Lisa E Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Hi, first post. Please help. 55g tank, 3 Indian pea puffers, several chili rasbora, 2 peacock gudgeon, several small tetra, a dwarf lemon bristlenose pleco, a few dwarf corycats, 2 male guppies and three blue eye rainbow fish…I also have a fair number of dwarf shrimp, snails and two vampire shrimp…the puffers and gudgeon only eat black worms but of course all the fish go crazy for them. I feed a bit of flake food and either blood worms, daphnia or brine shrimp (all frozen) to the rest of them. Over the last several months there have been constant issues- several of the fish have very bloated bellies (look like they overate but thinking it is worms). They seem fine one minute and a few hours later a fish lies dead. In the past, fish passed and they had that bloated body. Now they die and they are not necessarily bloated but they have flat light colored worms on them. They remind me of planaria but don’t necessarily have the pointed head. I have however suddenly developed a planaria problem, which I am trying to clear with traps (very effective) and gravel vac. I see no worms of any type on the live fish. I have dosed with general cure, initially not realizing it may be a parasite. Also tried a new product Fritz Bacter Shield. I am at my wits end. I keep changing water, cleaning filters, vac gravel with water change… hate having the carbon (i use purigen and chemi-pure green) out to medicate…can’t keep medicating them and can’t afford to keep losing them either . Help!!! pS- before anyone asks, the pea puffers and gudgeon are both very docile. If anyone disrupts harmony in the tank it is the two guppies !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 What are your water parameters ammonia nitrite nitrate pH KH GH temperature any rapid breathing hanging out near the surface lethargy flashing spitting food out sunken belly white stringy poop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa E Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 Nitrate - about 5ppm…ph- about 7.0 and nitrite-under .25ppm…ammonia- 0ppm…no lethargy, no white stingy poop, no visible signs of illness…planted tank…attached pic of very large tetras and largest puffer…the puffer has always been large. The puffer and shrimp was just included b’c it was so cute…have heater with preset temp so not exactly sure what that is…filters cleaned once per month (have 2 70g filters so swap out media at alternating schedule), water every week or two…admittedly see nitrate is a bit higher than usual, usually it’s 0…took purigen and chem poor out yesterday so a lot of crap came out into tank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Your tiger barbs look very bloated that can be caused by a number of things such as a parasitic infection internal bacterial infection organ failure causing fluid buildup because you feed live food on a regular basis and you get odd random deaths with parasitic infections I would treat with levamisole once a week for 4 weeks do a 50% water change though gravel vac to remove As many parasite eggs from the substrate and dose expel p backout the tank for 24hr as the active ingredient in expel p levamisole is light sensitive do a water repeat on week 2 week 3 Week 4 @Lisa E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa E Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 levamisole-is that expel p? Do I have to run filter with nothing but bio matter (ceramic balls, etc) and sponge filter for the whole 4 weeks? I would love to do away with the black worms (live- I feed frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms) but am afraid the puffers and gudgeon will starve to death. They are pretty pathetic at feeding time. I do shoo away the barbs but they are determined. No matter what I feed they are engorged on it. Will the expel p get ride of the planaria too? The traps work but think I’ll be using them forever. I was gonna try to remove an inch of substrate to at least get rid of a solid portion of them since I have at least 3-4 inches in there (my husband thought it was supposed to be thick altho we have since learned otherwise). Will that help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa E Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 levamisole-is that expel p? Do I have to run filter with nothing but bio matter (ceramic balls, etc) and sponge filter for the whole 4 weeks? I would love to do away with the black worms (live- I feed frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms) but am afraid the puffers and gudgeon will starve to death. They are pretty pathetic at feeding time. I do shoo away the barbs but they are determined. No matter what I feed they are engorged on it. Will the expel p get ride of the planaria too? The traps work but think I’ll be using them forever. I was gonna try to remove an inch of substrate to at least get rid of a solid portion of them since I have at least 3-4 inches in there (my husband thought it was supposed to be thick altho we have since learned otherwise). Will that help? When I look up levamisole I get this from our local pet store but seems to be more just a bunch of oils…. