Naso Tangs
Hello Bob,
<Hello Sanjay>
I'm unsure if you remember, but approx 3 months ago I wrote to you regarding Naso tangs and intestinal worms.
My plan was to investigate intestinal worms in Naso tangs as a reason for their decline in captivity.
<Interesting possibility>
I purchased a healthy six inch Naso and introduced it to my QT system.  It settled in well and after a week or so I began my experiment.  
To half a cube of frozen food I added approx 20mg of an anti-thelmic preparation called Mebendazole.  I obtained the liquid form which sticks to frozen food.
I fed this twice a day for two days without any ill effects to the Naso.  However I did not see any worms.
<Have you taken a look to and through the scientific literature on issues involving such worms and Surgeonfishes?>
On the third day, hey presto, hundreds of tiny round worms (confirmed by the local vet) about 1 cm in length.  Nasty looking organisms might I add.
<Have any pix?>
The QT tank had a little live rock, which proved to be a great mistake.  Many worms sought refuge in this rock.  At the same time the anti-thelmic agent seemed to dislodge the worms, but did not kill them.  I tried to remove as many as I could.  
The tang re-ingested the worms and began to decline in the same manner as my previous Naso did in my main system.
The Naso became increasingly thin over a few days.
Eventually the tang died from what I suspect to be an over load of worms.
I decided to discard the live rock, but as I was about to do so, I spotted a very large round worm about half an inch thick and six inches in length.
My conclusion from the above may provide a reason for why Naso tangs decline for no apparent reason in captivity.
<One hypothesis... how will or might you go about devising experiments to prove, disprove it?>
I am not repeating this exercise as I do not want to be responsible for another Naso death. However I believe that importers of these beautiful creatures may find my studies interesting and take on the responsibility of de-worming these fish before they are passed on to retailers, (in an  Ideal world).
<... better to have a larger sample size... and more "cures" folks can attempt>
I also conclude that those who read this post and decide to de-worm a fish in QT,  must do so with either a more effective anti-thelmic drug or a greater concentration of Mebendazole.  Ensuring the tank is devoid of live rock is also essential.
<Okay>
Hope this has been of interest to you, thanks in advance for taking an interest.
Regards
Sanjay Patel
<And thank you for writing. Bob Fenner>

- Parasite Problems -
Hello guys/gals I have a problem with one of my tanks and wanted to see if you guys could help me.
I have a 75 gallon tank in the garage with about 80 lbs of live rock with a blue dot puffer, a clown trigger and a Hawkfish that is my holding tank until my 375 gets in. Well everybody was doing fine for the longest time then about a month ago I noticed that my blue dot puffer was getting very skinny but he would still eat a lot therefore I went from feeding every other day like I've always done to feeding every day even though the other 2 guys were very fat.
Well even with me feeding every day the puffer kept getting skinnier and skinnier until he died a few days ago and now my Clown Trigger is starting to look skinny. Is there some sort of disease or parasite that could cause this or am I just not feeding them enough. <Yes, I'm afraid so... nematodes and Cestodes are the most common culprit - like tapeworms, they can out-compete for nutrients.> I had the blue dot puffer for over a year and he was a nice size for the longest time. I feed them all sorts of stuff such as Mysis Shrimp, Blood Worms and Squid.
Thanks for your help.
<Do try to get a hold of some Fenbendazole from your local veterinarian. Your best bet is to put this fish in quarantine for about three weeks and treat the quarantine tank directly with the Fenbendazole for that entire time. The Noga book of Fish Disease recommends 2mg/liter or 7.6mg/gallon of tank water. This should give your fish the upper hand against these parasites.
Cheers, J -- >