Re: Possible gill flukes?

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>]

Bailin,

You may be jumping the gun on your diagnosis. If these are wild caught fish it
may not be a gill parasite at all. Instead it may be that their gills were
damaged by high levels of ammonia, caused by being ship in a densely packed bag.
This is common for dwarf cichlids. I had Dr. Ken Reeves (of discus health fame)
do a study on why wild caught apistos die in large numbers. After dozens of
necropsies he found no deaths caused by disease or parasites, but all had damaged
gill filaments caused by ammonia poisoning. See: Wise, M. 1987. The "delicate"
wild-caught apisto - why? The Apisto-gram 5(2): 5-7.

I'd suggest clean highly oxygenated water for a week before resorting to
medication that might damage the gills further.

Mike Wise

Bailin Shaw wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> I was fortunate enough to purchase a pair of A. agasizii.  I'm not certain
> if they're a female/male pair, but that's okay.  I'll cross that road later.
>   I had to transport these fish from Texas to Oklahoma, and think that they
> are pretty stressed.  However, these fish were breathing pretty hard when I
> bought them, so I suspect they have flukes of some sort.  What is the best
> medication for treating gill flukes.  I have a rpoduct that is called
> Paragon that was recommended by the fish store, but would appreciate any
> other suggestions.  I also will be changing 25% of the water prior to
> starting the treatment.  Thanks.
>
> Bailin
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