Oh Great...Gill Flukes?

Reframer

Reframer

AC Members
Feb 22, 2009
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Minnesota
Well, I am running around the house like mad preparing for a double birthday party tomorrow. Stopped by the tank to repair the sponge filter and noticed a dead skinny danio, looked at the others and noticed some thin hair like 1/8 of an inch long things hanging out of the fish's gills. The fish were trying to scrape against things too. I only see 2 affected.
Do I have to treat the whole tank?
What do I treat with that won't contaminate the tank for the snails?
This is really bad timing, please give me suggestions.
 
Treat the whole tank, put snails in a bucket until qt is done. If you have malaysian trumpet snails/pond snails, expect some to die, but a lot of them will live even with a double dosage...
 
I hope the snails can't carry them... I still don't know what the best treatment is that won't stain the tank or leech snail toxic chemicals.
Has anyone tried salt treatment?
 
Praziquantel, and you don't need to remove the snails.
 
I second the prazi suggestion. I've used it with snails in the tank with no problems at all.
 
There are two major groups of flukes, monogenetic and digenetic. Monogenetics will spread directly from fish to fish, while digenetics need an intermediary host, which in some species is a snail. Better to treat the snails as well to cover all the bases.
 
Reframer, just use Jungle Parasite Clear, General Cure or PraziPro, they all contain the same ingredient (Praziquantel) that takes care of gill flukes. Plus one of the 3 should be super easy to obtain. Even WalMart sells the Jungle Parasite Clear now. Make sure to do at least the 2 treatments recommended. I did try salt for gill flukes years ago and it did NOT work.
 
You should actually be happy that its flukes and not another parasite. Flukes are the easiest to get rid of safely in a tank with snails.
 
Ok, thanks guys. I got some jungle here with prazi and will try that. I might take the snails out just to be safe (because thats what the box says) and if they come back then I will treat them all again.
I just freak out everytime there is a parasite issues, I have been known to have a phobia about this. I watched the "monster inside me" show and freaked the hell out of me.
 
OMG, I am a piece of work! I just went to look at them again, and what I thought looked like gill flukes or something, ends up being the danio's barbel whisker things. Well, like I said, I have been watching that stupid monster within me show.
They haven't been scraping or anything today so I assuming now that everything is fine. Geez....
 
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