First time using prazipro. Went horrible

[Larryfish]

Used prazipro on a group of 8 loaches. Most of which actually looked great there was only one in the group which was skinny. Used exact dosage on bottle for tank size, also did a %50 water change before hand , used seachem prime, and a small amount of epsom salt for some plants in the tank From what I’ve read there sometimes is an O2 issue so I added an additional sponge filter to increase aeration. Did some additional work in the fish room and then set an alarm and fell asleep. Checked on the tank two hours later. Just as a precaution. The best five looking loaches were dead. Did I do something wrong ? All of the discus and gold rams are completely fine. And this tank has been cycled for months. Feeling really stupid right now as I should’ve just removed the single CL and treated him by himself. Just trying to wrap my head around what happened maybe it was the Prime prazipro combo. Someone please help

 

[Backfromthedead]

Horrible indeed. Ive had good results with my loaches and prazipro in the past. Some keepers will tell you to half the dosage since loaches are scaleless but i have used full dosage multiple times with no bad results, whenever i bring in a new group actually.

I use prime every time i change water as well. Sometimes i use stresscoat if my source water is very cold.

More details are needed here. What is your tank size? Did you dose the prazipro before you filled the tank back up by any chance? Thats the only way i could see an overdose happening if you followed the instructions on the bottle. It could be that mixing up such a cocktail in a relatively small tank halfway filled was just too much for loaches who are much more sensitive than your other scaled fish.

The only time ive had fish drop dead like that after water changes was when i made a critical error like not using nearly enough dechlorinator or forgetting altogether.

While prazipro may help with flukes and worms and other macroparasites it is my experience that is does not fully address the root cause of "skinny" disease which most believe to be spironuclea or other microparasites. I recently put my loaches on a 5 week diet of pellets soaked in an epsom salt solution every morning and the few skinnies i had are now impossible to tell from the rest of the healthy loaches. I think theres a sticky thread around here somewhere detailing the procedure...

 

[Larryfish]

Tank is just a 55 gal grow out tank. Bare bottom with some potted plants. I completely filled tank before adding. Very frustrating because I researched for hours. If I would’ve known about the epsom salt pellet soak I wouldn’t have even used prazipro. It just sucks because I have been growing them out over a month now. And all but one looked great.

 

[Larryfish]

Horrible indeed. Ive had good results with my loaches and prazipro in the past. Some keepers will tell you to half the dosage since loaches are scaleless but i have used full dosage multiple times with no bad results, whenever i bring in a new group actually.

I use prime every time i change water as well. Sometimes i use stresscoat if my source water is very cold.

More details are needed here. What is your tank size? Did you dose the prazipro before you filled the tank back up by any chance? Thats the only way i could see an overdose happening if you followed the instructions on the bottle. It could be that mixing up such a cocktail in a relatively small tank halfway filled was just too much for loaches who are much more sensitive than your other scaled fish.

The only time ive had fish drop dead like that after water changes was when i made a critical error like not using nearly enough dechlorinator or forgetting altogether.

While prazipro may help with flukes and worms and other macroparasites it is my experience that is does not fully address the root cause of "skinny" disease which most believe to be spironuclea or other microparasites. I recently put my loaches on a 5 week diet of pellets soaked in an epsom salt solution every morning and the few skinnies i had are now impossible to tell from the rest of the healthy loaches. I think theres a sticky thread around here somewhere detailing the procedure...

Are you able to post a link to the sticky thread or let me know the details of the pellet soak. Appreciate the reply

 

[Backfromthedead]

Are you able to post a link to the sticky thread or let me know the details of the pellet soak. Appreciate the reply

Found it, good ol RD.

Treating Hexamita aka Spironucleus

Treating Hexamita aka Spironucleus with Epsom Salt Solution This is a rather safe way to treat any newly imported fish, as a prophylactic, just as one would use a de-wormer. It's not only an extremely cheap way to treat fish, the active ingredients are readily available world-wide, and it's...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

i feel your pain, man. Ive been trying to grow monster loaches for most of my fishkeeping career but have never gotten a group past 5-6" without some kind of disaster. Always learning, hope i can keep my current group on the up and up.

Check out my thread "clown loach growth thread" if you want to see some before and after of my experience with epsom salt. RD. pretty much had to twist my arm before i tried it and im glad i did.

I will probably still continue to treat new loaches for macros with prazipro. To be clear, i usually start with a half dose after a water change, then after the next water change use a full dose. If the problem isnt solved with the second dose than prazipro is not going to cure whatever ailment they have imo.

 

[Larryfish]

Thank you so much!