Deworming

Hi Prof,

I have had this question for long time now. Seeing that discus is prone to internal worms and I have not yet dewormed as yet how do I go about deworming them. Bearing in mind that I have 2 Ancistrusse in my tank. What do I use, how often do I deworm and how do I deworm.

Also the Zebra pleco's do I deworm them as well?

Thanks.

Laracroft.

 

Hi Marijke,

I could answer very quickly and simply to this request, but it is a lot more complicated actually as a result of which I need to expand quite a bit.

Firstly I need to explain what the parasites actually are that discus can have. They can carry gill flukes, round worms, tape worms and capillaria worms. All have a true worm shape under the microscope and all belong to the family Annelida. They all cause weakening of discus in various degrees and if they get the overhand they can kill discus. However, many discus are also infected with flagellate organisms, which have whip like arms with which they move called flagella, and these also cause massive problems in discus. They are not actual parasitic worms, but are also often referred to as parasites. They will cause discus to stop eating and have white stringy droppings and if not treated will easily kill discus. About 20 years back flagellate organisms caused the death of most aquarium discus, and the disease progressed to show symptoms called hole in the head disease, because this literally caused holes in the head and gill region of discus, but then it was recognised that a shortage of vitamin C actually caused this. Nowadays most discus diets and foods contain vitamin C (not always enough though) and we rarely see hole in the head symptoms but many discus still die because of gut disease because of flagellates. This can be treated with metranidazole at a dosage of 7 mg/ litre and the temp of the aquarium should be increased to 30 C. After three days do a 30-50% water change and repeat the treatment. However unless you improve your diet, this problem will happen again and again.

Now, in order to treat the actual parasitic worms you can treat with Praziquantel (in a tablet sold as Droncit) at 2.5 mg/litre. Do a 30% water change after 4-5 days and redose. However this kills gill flukes, tape worms but not round worms. In order to kill all worms you need to use Flubendazole. The locally available flubendazole is sold at 1.66% for the treatment of worms in pigs (this was when I last checked a few years ago). If you use this at the recommended active ingredient dosage then at least half of your discus deflate their swimbladders and lie on their sides on the bottom of the aquarium and even if you remove the medication, then only half recover so this type of flubendazole can definitely not be used. Overseas a 15% flubendazole is available (google or ask me by PM) and this can be used at 8 mg/litre. The treatment should be repeated at least two times with 30-50% waterchanges in between treatments spaced three days apart. However, frequently eggs of these parasites remain after treatments, or your introduce new parasites with new fishes and the problems occur again.

As a result of these problems, the Germans have just simply got fed up with the problem of these parasites and have decided to try to get rid of these parasites completely. They now do this by taking the eggs away from an infected pair. They then treat the eggs in a solution of metronidazole and put the eggs in fresh water that has not been in contact with discus or any other fishes that may carry parasites. After this they raise the fry artificially and after that they allow the parents to raise their fry naturally again, but they never allow these now parasite free fishes to come into contact with infected fishes again, they keep them completely separate. The Germans call such fishes "Para freie Diskus" and you can google for this for more information.

Unexpectedly, once the Germans had fishes that were parasite free, the fishes grew to massive sizes of 20-22 cm which was just because all the parasites were now gone and not causing growth problems. Such para free discus are magnificent. If I was to import discus again, I would obtain such fishes as they clearly have a major advantage. I am touch with a discus breeder in Germany, Alexander Piwowarski, and I want to show you some of his magnificent para free red turquoise discus below, really massive fishes that are in perfect health because they are free of these problems.

As a result of what I have explained I would therefore not treat discus when they do not show symptoms, but only if they show problems as this is not completely effective in any case and because repeated treatment may just cause the parasites to develop resistance. The bottom line is that treatment with medication can never clear fishes completely of such problems unless you go the para free route and no such fishes are presently available in SA.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi Prof

What is the chances of introducing any of these parasites through your
tap water?

Gerhard

 

Hi Gerhard,

You will not be able to introduce discus specific parasites, but it is not entirely impossible to introduce local parasites through your tap water. However, in a water purification plant in which chlorine is used, all of these parasites should be eliminated.

Kind regards,

Dirk