to be gone. Naturally another dose in two weeks time for the potential newly hatched worms.

None of the fish seem to behave in any way different from before, which is a good sign. 

Fingers crossed.

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On 2/24/2022 at 3:47 PM, aquatoid said:

Due to limited availability of meds here on the fringes of Europe, I ended up choosing eSHa -ndx. 

According to the manufacturer (they replied quickly to my email query, which is always a nice sign in my opinion) it shouldn't cause any problems to armored catfish, so I dosed it today, and hope for the worms to be gone. Naturally another dose in two weeks time for the potential newly hatched worms.

None of the fish seem to behave in any way different from before, which is a good sign. 

Fingers crossed.

If you dosing with Esha ndx active ingredient is levamisole I would do three courses of treatment 1 week apart that the best way to treat with levamisole

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On 2/24/2022 at 5:51 PM, Colu said:

If you dosing with Esha ndx active ingredient is levamisole I would do three courses of treatment 1 week apart that the best way to treat with levamisole

Thank you for the tip. 

As long as the fish seem like they can take it, I have no problem to add another course. I just want to get rid of these parasites for good and my fish to be healthy and happy.

Edited by aquatoid
typo
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On 2/24/2022 at 5:51 PM, Colu said:

If you dosing with Esha ndx active ingredient is levamisole I would do three courses of treatment 1 week apart that the best way to treat with levamisole

I went through the thread you have on medication and diseases, and on the Levamisole part there was no mention of what to do after dosing. 

eSHa advices for a 50% water change after 24 hours of dosing, and cleaning the filters and gravel to get rid of at least some of the eggs and dead worms. They also advised for that 2 week period between treatments.

The fish and snails seem perfectly fine, one of my hoplo cats is even trying to build a bubble nest once again. So I believe 3 treatments with 1 week between them would be fine for my fish. But what is your take on the water change and clean-up? Should the medication be in the system longer, or should I indeed taper it off with a 50% water change? For that matter, is the medication even active at this point, or is the water change also related to the eggs and potential pollutants coming from dead worms and potentially snails and other lower animals?

Didn't think to ask eSHa in my emails, maybe I should send them a new one now that I think of it...

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The reason you do a water change after 24hr is to remove the dead parasites and some of the eggs when gravel vaccing and levamisole can be harmful to some species of snails causing them to slow down I have found 24hr treatment repeated 3 times is effective at dealing with internal parasites in rare case you will have to do a fourth course 

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