Blue Crayfish Parasite?

[AydenD]

Hello, I have a 20 gallon tank with 4 smaller sized cichlids and my blue crayfish. I know your not supposed to keep fish with crayfish but I didn't know until after I got the Cichlids and I think it's okay while both are this size. The worst interaction I've had is a cichlid spooking the crayfish.

All water parameters are good as of this morning.

Anyway, my crayfish since I got him has had long stringy poops. Like there'd be a piece of feces with a little stringy white thing more feces and so on. I looked up anything to see if it was maybe something other than a parasite but I just can't find anything.

Assuming this is a parasite, what medicine should I use?

Thanks, AydenD

 

[Colin_T]

Make sure you are feeding it a varied diet with some plant matter.

If you want to treat it for worms, use Praziquantel to treat it for tapeworms, and Levamisole to treat it for thread/ round worms.

You treat them once a week for 3 weeks and do a 75% water change 24-48 hours after treating. Don't use the medications together because you can overdose the fish and kill them.

The easiest way to treat them is to use Praziquantel on day one. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate on day 2 & 3. Treat the tank with Levamisole on day 4 and do a 75% water change and gravel clean on day 5, 6 & 7 and then start with Praziquantel again on day 8.

The water changes will remove most of the medication so you don't overdose the fish. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. Repeating the treating for 3 doses at weekly intervals will kill any worms that hatch from eggs. At the end of the treatment you will have healthier fish.

 

[AydenD]

Make sure you are feeding it a varied diet with some plant matter.

If you want to treat it for worms, use Praziquantel to treat it for tapeworms, and Levamisole to treat it for thread/ round worms.

You treat them once a week for 3 weeks and do a 75% water change 24-48 hours after treating. Don't use the medications together because you can overdose the fish and kill them.

The easiest way to treat them is to use Praziquantel on day one. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate on day 2 & 3. Treat the tank with Levamisole on day 4 and do a 75% water change and gravel clean on day 5, 6 & 7 and then start with Praziquantel again on day 8.

The water changes will remove most of the medication so you don't overdose the fish. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. Repeating the treating for 3 doses at weekly intervals will kill any worms that hatch from eggs. At the end of the treatment you will have healthier fish.

Thank you for the response!

I normally fed him the instructed amount of crayfish tablets (1-4 twice a day and I'll give him two twice a day) or a bottom feeder tablet which he eats and he normally gets some of the brine shrimp/bloodworms the Cichlids don't eat. He also has a moss ball in the tank, is that enough plant matter? There was three moss balls but he completely tore up and destroyed two of them one night so I had to remove them and clean the tank.

Should I switch diets (if I need to) before treating with medicine?

Thank, AydenD

 

[Colin_T]

Just add some plant matter like spinach, cucumber, zucchini, pumpkin or put some aquarium plants in there but fruits and veges work well. Make sure they are free of chemicals and take out any uneaten food after an hour.

No need to change anything before treating just add plant matter to its diet each day and treat whenever you can get some dewormer.

 

[AydenD]

Thank you!

I've seen some people boil the vegetables before feeding to the fish. Should I do that or is okay just to put them straight from the store to the tank and not even rinse them under tap water?

 

[Colin_T]

It's always a good idea to rinse the food under tap water before putting it in the tank. Theoretically anything you buy from a shop that is designed for human consumption should be free of chemicals but you never know. So it's better to be safe than sorry and just rinse before use.

You can par boil it if you like. Some fish prefer it cooked and some prefer raw. try different ways and see what he prefers.

 

[AydenD]

Okay, thank you!