Effectiveness of Prazi?

[craniac24]

Hi Everyone,

After re-aquainting myself with discus, I recently set up a new tank and picked up 8 juveniles a few weeks ago. Soon after, one of my blue diamonds started started breathing VERY rapidly using only one gill. The obvious conclusion (to me, anyway) was gill flukes. I purchased some Prazi and administered as directed.

The first dose I gave the tank was a week ago. A day after the first dose I noticed that there was a good amount of powder at the bottom of my canister filter. Although I felt that I had mixed the Prazi well, evidently this stuff wasn't very soluable. The blue diamond was still breathing very heavily...still using one gill, and wasn't looking very good. In addition, I would find most of my other fish occasionally scratching themselves against my plants. All of them otherwise appear healthy and are eating well, but clearly the first dose of Prazi didn't have much effect.

So yesterday, I adminstered a second dose. This time I mixed the powder with water in a blender at its highest speed for over a minute. Today, I don't see nearly as much powder in the bottom of my filter, but the fish are still scratching! The blue diamond's breathing seems to be slower but still faster than it should be.

I'm wondering what's going on here. I've heard nothing but great things about the effectiveness of Prazi on gill flukes, but I don't seem to be experiencing the same success. I heard that you can use acetone to make dissolving Prazi easier, but I really don't want to mess with that.

Your thoughts are appreciated!

[Bill T.]

I have recently had some success with Sterazine but have had to go through two lots of treatment. This product is in a liquid form so there is no residue.
When I have used prazi in the past I have crushed and disolved some of the tablets in a bit of aquarium water along with a good serve of frozen blood worms - let them thaw out and soak for a while. The fish eat the blood worms and, theoretically, take in some of the prazi at the same time.
You might ask ladyred for her opinion - she knows a lot and gives reliable advice.

[Merrilyn]

Hi craniac. You may have read in this section the experience others are having with a particularly nasty strain of gill flukes, which seems resistant to prazi. Nasties develop a resistance to a particular drug because of misuse. Somewhere along the line, someone has administered an ineffective dose of prazi, either too weak a dose or failed to do a follow up treatment. As you may know, this kills some of the nasties, but the ones that survive develop an immunity to prazi, so we have to look for something else, usually something stronger, to kill off all the bugs.

I suggest you go back to your aquarium shop and ask for something with a different active ingredient, and give that a try.

[weird]

Might be worthwhile asking Rod Lewis from Sunshine Discus. I remember reading an interview with him (hi Rod if your reading !)and he mentioned using something different for treating a common problem but not sure if it was for flukes.