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 (edited) On 2/19/2024 at 6:44 PM, Lisa E said: levamisole-is that expel p? Do I have to run filter with nothing but bio matter (ceramic balls, etc) and sponge filter for the whole 4 weeks? I would love to do away with the black worms (live- I feed frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms) but am afraid the puffers and gudgeon will starve to death. They are pretty pathetic at feeding time. I do shoo away the barbs but they are determined. No matter what I feed they are engorged on it. Will the expel p get ride of the planaria too? The traps work but think I’ll be using them forever. I was gonna try to remove an inch of substrate to at least get rid of a solid portion of them since I have at least 3-4 inches in there (my husband thought it was supposed to be thick altho we have since learned otherwise). Will that help? When I look up levamisole I get this from our local pet store but seems to be more just a bunch of oils…. Yes levamisole the the active ingredient in expel p so that what you want to treat with just remove any active carbon seachems purigen during treatment you can leave your sponge and bio media levamisole won't harm your benefial bacterial imagitarium herbal treatments aren't effective at treating internal or most types of external parasite's i wouldn't recommend it Edited February 19 by Colu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa E Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 On 2/19/2024 at 5:48 PM, Colu said: Yes levamisole the the active ingredient in expel p so that what you want to treat with just remove any active carbon seachems purigen during treatment you can leave your sponge and bio media levamisole won't harm your benefial bacterial imagitarium herbal treatments aren't effective at treating internal or most types of external parasite's i wouldn't recommend it Ok- so do one dose of expel P for 4 consecutive weeks, keep tank dark for 24 hours. How long do I wait to do the water change? Maybe the day of the next dose? And tank water will not plummet without any other filter matter? Do you think the puffers and gudgeon will eat different food or is there a way to get parasites out of my supply of blackworms? Can I freeze them (like frozen blood worms or brine shrimp) altho not sure they’d eat them dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 (edited) Your water will be fine with just sponge and bio media Do a water change 24hr after you have dosed expel p You could start feeding live brine shrimp daphnia start some of your own cultures of scuds and Grindal worms it would be difficult to get ever parasite out of live food @Lisa E Edited February 19 by Colu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa E Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 Will have to investigate raising my own live food…thanks for all your help! Take care. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa E Posted February 21 Author Share Posted February 21 Dosed with 1st course of Expel P. Will water change tomorrow (24 hours later). Do I put purigen, etc back in between dosing? Like dose, water change in 24 hours, run filters again until next dosing? Of just bio matter and sponge for the entire 4 weeks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 (edited) On 2/21/2024 at 10:59 PM, Lisa E said: Dosed with 1st course of Expel P. Will water change tomorrow (24 hours later). Do I put purigen, etc back in between dosing? Like dose, water change in 24 hours, run filters again until next dosing? Of just bio matter and sponge for the entire 4 weeks? You can add purigen back in between treatments or just leave it running with bio media and sponge Edited February 22 by Colu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa E Posted March 1 Author Share Posted March 1 So, after first dosing of Expel P, I did water change but then got huge ammonia spike, two fish were worse for wear and later died. I did another water change and added back purigen and things righted themselves. Did second dose of expel p today and will plan for bigger water change tomorrow but should I be throwing away all my filter material (foam, purigen, chem pure- maybe just keep the bio material)? Gets expensive but so does replacing fish. Was wondering if that was why the ammonia spike started- dead materials being in the media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 On 3/1/2024 at 3:42 PM, Lisa E said: So, after first dosing of Expel P, I did water change but then got huge ammonia spike, two fish were worse for wear and later died. I did another water change and added back purigen and things righted themselves. Did second dose of expel p today and will plan for bigger water change tomorrow but should I be throwing away all my filter material (foam, purigen, chem pure- maybe just keep the bio material)? Gets expensive but so does replacing fish. Was wondering if that was why the ammonia spike started- dead materials being in the media. You can keep them keep chemical media some can be recharged you can keep sponge and bio media in your filter during treatment it's odd that you got a huge ammonia spike maybe it was because the chemical media was removed I don't use chemical media other than active carbon to remove medication after treatment when I have used levamisole I have never had an ammonia spike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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