Should I Just Put This Fish Out Of Her Misery?

[SouthernCross]

*waves quietly from the Southern hemisphere...* No petsmarts or petcos here unfortunately. I looked at both the food and medication sections of the online shop I use, but no luck. There's still my LFS to check out though. Although hopefully I won't need it again. It seems down here in Aus we have a lot less products available.

Is anyone able to answer my other questions posted a couple of posts up?

Thanks

 

[ArauraDiscus]

O the parasite may live depending on it's stage. If it hasn't finished it's cyst stage and multiplied yet, and you take the fish out, it will still be on the fish and will go down the toilet with the fish. But many parasites will have already finished that stage and reproduced. ALmost all of these common parasites are in the tank as is and are difficult to remove, but it's the sick or weakened fish that succumb to them more often than not.

 

[SouthernCross]

Oh ok, thanks. Well as I said originally this fish has been skinny for a long time - yet my other fish are still robust and healthy, so hopefully things will stay that way! But will keep a close eye on things of course.

Thanks again.

 

[TayTay]

i would do a large water change just to be sure. It couldn't hurt, and I have had experiences where a large water change has showed that it helps remove the parasite from the water, especially compared to no water change. Just my 2 cents(I love saying that! .)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

dunno about if the parasite would still be alive or not. on the subject of medicated food though you can make your own, get whatever med you need in liquid form and soak pellet food in it. not sure exactly how to work out dosages and obviously make sure the medicine is ok to be ingested. but it's what i was advised to do when treating HITH.

for vitamin enriched food (which everyone should give their fish maybe once a week or fortnight) get a human liquid multi vitamin and soak pellet food in that for a few minutes before giving it to the fish.

 

[SouthernCross]

Oh wow, excellent tip Miss Wiggle! I never would have thought of doing that! Do you know where you can find out how strong to make the concentration of med that you soak the food in? Wouldn't want to poison them if it was too strong...

I asked further up the thread whether Sterazin (by Waterlife) would have been the med for the job. Can anyone confirm for me?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it would depend on the medication used and what you are treating for, that's a general method that could be used in a number of situations.

i found a recepie giving concentrations for metrondizole from google, that's to treat HITH though, i'd just have a search.

i'm no expert on diseases and medications, not familiar with sterazin. however i do like waterlife products in general, seem to be decent. what's the active ingredients in it, if no one's answered you by tonight i'll look it up in my fish health book at home.

 

[SouthernCross]

Just had a look at the bottle, there are no ingredients on it! If it helps its a bright blue-green colour.

Here's most of the information available:

Waterlife Sterazin.
Sterazin-parasiticide.
Suitable for sea water,tropical fresh water and cold water aquaria. Sterazin is used for the control of gill and body parasites which cause fish to flick when no symptoms are visible to the un-aided eye.
Sterazin will also aid the control of internal parasites such as Round Worm,Thread Worm and intestinal Worm.
In order to destroy the parasites in all stages of their life cycle you will need to use the product on days 1,3,6,8 an 10

 

[Miss Wiggle]

little bit of googling say's it's probably malachite green and formalin, not 100% though it's not from a proper source although it seems a likely combination.