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I have a bronze cory and a yoyo loach which I think have internal parasites. Right now they are in quarantine. I think that the parasite came from a yoyo loach I recently bought and it spread it to the cory.

symptoms:

Constantly flicking against gravel, yoyo has done so much that his pattern is pretty much scraped off.

The yoyo loach looks like it is starved. Cory not yet.

Do you think that this is an internal parasite?
If so how do you treat the fish and your tank?

-Vincent

There are a few different reason why a fish may "flick" or "flash". What are your water prams? How long have you had the main tank setup for? How often do you do water changes & gravel cleanings? How often do you feed and what size is the tank? What other fish are in the tank with them?

Sometimes if the water is not clean enough for some fish they will show this behavior. Scaleless fish tend to be alot more picky about water then most other fish. Let us know the above and then we can go from there.

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The other fish include :2 Dwarf flame gourami's,4 female neon blue gourami's, 7 lemon tetras, 3 white skirt tetras, 2 plecos, 10 panda cories, 1 bronze corie,6 feeder guppies, 8 head and tail lights, 2 upsidedown cats, 3 yoyo loaches, 10 neon tetras, 2 fancy tail guppies

I have had the tank setup for 2 months.It is well planted. I have no idea what the water parameters are, and it would be a while before I had a chance to go to the store to buy a test kit. But I cycled it for 3 weeks with mosquito fish and half of the water was precyled through my outdoor pond water. It is 55 gallon tank. 48"x13"x20" I think. I do gravel vacs and water changes twice a week, with the water change being 30%. Water temperature is 80 degrees farenheit.

-Vincent

There is a very good chance you could have imported some thing from the outside pond. Take a good water sample with you and get the LFS to do a full test for you.

Flicking against the gravel could also be a sign of ICH (I did say could be) If so you will have to treat the tank. If it is Ich make sure you get the correct medication for all the fish in your tank.

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Keith

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Well I don't think that it came from outside because it's been 2 months since I put the water in the tank.
I have thought about it being ich but I cannot find any of the white spots that come with ick. After heating the water up high in the hospital tank the yoyo loach and the cory look a little bit better but they are still occasionally flicking against the gravel. Do you think that a parasite or something may have taken the long to become active?

-Vincent

it is very likely that your fish have external parasites, so what i would do is buy Jungle Parasite Clear Tabs, which i have surprisingly had great results with.

About a week ago, grandparent's discus had what we thought was gill flukes, as they would constantly rub against the plants and would breath rapidly through one gill. We used a 1/2 dosage of the Jungle tabs (my grandfather had CL's, so we couldnt use full dosage) and the next day, they were breathing out of both gills and no longer flicking against the plants.

So check your loach and cory and see if they are breathing rapidly and/or out of one gill. If so they most likely have gill flukes

"Flicking", as others above have commented, usually signals an external irritation of some kind, or gill parasitism. This covers a wide range of organisms, all the way from Argulus, the Fish Louse (actually a parasitic crustacean) all the way to microscopic pathogens such as White Spot. In the case of Argulus, you'd know if that was present because, depending upon species, an individual can grow to be as large as 1 cm in diameter (it's a roughly disc shaped animal when seen from above) and the moment it left a host to find another one, it would become VERY immediately visible.

It is entirely possible that whatever is causing this originally resided in the pond. Transmission of a range of organisms from pond water to an aquarium is all too easy, as quite a few fish pathogens spend time in an encysted state, some of the cysts being neutrally bouyant and thus capable of floating about waiting for the opportunity to 'wake up' and start attacking fishes. If you're lucky, you'll have nothing major to deal with that will be knocked on the head by a proprietary treatment such as Protozin or a copper based medication.

As for internal organisms, the most commonly transmitted internal parasite of aquarium fishes is Camallanus. These intestinal nematodes rely upon Cyclops as an intermediate host (they are digenetic) and if you have Cyclops in your pond, it's worth checking to see if Camallanus is an issue in any pond fishes. If it is, then I would stop using the pond water henceforth to ensure that no Camallanus are transmitted to your aquarium fishes, as this is a tough nut to crack. Treatment usually involves some fairly dangerous compounds - Trichlorfon, an organophosphorus insecticide, is an effective remedy for Camallanus, but is dangerous to handle not just for the fishes (a slight overdose will kill them) but dangerous for YOU too - and probably won't be available without veterinary prescription in any case. Piperazine wormers are also relatively effective in ejecting Camallanus from the fishes' hindgut, but I gather that better treatments are available - several of which are presented in the form of pre-medicated food.

The organisms to watch out for, though, as far as inbternal parasites are concerned, are assorted microsporidians such as Costia necatrix, which are thoroughly nasty, and worse still, incurable. A bad microsporidian infection (Neon Tetra Disease, Plistophora hyphessobryconis, is one of these) will be a slate wiper in your aquaria, and steps to keep these out should be thorough and assiduously applied, because with these organisms, prevention is not only better than cure, as yet a cure doesn't exist. Bruce Moomaw has had some chastening experiences with microsporidians that make quite chilling reading, and the scope for introducing one of these into your aquarium via pond water is actually quite frightening to contemplate.

Other interesting creatures that can make their way into an aquarium via pond water are Glochidia (the parasitic larval stages of certain freshwater clams). These tend to be more unsightly than lethal, unless a heavy infestation takes place, and the Glochidia latch onto the gills. These creatures are easily killed with a copper based medication, however. They're recognisable because they latch preferentially onto the fins and gills, and look like small pieces of fluff, about 2-3 times the size of a White Spot lesion (White Spot will latch onto any part of a fish indiscriminately).

Finally, something else to check for is Lymphocystis. This is a viral disease that manifests itself in the form of cauliflower like growths appearing on your fishes. If this appears, all you can do is let it run its course - it's hideously unsightly, but the virus that causes it appears (in most fishes at least) to be self-limiting, and the disease disappears in time. However, treatment to deal with secondary bacterial infection of the affected areas may be called for. Lymphocystis seems in addition to have specific fish species preferences - large Cichlids such as Green Terrors, and certain marine fishes such as Powder Blue Surgeonfishes tend to be struck by this if it is present.

If an internal parasite DOES become an issue, then you will be looking at piperazine medicated food for assorted worms (nematodes, parasitic tapeworms, assorted polychaetes), and a quinone medicated food for internal protozoans (the kind used as anti-malarials are indicated for several such species). Be advised however that if an internal protozoan parasite strikes, chances are it will be either a microsporidian (and thus VERY difficult to treat even on an experimental basis, and that is WITH access to a full path lab) or a myxosporidian (again a pig to treat). Trypanosomes, if they turn up (and you'd need trained diagnostic help for these in any case) would be amenable to quinones.

Hope this proves useful.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002