Emergency: Worms inside Eye of WC Haplochromine

[emartin]

I just noticed the left eye of my WC Lichnochromis acuticeps male was cloudy, and I see worms hanging off the bottom so I assume there are worms inside his eye.

What meds do I use to treat? I have never had to deal with this kind of ailment so I am not sure what to do. My first idea is to use Clout.

I have Oxytetracycline hydrochloride (the real stuff), Metronidasole (real stuff), Clout, Furan-2, Triple Sulfa, QuICK Cure, 50lbs of sea salt, etc.

What should I use to treat this asap with maximum results? I want to kill the worms overnight if not within minutes.

And is the eyeball forever damaged? Will it get clear again, or will he go blind in that eye? Are the other fish at risk (should I treat the whole tank? I don't have the UV Sterilizer hooked up to the tank at the moment but I can do so after netting out the wild lichnochromis).


I have access to pretty much every other medication not listed at my local LFS.

Thanks in advance,
~Ed

 

[emartin]

Right now I am going to go ahead with the Clout treatment in another tank.

If anybody disagrees/knows of a better medication, let me know.

Again since I have never encountered this ailment before, should I raise or lower the water temperature? Add salt?

 

[Tony]

No idea bro. Really sorry.. I know how much you like those fish.

If it was me, I'd separate him out and nuke with Clout.

 

[emartin]

That's what I thought since the Clout medication says it treats flukes, anchor worms, fish lice, among other parasites both internal and external.

I figured a full dose of clout tonight in my 60g, then a half dose tomorrow, then a 50% water change and a full dose again and then go from there.

Thanks anyway Tony, I'll see you Sunday.

 

[Andrew]

Levamisole and Praziquantel. Plus Melafix if
you think there's any tissue damage.

 

[neut]

I've gotten away from Clout and more in the Praziquantel direction for some years now, easier on the fish imo and doesn't hurt the bio-filter. Not that Clout isn't a good product.

Easy way to get Prazi is in API General Cure with Prazi and Metro (another good parasite med) or Jungle Parasite Clear with the above two meds, plus difluorobenzamide, plus acriflavine-- makes it a pretty effective and broad spectrum treatment.

 

[emartin]

Because I already have clout and started using it I'll go ahead and keep using that, but thanks for the information on the praziquantel.

I'm going to go check my usual sources to get an idea how much that stuff costs. I see that Jungle Labs has a medicated fish food with Praziquantel in it so I'll probably go ahead and buy that if I can find it locally.


Does Praziquantel stain silicone or any tank decor, or dye the water any color? Are you sure it doesn't affect the biofilter? If it doesn't do any of that I may go ahead and order it and dose my entire tank with it. I have expensive 3m colorquartz sand in the big tank so I don't want to dose something like clout in that tank and risk it dying the sand blue.

Thanks again. Right now I just have lots and lots of salt in the main tank at the rate of 1cup/20g. I'm looking into setting my UV Filter back on the tank I just need to go through my supplies and find a spare magdrive pump for it.

~Ed

 

[UNCLERUCKUS]

LET US KNOW IF IT WORKS. IM INTERESTED TO KNOW WHAT IT ACTUALLY IS THAT YOUR FISH HAS AS WELL. BEST OF LUCK TO YOU.

 

[SubMariner]

I have actually had 2 of my Protomelas Spilonotus Tanzanian's have the same problem. Typically, it stems from damage to the eye and then the eye somehow gets infected or attacked by a worm in the tank or other parasites. I tried everything, but they both eventually lost their eye.

Nevertheless, it's one of the hardest situations to deal with, but the fish does survive just fine afterward. I concur with Andrew on the meds, but once it's in the eye it is very difficult to cure and the probability to repair the eye is quite low.

I don't particularly like Clout and if I'm not mistaken one of our speakers at the CCA a while back once said, that dropping Clout in your tank is like dropping a Nuclear Bomb on your fish. PraziPro is good to and I hope everything works out. Keep us up to date.

Good Luck,


Richard

 

[UNCLERUCKUS]

I have actually had 2 of my Protomelas Spilonotus Tanzanian's have the same problem. Typically, it stems from damage to the eye and then the eye somehow gets infected or attacked by a worm in the tank or other parasites. I tried everything, but they both eventually lost their eye.

Nevertheless, it's one of the hardest situations to deal with, but the fish does survive just fine afterward. I concur with Andrew on the meds, but once it's in the eye it is very difficult to cure and the probability to repair the eye is quite low.

I don't particularly like Clout and if I'm not mistaken one of our speakers at the CCA a while back once said, that dropping Clout in your tank is like dropping a Nuclear Bomb on your fish. PraziPro is good to and I hope everything works out. Keep us up to date.

Good Luck,


Richard

OMG!

 

[neut]

Been a while since I've used the Jungle Product, don't remember any coloring effect on silicone, etc, but like I said it's been a while. It claims not to harm the filter and from what I've seen people who use it seem to agree with that. From what I've read, the current formula has actually changed since I last used it and I've seen people get great results with it.

What I have used recently is the Metro/Prazi combo (to get some skinny lfs geos eating) and the bio-filter didn't skip a beat and I didn't see any coloration of water, silicone, sand, etc. My sand is Eco-Complete cichlid sand (salt and pepper look).

 

[Cartel]

I used the jungle labs stuff a few months ago and it did not stain my white 3M colorquartz sand or anything else for that matter so I would not worry about that being an issue.

 

[emartin]

The eye is looking a little better already, I dosed a super small (1/6 dose) amount of Clout so I think it's the huge amount of salt I added that is helping.

Either way I ordered Jungle Parasite Clear from kensfish so I should have it on Friday to treat the 60g and then the 265g as a preventative (I checked all the fish tonight, everybody is healthy. Right now there's a triple dose of Metronidasole in the water and 14cups of salt in there, I already think that's more than enough to kill any exposed parasites in the water).

Thanks again everybody,
~Ed

 

[SubMariner]

Man, you might as well convert that tank to a Salt water tank with all that Salt Ed. LOL!