eye flukes?

[daniella3d]

Hi,

When I got this niger trigger it had a large popeye and I treated it with Paraguard for 3 weeks. The fish was in quarantine for 5 weeks and the popeye receided. After 3 weeks of Paraguard I thought there was not much else I could do for his eye and stopped the treatment as the popeye was much better.

Now the problem is, the popeye is gone but there is still some cloudiness and I was wondering if this is only a remaining of the popeye healing or is it eye flukes?

Would eye flukes not be killed with 3 weeks of paraguard treatment? The eye was more cloudy before and seem to be clearing up but not sure if this could be flukes.

here is a pic and on the top right corner you can see a 100% of the eye close up:

[Delphinus]

I hate to say it, sorry, but I am thinking flukes.

I did a quick lookup of Paraguard: http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod...ParaGuard.html
... and unfortunately I don't see anything that lists specifically against flukes or flatworms. As far as I understand, flukes are a flatworm and thus require a specific medication against flatworms, such as praziquantel (which is available either as "praziquantel" or as "Prazipro" which is a liquid solution but contains praziquantel as the active ingredient).

http://www.uskoi.com/prazipro.htm

I'm trying to find a product description for the praziquantel powder that I used to treat skin/gill flukes when I had a fish with them but as it was a year ago now I'm having trouble finding the webpage I found back then. I'll keep searching and post it if/when I find it.

[Delphinus]

Found it: I used Praz-Tastic.

More info here: http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/products4.html

Some more reading on flukes if you're interested..
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=57604&
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1260067&

[daniella3d]

I read that it does kill flukes. Here is a reply from the Seachem tech support:

"Paraguard is very effective against gill flukes and the ich parasite. It is a broad spectrum medication that treats for external parasites, bacterial infections, fungal infections, and viral infections. The best administration of this medication is in a quarantine system, as it is not 100% guaranteed reef/invert safe."

Probably I should give the trigger a freshwater dip and see if any of these fall of. If they are flukes, they will detach and then I will know for sure. The trigger is in the display tank, so that does not sound good if these are flukes as they are in the main tank now

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I hate to say it, sorry, but I am thinking flukes.

I did a quick lookup of Paraguard: http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod...ParaGuard.html
... and unfortunately I don't see anything that lists specifically against flukes or flatworms. As far as I understand, flukes are a flatworm and thus require a specific medication against flatworms, such as praziquantel (which is available either as "praziquantel" or as "Prazipro" which is a liquid solution but contains praziquantel as the active ingredient).

http://www.uskoi.com/prazipro.htm

I'm trying to find a product description for the praziquantel powder that I used to treat skin/gill flukes when I had a fish with them but as it was a year ago now I'm having trouble finding the webpage I found back then. I'll keep searching and post it if/when I find it.

[Delphinus]

Yeah, sorry, I just have no experience with Paraguard so I have no idea what to say. If Seachem says it is effective against flukes I see no reason not to take their word for it.

One possibility is that your trigger HAD flukes while in QT, and this is just some residual scarring or abrasion.. if so, it should clear up on its own.

To my eye it is hard to tell the difference between a fluke and any opaque spotting on the eye. It's hard to tell if this is just an artifact on the photo but there are 3 suspicious spots on the picture other than the eye: right behind the right side pectoral fin, right in the middle of the dorsal fin, and right at the top in front of the caudal fin (the "tail"). It could be nothing but it's worth double-checking to be sure.

For now I would do nothing other than wait and observe. It could just be leftover from the previous treatment and eventually clears up on its own.

[daniella3d]

sorry those white spots are on the aquarium glass as I did not have the time to clean the glass today and those are some coraline spots on my glass. No spot on the fish and he's very healthy with ogre appetite

What I decided to do is before I take the fish out I will monitor these spots on the eyes and see if they move around the eye. If they do move then I will know it's flukes. If they are not flukes then it will remain the same and slowly go away. I will take photographs each day and compare them to see if these move.

When I first got the fish I beleive it did have flukes but inside the eye that had the popeye because there was something very apparent and white inside its eye that cleared in a few days with Paraguard.

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Yeah, sorry, I just have no experience with Paraguard so I have no idea what to say. If Seachem says it is effective against flukes I see no reason not to take their word for it.

One possibility is that your trigger HAD flukes while in QT, and this is just some residual scarring or abrasion.. if so, it should clear up on its own.

To my eye it is hard to tell the difference between a fluke and any opaque spotting on the eye. It's hard to tell if this is just an artifact on the photo but there are 3 suspicious spots on the picture other than the eye: right behind the right side pectoral fin, right in the middle of the dorsal fin, and right at the top in front of the caudal fin (the "tail"). It could be nothing but it's worth double-checking to be sure.

For now I would do nothing other than wait and observe. It could just be leftover from the previous treatment and eventually clears up on its own.