Jay Hemdal
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Hi @Jay Hemdal
I observed the tang for 2 hours today. He had 3 scratching episodes of 5 or fewer scratches each. It strongly resembles the onset of the previous episode (before dosing Prazi).
I cannot see anything on him yet with the naked eye and the macro photos don't reveal anything obvious to me.
Here are a few close ups from this morning:
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Here is a video of him scratching followed by 1 minute of "normal" behaviour:
Based on your advice above, my thinking is that it is flukes and they were seriously set back by the Prazi but not totally eliminated, possibly because of a shorter cycle (e.g. 5 days). Also this QT had seen Prazi a few months back so it is possible a large amount of Prazi eating bacteria was ready to bloom after the first dose.
Questions:
Is the next logical step to transition him to hyposalinity?
If yes:
Do we do it right away or do we wait for the end of this 8 day Prazi treatment?
How fast can we safely drop the salinity?
Is this the same duration as the Prazi (e.g. 16 days at 16ppt) and then follow this by 21 or 30 days of copper?
Or should I aim for the lower 12ppt for 21 or 30 days and skip the copper treatment altogether?
Apologies for the barrage of questions! We're not in any rush with him so we'd rather pick the better treatment over the shortest one.
Thanks again for all your help.
It's breathing a bit fast, and some of the scratching does look like flukes, but some of it is stereotypic behavior (swimming in the same pattern). Another thing to keep in mind - if there are particles floating in the water (from the nori perhaps) if they land on the fish, it will elicit a bout of scratching. Fish do that in response to anything stuck to their skin. I didn't see a lot of particles in the water, but you would be the best judge of that.
For flukes, the treatment would be 16 ppt for 30 days (I often go 35 days). For marine ich (as well as flukes), the level needs to be 12 ppt for 30 days. However, the 12 ppt is not without some increased risk to the fish. You'll need to decide your level of risk from potential ich versus just treating for flukes.
You can lower the salinity fairly fast using dechlorinated tap water at the same temperature as the tank - lowering it in at least four steps over 48 to 72 hours.
Doh! I forgot I had posted an article on hyposalinity - here it is:
Hyposalinity
Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2021 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...
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Jay