How to treat Costia?

[dothedew]

My swordtail has the costia parasite. She's had white, stringy poop for about a month, and now developed a white scale sticking up between her dorsal fin and face. She also darts around without warning.

She's in a 10g tank (being moved to 20 soon), ammonia 0 nitrite 0, I don't have a nitrate test, but I do weekly 20% water changes. The tankmates are 5 serpae tetras.


I've heard that garlic can get rid of parasites, how do I make garlic solution?

 

[The-Wolf]

are you sure its costia? anyway here is how to deal with it.

Taken from fishdoc.co.uk

Treatment

Treating mild to moderate outbreaks is fairly easy, usually requiring just one treatment. Most proprietary parasite treatments will work. My own preference is malachite and formalin, provided that fish are not suffering from gill damage. Prolonged immersion with potassium permanganate is another option but again this is not advisable if gill damage is suspected. When gill damage is suspected salt offers the safest route as either a bath treatment (20 - 25g/litre for 20 - 30 minutes) or as a long-term immersion at 3-5g/litre.

In advanced and severe cases, resolution may be very difficult because of the numbers of parasites involved, excess mucus and hyperplasia helping to protect the parasites from chemical treatments and the poor health of the fish. In such circumstance tank treatments with chloramine-T and long term salt support is the best option with treatments being repeated until the fish shows signs of improvement.