Isopod/Flukes

[baobao]

Lee,

I lost a Golden Puffer yesterday;

I noticed that there was an isopod on it, which somehow must have been inside it before. Further, I notcied that there were some tiny white stringy attachments on its underbelly (some sort of worm/fluke; maybe you can see it in the photo).

Is there anything I could have done to have prevented this?
As part of my acclimation protocol, I executed the following:
1) FW dip with Methyl blue
2) Prophylactically treated with both Cupramine and Praziquantel

I am a little baffled, because the isopod was still alive even under 2) (Cupramine around 0.4 ppm, a good bit of Praziquantel)

Is there any way to prophylactically treat Puffers for isopods?

Would formalin baths have been effective?

Thanks in advance.

[leebca]

Pods are particularly 'robust' parasites. As I may have mentioned before, nothing addresses all the dozens or even a hundred of the different possibilities that captive fish caught from the wild may be afflicted with. In those concentrations, the copper primarily affects single celled organisms. Invertebrates suffer because of their metabolism, however many pods can live through copper treatments.

You'd be treating each fish for everything and that would probably either kill the fish or make it so stressed as to cause it to fail to acclimate. Your current regime handles the common pathogens and some of even the more obscure ones.

When it comes to these pods, the (human) eyes are your best source for preventing their spread and taking over. Upon acquisition, the fish needs a thorough visual inspection and time spent with the new owner. In larger operations that 'personal' touch is lost and such things as these kinds of pods get through the system. In these kinds of cases, the best prophylactic process is to give the fish close attention.

When found, some are those that can be physically removed. Other need the use of very harsh chemicals known to sometimes harm the host along with killing the parasite. As the parasite goes 'up' the marine family tree of organisms and thus gets closer to fish, the harder they are to eradicate without harming the host.