cleaning pond - eliminating parasite eggs?

10 years ago

Im not sure what my fish had - I think both body and gill flukes. Whether or not they had, or have, worms I'm not entirely sure - they are seeming better, the one fish in particular a little less bloaty.

When I clean out my pond, if I let it dry out and bake in the sun for about a week is that going to eliminate all the nasty eggs or should I treat it with something else like PP before I empty the pond? I'm really reluctant to do that because it would kill off the string algae which took me about a year and 1/2 to get established. (I LIKE STRING ALGAE! It uses up the nitrate, my fish eat it and keep it mowed so it looks pretty like green plush.) However, if that's what I have to do to get rid of the nasty buggers then maybe I will.

This is pic from last year - with Redtop leading the way, the one who succumbed to gill flukes a few weeks ago (his gills I saw were pretty much gone). RIP - he was the friendliest fish, always first to spot me and come running for dinner.

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Comments (8)

Sharpchick
10 years ago
By PP, I assume you mean PraziPro.

It had no effect at all on any of my plants, including the algae.

I dose X3 in the spring and once in the fall.
ademink
10 years ago
PP - Potassium permanganate. If you fully nuke the pond then yes...it will clean it out good.

What did you end up doing for the gill flukes? If the gills looked really bad, it may have had bacterial gill disease.

How are your fish now??
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Oh darlin', how stressful for you and the fish. I thought about lots of woo-woo that could be going on but do you suppose they are hiding in plain sight when they see what they think might be a threat? Or perhaps Shark just still needs a rest once in awhile in a spot he thinks is safe and Spectacles is commiserating? Prazi is pretty potent stuff. Do the math again to eliminate all the stuff in the pond. It may be closer to accurate than you think. If nothing else it will keep you busy and not obsessing. I needed to use it only once and remember being a nervous wreck about getting it right but it worked like a charm. Now after all the warnings they used to put out, they say it is gentle and you don't have to repeat it. Guess it has been a long time since I used it for the pond. I'm not sure why you used it though. Do you know for sure they had parasites or was it prophylactic? If that was it then a lower dosage might have been called for anyhow. Since I'm not a Vet I'm probably just blowing smoke. There are so many newbies here. Maybe it is time for a discussion about Praziquantel. I know I needed a refresher. I attached a link signed by Dr. Johnson. Here is a link that might be useful: tips on using Praziquantel.
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Debbie Downer
Original Author
10 years ago
I did a prazi routine 2x, 7 days each. I was going to get them in the pond and then maybe do one more prazi treatment out there but the weather has been so horribly cold and wet I havent gotten them out. I decided I just do NOT want to wreck my algae/bacteria ecosystem by using PP on it.

I fed them food soaked in prazi for7 days because I was paranoid about tape worms - havent seen any white pieces lately so who knows.

The remaining fish look fine, better than they have in years. The ones with white, their white is much whiter - they probably had body flukes as well. They actually started looking better that very same night I started treatment- that was the day I saw them ALL at the surface with their gills flapping - I did a radical water change of about 90% and even then they seemed better, then added the prazi, and the next morning they were swimming around seemingly happy and normal. WHEW....

I am still seeing the occasional long threadlike, wormlike thing (clear) so who knows. Someone may have calmarus (sp????) worms... which requires a different treatment).

What I find kind of frustrating is that with flukes, they take much longer to hatch at cold temps rather than at warm temps. No where could I find any kind of info about how long the intervals might be at different temperatures. IE if my water temps are 50, then what would the hatching interval be? I treated 7 days apart, but it could be that I still missed the next batch of eggs hatching. They might hatch out at 65 and then I'll have a mess all over again.

If anyone's looking for a science project, that would be a good one to do!
ademink
10 years ago
I literally just finished FIVE rounds of prazi 5-7 days apart. Gill flukes are HARD to get rid of!
Debbie Downer
Original Author
10 years ago
Ughhhh.... that's what I was afraid of. How do you know if you have gotten rid of them????

I see some fish mouthing again - like they have mouth flukes. Either that or they're begging for food!
ademink
10 years ago
Scraping and scoping...and even then you can miss them. That's why I decided to mercilessly prazi them to death. lol If I were you...I'd do a few more rounds, 5 days apart.
ademink
10 years ago
What does "mouthing" mean? Yawning type of motion?
Debbie Downer
Original Author
10 years ago
That thing they do, opening and closing mouth repeatedly. May be begging for food though. Those dang fish can sense me coming from a long ways away.

cleaning pond - eliminating parasite eggs?

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Sharpchick

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cleaning pond - eliminating parasite eggs?

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Sharpchick

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