Help! Skinny Bicolor blenny and heavy breathing

[Jay Hemdal]

Yes, this had not even had a chance to land on the sandbed. I'm not sure if any vets around here will have that, I may need to call around. I had read a little about fenbendazole earlier and it looks like it may negatively impact snails and shrimp? Are there any other treatments that would prevent me from having to remove the snails and shrimp? I think the pistol shrimp particularly may be touch to snag and I'd hate to separate him from his goby. Another question is if I did remove all the inverts to treat the tank, would these nematodes just reappear once I put the inverts back in the tank (i.e. hitchhiking on the snails/shrimp back and forth) ?

Fenbendazole has some toxicity issues with some species of fish (flashlight fish, darters, catfish and perhaps some yet unknown species). It has been used for general marine aquarium fishes without many reported issues. Since it is typically used in a quarantine scenario, I don't know all of the possible effects it might have on invertebrates. I wonder if what you read about it killing invertebrates may be attributed to FLUBENDAZOLE? That is known to be toxic to snails, anemones and corals.

Some nematodes have direct development, and others require secondary hosts. The latter can be an issue if they then reinfect fish that have been treated and returned to the tank housing the original infection.

Levamisole is another option. It is dosed in the water at 10 mg/l one time.

Both Fenbendazole and Levamisole can be used orally, but dosing them is tricky - you must know the weight of the fish. Levamisole is dosed orally at 5 mg per kg of fish mass daily for 7 days. Fenbendazole is dosed at 25 mg per day for three days.

If you want to go the oral route, you'll need to use this thread:

Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods

Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods Jay Hemdal c. 2020 Oral medications are an excellent way to target internal diseases of fishes. Marine fish absorb aquarium water, so in certain cases, they “drink” enough medication from the water to effect a cure. However, freshwater fish actively export...

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We also have an oral dose calculator:

Fish Disease Calculators

During the course of caring for our fish, we often need to make calculations regarding several recommended treatment options. Most water quality maintenance steps are supported by calculations provided in the "Reef Chemistry by Randy Holmes Farley" forum. Taking it a step further, additional...

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Jay