Quick clarifying questions about Interpet No.7 (Copper EDTA and Formaldehyde based medication)

[rebe]

Run the copper treatment for 2 weeks, then do some big (80-90%) water changes and gravel clean the substrate each time you do the water change. Then add carbon for a week. Then put shrimp and snails back in.

If they are still rubbing after that, use a deworming medication like Praziquantel or Flubendazole and use that once a week for 3-4 weeks.

It's been two weeks since I added the copper based medication (on April 13th), and I'm still seeing flicking and rolling from the corydoras. I went ahead and ordered a Flubendazole based medication by NT labs which @Essjay recommended. It should arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday this week.

Since I'm treating the tank with another medication unsafe for inverts, I won't be adding any inverts back. Will that mean I can add the new medication sooner than if I were adding inverts back again?

Even when using the tips and tricks like pinching the hose to clean sand, I still find it tricky and an ordeal!
I'm thinking of deep-deep-cleaning the tank, not quite sanitising it

1. Remove fish and plants
2. Gravel vac the sand into a bucket and thoroughly rinse it with tap water
3. Fully drain the empty tank and clean all the tank surfaces
4. Rise and clean the equipment and plants in tap water*
5. Add the sand, equipment, plants back into the tank, fill with warm dechlorinated water
6. Run the tank normally for an hour or two
7. Reintroduce the corydoras

*Either cleaning the filter sponges in clean tank water or discarding them and using cycled media from my big canister filter

(80-90%) water changes and gravel clean the substrate each time you do the water change.

If I deep clean the tank like that, are multiple water changes still necessary?


It's weird, but that kind of deep clean feels more manageable than multiple large water changes with substrate cleaning

 

[Colin_T]

If you deep clean the tank you should only need to do it once to remove any medication. Then you can add the Flubendazole straight away. Although I would give it a couple of days without any medication to see how the fish go after the clean.

 

[rebe]

Phew, just finished the deep clean. Siphoning the sand into a bucket worked well, but there was so much sand that the water it took to siphon it filled my bucket too quickly. So I ended up washing the sand in the bucket as planned, then washing the rest in the tank. I did end up doing multiple water changes while cleaning the sand left in the tank after all. I set the corydoras up in my little 5 gallon with some of their sand and the washed plants from their tank.
All in all, it took around 6 hours but there many breaks and I had to set up the temporary tank, and reconstruct the QT also. Still seems like ages for a tank cleaning!

If you deep clean the tank you should only need to do it once to remove any medication. Then you can add the Flubendazole straight away. Although I would give it a couple of days without any medication to see how the fish go after the clean.

My new medication (flubendazole) should arrive in two or three days, so that gives me observation time before I have to decide.

I think that I'll end up treating them with it anyways, and I feel like the only cause left could be flukes (gill?) that survived the salt or intestinal worms that the Levamisole didn't treat (I can't remember off hand if that's the round worms or the flat worms).

I'll go back to my other thread and post here about how much salt I used for how long

 

[rebe]

The salt dose was 2 tablespoons per 20 litres, for 10 days and then removed slowly over about a week.
That was to treat fungus on one of the corydoras, but the fish didn't make it overnight.

Here is my thread from back then:

Time to euthanize or is this treatable?

Noticed this on one of my panda corydoras less than a minute ago. I got these fish 11 days ago, and they're being quarantined with some rasboras I got on the same day. This must have grown within the last 2-3 days. The clip below is from 3 days ago when I took all of the corydoras out to...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Colin_T]

Levamisole is for round/ thread worms.

Praziquantel is for flat/ tape worms and gill flukes.

Flubendazole does the same as both of those medications together (treats round worms, tapeworms and gill flukes.

 

[rebe]

My flubendazole arrived today and I dosed the QT with the recommended package dose.
My understanding about flukes is that there are skin flukes which are livebearing and gill flukes which are egg laying. I was looking into each fluke, and it seems like their life cycles are quite short when in warmer temperatures?

Would dosing once every 7 days for 24hs be effective, if at 26C their life cycles are shorter, and as eggs aren't killed/destroyed by flubendazole? I'm just thinking that if they are the egg laying kind, and if there are eggs I haven't removed successfully with the gravel vac, and those eggs hatch and lay more eggs before I dose the tank again?

@Colin_T What do you think? Sorry if this post is not very coherent.

(From this article: https://www.pond-life.me.uk/fishhealth/gyrodactylus#:~:text=The length of the life,at 1-2°C. )

 

[Colin_T]

Just treat the tank once a week for 4 doses. Leave the medication in the tank for 1-2 days and then water change it out.

The reason I treat once a week for 4 doses is to kill any baby worms/ flukes after they hatch and before they mature.