Prazi meds, UV on or Off?

[An Ly]

Hi all, helping my neighbor with his Koi, he noticed his Koi been flashing and laying on bottom of pond, so I did a scraping of one of the fish on my microscope it turns out he has the TriFecta(Flukes,Costia,Chilodinela) no wonder the poor fish are not doing well, we started treating it with Proform C, and on third day mix in Prazi,amazing how expensive the thing is. I dissolve the Prazi in the Proform C and mix it real well, hard to dissolve it took a while then poor about 4 gallon of pond water in the mixture, mix it some more than goes into pond?

The question I have for all the Docs. is would you leave your UV running? Some article say turn if off because of inactivation of Prazi, some say just it's okay to let UV running? Not sure what some Guru Thinks?

Never really Use Prazi, myself suppose to be the best Meds. for Flukes on the Market, how fast would you see the results? now his koi is just parked at the bottom his ponds not doing much.

Thanks,
An

[MikeM]

I have seen posts stating that you can leave the UV on with Prazi. But, the Prazi-Pro instructions say to turn the UV off. I'd turn it off. Won't hurt anything to leave it off for a week.

Good luck on treating the fish.

[An Ly]

hi Mike, I just put it in about 1 hour now how soon should you see the results on Prazi, is it hours or days?

forgot to ask if you double the dosage on the Proform C, would this effect your filter in anyway.

Thanks all,
An

[MikeM]

In my experience, Prazi results in some flashing during the first 12 hours. (Some say from the flukes being irritated.) After 48 hours, the flukes are gone. But, leave it without water changes for 7-10 days to get a thorough 'kill' and eliminate the next generation hatching out.

I would be very concerned about using any medication at more than the recommended rate. Doubling the amount used is asking for trouble! ProForm C is milder than other forms of formalin & malachite green, but it is still serious stuff. Depending on the level of organics and algae in the pond, there may be very serious consequences. I suggest you go to koivet.com and read the article on Proform C.

[An Ly]

thanks Mike, neighbors been watching his koi since we put the Prazi in, he called me and let me know that kois are flashing more now, exactly what you said Mike, maybe the Flukes are irritated. thanks again for all your help, hopefully this one treatment will do it, like they said all you need is one treatment, I will microscope his fish and about 5 days from now and see, thanks for your expertise Mike.

An

[gspotmc]

Do not over medicate. Just use regular dosage or as per instruction. also turn off your UV. Don't do any water change for the next 7 days.
Michael

[bekko]

ProForm C says to dose on three consecutive days with a water change of at least 25% between doses. That would wash out the prazi.

I think that the three consecutive days of ProForm C is too toxic for the fish. With fingerlings you see a few percent of the fish become disoriented and later die despite the fact that they are as clean as a whistle with respect to parasites and gill function seems normal. If there are obvious toxic effects in fingerlings, then there are probably sublethal effects in adults.

-s

[An Ly]

hi all, my neighbor notice one of his sanke die this morning, I came over and examine the fish, I didn't see any ulcer, I put the fish in a bucket, and for the first time i saw so many what turns out to bue Argulus(fish Lice) swimming around the bucket, I was a little shock, You can actually see the little critter swimming about, it was round, at first didn't know what the hell it was, looked it up and notice the picture exactly what i saw from KoiVet, but they only mention Dimilin as treatment, not sure how to treat this, can anyone explain more about this Fish Lice and what the damage they cause,and the treatment please. I did three scrape didn't see anything, now our new problem with his pond is Argulus. Men it never end, one problem after another. thanks

An

[An Ly]

Argulus japonicus Thiele, 1900

Argulus japonicus Dorsal View


Argulus japonicus Ventral View

The genus Argulus (Crustacea: Branchiura) has a worldwide distribution. It is an ectoparasite, primarily found on fish. The classification is as follows:
Phylum Arthropoda
Subphylum Crustacea
Class Maxillopoda
Subclass Branchiura
Order Arguloida
Family Argulidae
Genus Argulus
The photos above were taken by Mr. Kevin Charton of Delta Optical with TAMU-T's new dissecting microscope and digital camera. Specimens supplied by Tim Eddings.

Some links for Argulus

• Disease information -- http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/argulus.htm

[MikeM]

Argulus are TERRIBLE! All kinds of small wounds that can lead to infections, etc. But, I'd guess the death was caused by the other parasites. Chilodonella and Costia can kill quickly. I've never had Argulus, but have seen them. Makes the skin crawl to look at them on a fish.

Your friend seems to have everything imaginable. (I think trichodina is about all he is missing!) A treatment plan is needed. Unless you can find a reliable source that dimilin can be used with Proform C, I'd not use it until other problems are under control. But, I defer to those more experienced in this sort of situation. ... If beginning treatment now, I'd do one treatment of ProformC, water change, then a treatment of Proform C and Prazi together (7 days), water change, then dimilin, water change and then a third treatment of ProformC. Without the argulus, I'd do the 3 consecutive ProformC treatments with Prazi in the last one. With so many parasites, some losses are likely inevitable. Again, I defer to those with experience dealing with all these critters at the same time! I've not had the 'pleasure' of the learning experience.