craig

hi caper, i think fishy TB is bad for your fish,like human TB is bad for humans,if ya get what i mean. fishy TB transmitted to humans isn't that bad,but i highly reccommend doing without it. the medication is worse than the actual problem and it seems it's on going. headaches go with it too, i think the local pricechopper thought i was a junkie :oops: lots of panadol. anyways hope this post helps anyone with scratch that won't go away. i never got any answers to if it canbe transmitted back to the fish via me. i guess not as i have never had any fish that i have with TB and it has been a long time with the dreaded luggie. cheers shell.

hi guys, you know how you wash your hands before going into your fishies enviroment,as you don't want anything going in the tank,ie if you smoke etc. well you should make a point of washing your hands afterwards and definitely cover cuts,or if you have a cut don't put hand in tank. fishie TB, it is extremely painful,that cut just won't heal,it swells up,if you knock it you almost go through the roof. it has been on ongoing problem i am having,i first got it at work,a tiny cut of a glass lid,it would not heal,itched and was hot all the time,swelled up that bad had to take rings off.went to the doctor,yep fish TB,medication pills doxycycline HCL Ta 100mg,don't take iron or calcium with it and protect yourself from sunlight,not to mention how sick the pills make you feel. 6 mths later landed in hospital in a coma for three days,dehydration, working in hot enviroment(quareentine) i thought i drank heaps,body had no calcium or potassium,so all those working in hot fish rooms drink heaps and eat lots of bananas.anyway still had the fishie TB present in the blood,more of the same pills. 12 mths later, i still have it. the scars never go away and periodicaly still swell up and get very sore. so if you have a cut that just won't heal,go and see doctor. we are always worried about our fish and what we might put in their water,we never think that our fish water can give us a problem. i used to chloro my hands after being in tanks,but it was the cut. shell.

hi guy's, just wondering! what is the water conditions you are keeping them at?? ie ph, hardness, etc. we always have kept them in a low ph, and soft water much like discus conditions. in the quareentine they used to breed,loses would be from the female's attacking the other fish when her babies had hatched. sometimes you would just get a bad batch of fish come through though, and on those occasions nothing would fix them up. we were told it was a seasonal problem,not just with rams also cardinals,neons,clown loaches,rummy's etc. pink kissing gourami's same thing good batch,bad batch ie full of worms. wild caught or breed. rainy season or dry makes big difference in the fish coming into the country. shell.

hi guy's, well good news,all 12 little guys arrived safe and sound :bounce: thanks to the great packaging of the fish,great big thanx's to redwood aquatics. but no thanx's to the courier company. you need to check with every delivery on wether they actually ship there,as like with this case they don't tell you,even redwoods aquatics which is in the business of sending fish country wide everyday,they did not know there was places they wouldn't deliver overnight too.they had never been informed,take note they are now. :lol: the companies will pick your fish up pop them on a truck reguardless. the rest is history. hope this bad experience has been of some help to others,sending live fish is stressful enough without this sort of hassle. lesson learnt: double/triple check companies out,never take it for granted that they will ship everywhere and that one depot knows what the other depot is doing. the frontosa's were only scanned the once on pick-up,your fish are supposed to be scanned through every depot on their voyage. also remember the courier companies don't have to carry livestock and perfer not to,there isn't that many around now that will. cheers shell.

hi guys, well i sent some frontosa up to new plymouth yesterday,should have arrived this morning. nah how could this happen twice :evil: they won't get there till tomorrow morning around 7morning. company forgot to inform us that they don;t deliver overnight to new plymouth :evil: and a few other places around the country. paid for overnight for a service which doesn't excist. fish where well packed,with heat pack so should do okay. i hope. twice i can't beleive it :evil: will find out tomorrow morn on how fronts are. shell. P.S wise to double check courier companies as to their limits,as they don't seem to know themselves.

hi, alot of people think dropsy is food related,for the fish that have it now feed them peas and put some epson salts in their water. there is a few good site on the net glimmer goldfish is one,koi vet is another you will find out heaps of helpful info. cheers shell.

