Fish Lice

[risso0529]

Hi

I think I may have a problem with my tank. Over the past few weeks I have noticed very slight aggitation in the fish. A couple of times I have noticed one or two of the fish flicking on the ornaments and my large gold severum has been sort of twitching his fins and looking a little irritated. I have done countless water tests, and do a 20% water change weekly adding de chloritator, all tests have been fine. I had been watching the fish closly and could see no signs of any parasites or disease -apart from a slight patch of raised scales on one of the platy's.

Apart from the above symtoms all fish seem ok, eating and swimming fine exept from one of my clown loaches. This clown loach I have had for a number of years and I got him from someone else so I have no idea how old he was. Anyway over the past couple of months he has slowly been looking old and not moving around as much as he once did, he also lost a lot of weight - I just assumed that he was old and indeed this morning I found him looking very unwell. I removed him to a small plastic tank which floats inside the larger tank, so he would'nt be disturbed by the other fish. When I returned home tonight unfortunatley he had died.

I was a little upset but thought this was just down to age. However when I came to remove him from the tank I noticed, in the light, that in the bottom of the plastic tank where what looked like to be very small white tadpoles swimming around. I am now alarmed as to what these things are and am concerned that these could be lice - given the slight irritation which seems to be apparent on the other fish.

Anyone have any ideas on this please?

Tank paremetres are as follows:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40
Temp 27
PH 7.8
250 l tank

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Fish lice are larger and attach ti the outside of the fish, they are clearly visible to the naked eye. Google images for argulus and you will see many pictures.

It sound more like internal parasite which causes wasting and eventual death.

Hopefully, one of the Brits will cjime inwith the meds available there to treat your tank. I can only offer meds in the USA which are readily available here.

 

[risso0529]

Hi

Thanks - cannot see any visable lice at all, I have googled the pictures and dont think it is lice now - but what else could they be? Are they anything to worry about?

I havent had any other death/waisting so not sure if it is internal parasites - are there any other symtoms of this other than the waisting? If anyone has any idea on meds to try? Although I am not overly keen on rushing out to buy random meds unless I know what is wrong.....

Any other help greatly appreciated.

 

[Caprichoso]

Skin flukes are quite common, they are not visible to the naked eye and they cause fish to rub and flick on plants and ornaments. You may also have wasting disease as a another issue in addition to the skin flukes. Try API general cure. It's pretty effective and treats flukes and tapeworms. It's active ingredients are praziquantel and metronidazole so even if this product is unavailable to you, you can still purchase one with those ingredients. Just so you know, you often have to do 2 or three rounds of treatment in order to kill the parasite. You will also want to do a lot of gravel vacuuming as well. This product is also safe with most shrimp and snails.