Is it a bad idea to dose praziquantel pro without doing a fw dip

[ILikeFish!]

I think my fish might have flukes so i was going to just put some praziquantel in the tank but i saw a old post that said that if you don't do a fw dip the fish can bleed out after the flukes fall off. is this true?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I think my fish might have flukes so i was going to just put some praziquantel in the tank but i saw a old post that said that if you don't do a fw dip the fish can bleed out after the flukes fall off. is this true?

Freshwater dip not necessary
It’s a step for temporary relief and not a treatment

 

[piranhaman00]

Freshwater dip not necessary
It’s a step for temporary relief and not a treatment

They are asking if doing a dip first before treatment is necessary to dislodge flukes before zapping them.

While not necessary in all cases it may be in extreme infections.

 

[vetteguy53081]

They are asking if doing a dip first before treatment is necessary to dislodge flukes before zapping them.

While not necessary in all cases it may be in extreme infections.

Fish do not bleed out without a FW dip
FW dip will dislodge a few flukes if flukes but not stop or cause adverse effects

 

[Miami Reef]

Fish do not bleed out without a FW dip
FW dip will dislodge a few flukes if flukes but not stop or cause adverse effects

Yes they can.

Praziquantel works by causing spasms and dislodging the flukes from the fish.

If the fish is extremely infected, the flukes can cause superficial wounds. In high numbers of flukes, the fish can bleed out.

However, in normal cases, a fresh water dip is not necessary.

 

[Miami Reef]

One thing that can happen - when you dose praziquantel, the flukes move around a bit before they drop off, and then, when they do drop off, they leave tiny holes in the fish's skin. That can actually make the visible symptoms WORSE for a time. In severe fluke infections, fish can actually die due to "bleeding out" when all the flukes drop off

 

[piranhaman00]

Fish do not bleed out without a FW dip
FW dip will dislodge a few flukes if flukes but not stop or cause adverse effects

Per many sources they can. See above.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yes - I've had fish bleed out after FW dips and after prazi. In every case though, the fish was close to death from the flukes themselves, and I had missed the early signs. I now treat prophylactically, before the fish show symptoms, so that doesn't happen any more to us.

I did experiment with short FW dips if I knew the parasite load was large. My hope was that I could dislodge some of them, then return the fish to the tank to heal for a few days, then dip again, knocking some more off, and repeat until I finally ran prazi on them. In real world cases, that was too difficult to do - I'd kill too many flukes, or not enough each time. Plus the extended messing around with the fish caused handling stress and more chances for secondary infections. I also messed around with low dose prazi to do the same thing - I only tried that a couple of times, but I couldn't get the dose right, it was like "all or nothing".

Jay