hi snowman, sorry to hear about the loaches but glad to hear things are picking up. that's one cute kid :lol: on the vacuming thingie,of skimming over the top. you have alot of rocks in your tank,sometimes you can get a anaromic activity,that isn't how it is spelt. if you dig your vacume in deep in the substrate all these bubbles will come up the hose,along with a foul smell like sulphur. if these bubbles let go while a fish is swimming past and he gets it in the nose so to speak it will kill.never seen it occur it's only what i have heard and read. give it a go,deep vac near rocks,see what happens or not,hopefully all sweet :lol: cheers shell.

hi sharn, i usually use PBT, only ever had that one problem. i have received fish from up north post haste, fish always arrive okay,sometimes have to ring the depot to fasten them up alittle. good luck with ya discus,make sure they pop in the heat paks for the discus. we are getting cold nights. cheers shell.

hi, i would check water conditions. aro's are notorious for jumping but i have found that unless a moth or you walk up to the tank when their light is on but the room is dark that will make them jump. otherwise aro's hate nitrates and also hate a ph that is to high. they perfer 6.8-6.0. if the water is wrong it will make them extremely flighty. fish will commite suicide by jumping out if water is all wrong. i keep mine 6.5 after waterchange and it takes 2 weeks to go down to 6.0,then i waterchange,asain only jumps at moths. shell

hi snowman, i have seen this in the quarenteen at work, it's a bacterial problem. treat for bacterial infection. salt is great for treating it.not good for plants though. search on the net for salt treatment for tropical's. aquaflavin is good too,but remember lighter dose for the loaches. do a waterchange before you treat. how often do you vacume tank? also need to look for the reason why you have the problem,at a guess water quality might have slumped at some stage. every now and then it doesn't hurt to do a bigger waterchange ie once every 4-6mths. good luck snowman.

hi BK, main ingredient is praziquantel,praziquantel comes under many brand names ie droncit,drontal, and for human's biltride. mg's might change from product to product though. vitapet has 50mg so is quite exspensive to treat. biltricide comes at i think 300mg tab. asking the doctor for it will be a laugh. i will let you know how i get on there. very hard to get praziquantel in pure form. another praziquantel is good for is intestinal worms so it really cleans up your fish inside and out.also safe with fry. it's just a pity it's not as available here as it is overseas. shell.

hi BK, it was vitapet dog wormer plus,50mg prazi in it also has 2 other med's in it. i was a concerned about it but the risk was worth it. put's a pink colour to your tank. i freaked when i first put it in, the fish disapeared completely.but it cleared after an hour sort-of,well you could see the fish. they improved within 4-5hrs. hope this is of some help. shell.

hi guys, just an update on the nasty flukes. i did the 2 doses of the dog wormer and then took another sample. no flukes so the prazi seems to work. hopefully they are all gone from tank too. will test again in another few weeks justy to make sure. fish are all doing great,the prazi is definitely easy on the fish and their enviroment. cheers for all your help.

hi caper, no couldn't see them with my eyes. but i knew something was not right with the fish,flashing and scratching,missing scales and reddening of finnage(veins). first of all as always checked water quality, that was all fine. sometimes you can see where the flukes have been ie ulcers, they say that bacterial infections and flukes go together,if you have seen a fluke under the scope they have 2 nasty pincers which grip the fish, these often start a bacterial infection.no wonder fish try to scratch them off. nasty nasty bug. hollywood could make horror movie out of these guy's. cheers, shell.

you don't have a quareentine facility neither. what research have you done on the zebra's, you have to keep them alive for 6wks. all the money in the world won't help you if you don't know what your doing. importing is risky at the best of times,you never know what is coming in with the fish. oh and red tape with maf, lots of fun you will have grey hair in no time.

