Prazi(quantel) and Spotted Silver Dollars   9/14/10
Hello Crew
A couple of the fish in my community tank has been flashing without any signs of Ich. While I am keeping an eye on things in case its just some water quality issue, I've got Prazi on standby.
Is Prazi safe at "standard" dosage for Spotted Silver Dollars?
Cheers
Tim
<Hello Tim. Why on Earth do you think a deworming medication will somehow cure "flashing"? Let's be clear, flashing either implies the fish is irritated by something in the water, such as ammonia, or else its gills or skin are being irritated by external parasites like Whitespot and Velvet.
Assume the problem is one or other of these and act accordingly. The standard heat/salt method is perfectly safe with characins, and a good way to treat Whitespot in situations where copper- and formalin-based medications wouldn't be appropriate. Praziquantel is safe *and* effective when used at the dosage recommended by your vet given the type and body weight of the fish in question. In the US this medication is available over the counter at some aquarium shops, but as any vet will tell you, used this way there's no guarantees at all that it will be *both* safe *and* effective. Elsewhere in the world Praziquantel is prescription-only, and your vet will tell you precisely how much to use to treat your fish, should you need to do so. Cheers, Neale.>
Re: Prazi(quantel) and Spotted Silver Dollars
Hi Neale
<Tim,>
Thanks for your reply.
<Most welcome.>
Seeing that there are no signs of external parasites like Ich or velvet, I thought I should have some Prazi handy in case it was a due to flukes.
<Gill flukes you mean? Pretty rare among aquarium fish, and almost never a major cause of mortality.>
In any case, I am still monitoring the situation, as I did have a nitrate overload for some reason (I do weekly water changes, so I am not sure what caused that spike).
<Far more likely to be the problem here.>
I have reduced the nitrates substantially through water changes over consecutive days) and also used carbon
<Which will of course remove any medications.>
in case there was some toxic material inadvertently introduced, so I am still hoping it may be due to some unknown water quality issue that no longer exists.
<Indeed. Would be my hypothesis too. Do two or three 50% water changes over the next 2-3 days, and then see what happens. Also check water chemistry and temperature are in the favoured zone for the Silver Dollar species being kept. Treating with heat/salt might be worth doing as well, just in case there is Whitespot in the system at a very low intensity, something that is far from uncommon. Since salt/heat has zero impact on fish health and filtration, it's far, FAR preferable to using medications.>
Cheers
Tim
<Cheers, Neale.>

puffer food
Using Dips and Feeding FW Puffers 8/9/10
Hi. Thank you very much for the help the other day with my bloated Firemouth. I followed your advise and he seems to be doing fine now. You did not quite get to the bottom of one of my questions however. It could be my
own fault for not properly phrasing my question. So here it goes again. Is it possible to administer meds. such as fungus or parasite medication to a single fish in a small container (no filter, no heater) containing only the fish, the meds. and a gallon of water for a short period of time, say 30-45 min or does it take longer for the medication to properly take affect?
< There are dip medications that are used as you have suggested. Many fish are dipped in a salt bath as well to get rid of external parasites like flukes.>
also wanted to ask you about the feeding of my puffer fish. I live near a very beautiful spring and spring run which empties into a river. The spring run is full of small snails and freshwater clams and mussels. Can I feed these animals to my puffer or would there be a danger of introducing parasites into the fish? If not, could these animals be treated in a quarantine tank with Parasite Clear to remove potential parasites before feeding time and for how long would they need to be treated. I look forward to your response, and thanks again for all that you do here. Brett.
< Parasites and snails are usually killed by the same medications. The clams and mussels are filter feeders. If the water source is very clean and has no contaminants the invertebrates may be ok to feed to the puffers. An
alternative would be Can-O-Snails by ZooMed Labs. This product was designed to be a reptile food but my friends with puffers swear by this stuff. The canning process kills that parasites and the snail meat can be cut up for any size puffer. I don't think I would feed it exclusively but it is worth trying a couple times a week as a treat so they don't get imprinted on it.-Chuck>

Question re: anti-parasitic medicated fish food for Platys   2/24/08 Hello Crew, I have spent hours reading the FAQ's and your responses (my favourite being the one with the lady and her boyfriend having issues with breeding and Don spitting out his coffee) and have found them entertaining and informative. Now I have a question, which I hope you will answer. I have a 35 gallon tank, which has been in operation for about 3 years, so is well-cycled. I do regular water changes and periodically test the levels of nitrates, ph, and ammonia. All seem to be consistently within acceptable ranges. This tank is planted with a large number of artificial (plastic) plants, as well as live plants. There is 1 to 2" of gravel, 3 ornamental logs for hiding places, an undergravel filter, an outside 3 stage power filter, and a bubble bar. 6 weeks ago, my son helped me by bringing over his gravel vacuum and vacuuming the gravel in this tank. This resulted in a 50% water change. The livestock in this tank includes one elderly Pleco, whom I inherited with the tank, about 7 inches in length, 2 pearl Danios, 3 blacklight tetras, one of which is very large (platy sized), 2 Glowlight tetras, and my favourites, 2 adult male platys, and currently only 1 adult female platy. There have been no new introductions of fish for the past year, although there are about 15 juvenile platys of ages varying from 2 to 5 months. I feed twice a day, with premium flake food and supplement with blanched romaine lettuce which seems to go over very well with the platys, old and young. This past week, I lost an adult female Mickey Mouse Platy. She was one of the original introductions, so I was sorry to lose her. Her history includes being placed in a nursery net within the main tank, when I was quite sure she was about to give birth. She had the gravid spot, and I could see the dark eyes of the babies. She was very unhappy in the nursery net, so after 4 days with no results, I released her into the main tank. That was probably a year ago, and while she never lost the gravid spot, the dark eyes disappeared and there never were any babies. The one male platy who is always 'on the make' seemed to know she was of no use to him, and would chase her away. For several weeks before her demise, she did have what I have seen described on your site as 'whitish stringy poop'. Up until 2 days before she went, she was still eating, and swimming normally. During those last 2 days, she was hiding, and not coming out to eat. Today I noticed this 'whitish stringy poop' from the second, less aggressive adult male Sunset Platy. My question is, should I be concerned about a parasitic infection, and should I start feeding the anti-parasitic medicated fish food? Is it safe for the juvenile platys and the rest of the fish? Should I abstain from feeding the blanched romaine lettuce while feeding the medicated food? I do realize my current ratio of 2 adult male platys to 1 adult female is not ideal, but the 2nd male is not particularly amorous, although by their colouring, I do believe some of the juveniles are his descendants. I also have a 2nd tank, populated with a school of Cardinal Tetras, and one small, skittish Pleco. My intention is to move some of the juvenile platys to this tank as they mature. Thank you, for having such an informative site, and for your anticipated response to my long-winded email. Aprilwine <Anti-parasite food is usually safe for juvenile fish. In this instance I wouldn't bother unless I saw any other fish producing abnormal faeces. Do also switch to high-fibre foods for a while -- algae, daphnia, brine shrimps, tinned peas, etc. Won't do the other fish any harm. Anyway, this'll help clear out the insides. But if you do see other fish with odd faeces and/or signs of emaciation, then by all means switch to something anti-parasitic. While constipation is rather more common in livebearers, parasitic infections do happen, and are worth bearing in mind when fish start looking off-colour. Camallanus worms are probably the most commonly found intestinal parasites in livebearing fish. Cheers, Neale.>