Internal Parasites In Fish Treatment – A Last Resort

So you’ve tried it all. You’ve tried the General Cure, you’ve tried the Prozypro, you even tried my method of feeding Metroplex, but none have been effective for Internal Parasites in Fish Treatment. Your fish still has white stringy poop, still has sunken belly, still not eating, still has internal parasites!

Well this method of Injecting General Cure mixed with an Epsom Salt solution directly into the fish stomach is the best way to get results, but should only be used as a last resort. If this doesn’t cure your fish of those internal parasites nothing will!

 

First Step To Internal Parasites In Fish Treatment

There is a great method to eliminating internal parasites which doesn’t involve the intrusiveness of this last resort method. Using a mix of your favorite fish food, with Metroplex, Focus, and Garlic Guard, you can feed your fish this medication so it goes straight to their gut where it needs to be.

This method is much more effective than just medicating the tank water alone. If your fish has stopped eating I suggest that you try this method first before trying what I’m going to show you here.

So for those of you that have already tried that with no success, or if your fish just wont eat the medicated food, this method should be your last resort to save your fish.

 

Injecting Internal Parasite Medication

I’m going to show you how to inject the medication directly into their stomach through the mouth. It’s very intrusive and you can hurt your fish if done wrong, but its not difficult to do, the thought of it is probably worse than the actual execution.

 

Materials Needed

-We’re using API General Cure as our medication this time. General Cure has both Metronidazole and Proziquantel which will attack 2 different types of internal parasites.

–Epsom Salt (not aquarium salt which is very different) Epsom salt is a laxative which will help your fish poop and clean out the digestive system.

– Plastic pipet droppers. These are usually used to feed corals, they come in many different sizes and are made without any sharp edges that can hurt your fish.

-2 cups of tank water

– Extra mixing cup

 

Mixing the Solution

First we start with making a 3% solution of Epsom salt. Using your 2 cups of water add 2 table spoons of Epsom salt. Mix it well until its fully dissolved and now we have a 3% solution.

Now pour just a bit of this solution into our mixing cup, no measurement really just enough to mix and dissolve the medication we’re about to add.

Now make sure to keep the rest of this 3% solution because we’re going to repeat this procedure for the next 3-5 days. So set that to the side somewhere.

Add about half a packet of General Cure (Or Fritz ParaCleanse, same thing) to your mixing cup and stir until its mixed and dissolved.

….now we’re ready to inject this solution into the gut.

 

Injecting Solution Into The Gut

 

For those of you that don’t know this is Flava Flave my Flavescent Peacock and I’ve been trying to get rid of his internal parasites for a while now. The first method worked for all my other fish but Flave continued to be a finicky eater and wouldn’t eat the medicated food all the time.

So I’m going to this last resort to try and save him!

Before handling your fish make sure you have a damp towel set up in case your fish slips out of your hands. Also your hands should be wet to avoid removing the fishes slime coat.

Suck up some of the solution into your dropper and make sure there isn’t any air in the dropper. You don’t want to inject air into the stomach.

When attempting to inject the meds you must insert the dropper past the gills. If you don’t go in past the gills the solution will come right back out. If the solution leaks back out through the mouth that’s no good either. You want the meds to go directly into the gut.

By measuring with the dropper from the outside of the fish you can see just how far in you need to go to get passed the gills.

 

This is a very intrusive procedure so be as gentle as you can. You will be able to actually feel when you’ve entered the stomach.

You’d want to repeat this procedure for about 3-5 days or until your fish begins eating again on his own, then you can go back to the previous method of medicating the food for about a week to make sure you’ve eliminated those Internal Parasites.

 

Conclusion

After about a week, Flave was back eating again. His colors were popping and fins flared up all the time, which to me means he’s kinda feeling himself lol.

Give this method a shot if you’ve tried everything else and hopefully you can save your guy too. Good Luck! 💪

 

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