hi ron, this liquid prazi do you get it from a vet? what is the mg/g? yes i was a bit worried about the other ingredients,but the prazi content 50mg. another breeder uses it 2 a year with no problems,and as i was getting at the end of my rope was willing to try anything. to cut along story short,bought fish,put in new never used before ponds, which had been cycled,at no stage did ponds get any levels,with the money spent on these fish,they were very well looked after and monitered. they breed had heaps of fry. not having enough room, i brought the adults inside 14 adults into a 6ft and a 4ft also well cycled healthy tanks. you could say they have been quareentined in their ponds never been mixed with anything else.the fish tanks were even new. i have taken all procautions. i relise that the tank enviroment is the cause of the outbreak, in the pond the flukes and fish co-excist quite nicely,by bringing them in to clean healthy conditions the parasites had an orgy.but i was completely blown away by the non affects of med's for flukes. any treatments i have done have been followed strickly from koivet Dr erik johnson. with the fluke tabs full treatment and follow-up treatment, another sample under scope still there.the only thing i can think of is maybe old stock,no expiry date on boxes. all the ponds the fish were in have been chlorined and sunbaked,filled left for wks then fry put in. all fry doing well. as can tell at wits end, if this doesn't work, what next????? i guess i'll just have to cross-fingers for the adults i have been battling this for months now. if i can get them cleaned up. i have now free'd up 2 large ponds for these guys,which have been up and running for years with no problems with fish. thanks for all your help guys,will keep you posted. but if anyone knows where prazi is sold in high mg and by itself i would love to hear from you. i have heard you can get it at the doc's 600mg biltricide i tab would treat 300lts but not sure what else is in it,as yet.

thanks guy's for your help. have any of you's ever looked under micro after a treatment to see if the flukes have gone? my tank does not need an over haul, fish came with the problem and i was given the wrong dosage for formulin at 3mls per 20lt and yes it did burn finnage,so that kinda put me off the stuff,plus working in a quareentine facility i get to see what drugs have more pro's and con's. my tanks had been treated with salt and salt and formulin is a toxic mix,even after waterchanges to try and get a right reading of the low salinity level extremely hard, not worth the risk.plus so hard to work out. should have stayed at school :lol: i will stick to the dog wormer,and will take another look under micro in a week or so,will let you know the result. if it works, the pros of the drug prazi are fantastic,no waterchanges during treatment,no airation no risk to plants nor your filter and fish no worries with sterility of the fish. would be great for discus too. so far in the treatment fish have perked up,little erosions on the fish where the parasite has been, fish stopped scratching within 4-5 hrs, so is looking up. but i am sure the only way to fined out will be the microscope plus tank is a pretty pink colour :lol:

hi check your water conditions ie ph,ammonia,nitrates, nitrite. usually a sign of poor water quality. also poke around in the gravel and see if any air-bubbles come up, they smell like sulphur,if yes vacume gravel. lots of food oscars eat,lots of waste.

hi ron, potassium permanganate kill my filter and all bacterial life in tank, i can't take them out of tank to be treated as the little rotten flukes,larvae,eggs will live on in tank.

hi alanmin4304, i always thought copper was toxic big time to goldfish!!!! formulin is pretty hard on fish. especially big flash tails of a fancy goldfish. the dog wormer has 50mg praziquantel in it which doesn't hurt fish nor plants nor your filter,you don't even have to waterchange between doses. but does it work, i will have to wait and see have you ever used the sheep dip?

hi guys, just want as many ideas as possible as to eradicate these nasty's. so who has had them and who got rid of them??? tropical and goldfish. i've and am battling them now with goldfish. tried salt dips,tried fluke tabs(which can't buy now) and now trying dogwormer. i put under micro after salt and fluke-tab's little buggers still there. haven't finished dog wormer treatment yet but will be taking sample to the scope then. any ideas or experiences with these nasty bugs would be helpful. cheers.

yep!!! i could get on hear and read off other peoples facts from the net too,but why bother everyone knows how to surf the net and can read for themselves when they want. shell. for the guy at the start of the post,try a heavier grade of substrate ie coral chip. i have heavy flow in one area of my tank and it doesn't move,plus it is easier to clean. shell.

i never said he wasn't, his argueing post's can be quite humourous to read. shell.

layton, SHUT-UP, fact and crap we are all quite able to get on the internet ourselves and fined all that info when we want it. shell.

no that's pretty good info thou, and it didn't take 5 pages of the same old thing, you and your facts. shell.