What am i looking at? anchor worm? fungus?

Ok, so I decided to call API aquarium pharmaceuticals about their product general cure to hear it from the mouth of the maker:

He openly admits the current product of metronidazole & praziquantel does nothing for anchor worm or fish lice. He confirms my prior statements, Metro is for anaerobic bacteria and Protozoa, prazi is for flukes and worms. And he advises the use of IDI drugs instead. The box is a misprint from the old formulation including the active ingredient trichloroform which did work well for anchors and lice. This chemical is off the market for being hazardous. The misleading boxes will be changed.

I'm glad they admit fault and seem apologetic.
 
thanks kuphie

anychance you could cut and paste the exact message and the source of the info?

im going to be calling them up or emailing them for a refund... $17 for a useless misadvertized product is a bit too steep for me
 
I called the product/technical support line: Contact Us - API

I hope you get your money back. The general public doesn't know better then what the box tells them. Misinformation really irritates me. As the youngest working at a vet office i have to explain often "i know what you've been told, but I'm telling you now, that person was wrong" This is why I always research active ingredients.
 
i have not been able to contact API yet

i did manage to contact a dealer for microbe lift.... unfortunately the product is not available in Canada

Ive stopped treatment. So eventually the anchors will be over running that tank :(

Until i find an axies safe proven product that is available in canada.... i guess my axies are in a bit of trouble :(
 
See if you can find Proform-LA, it is also listed safe for amphibians and many other aquatic species. Unfortunately, you may just have to try something not on the "known safe list"(but obviously not on the toxic list) that is available due to Canadian restrictions - and watch very carefully and remove them at the first sign of trouble, but if you don't do anything, then they are just going to continue to take over and could have even worse consequences :/
 
That's so frustrating, I would call a vet for advise. Maybe a vet can order these drugs but the general public can't. Ask the vet about any available IGR/IDI drugs, most should be safe for creatures without chitin. If you can't get dimilin or cyromazine products I doubt you can get proform-LA. Sounds like Canada is strict about these IGR/IDI drugs.

Well, most vets have lufeneron products (in the US), which was stated in an article on VIN for fish lice in tadpoles. 15mg/L for 3 wks, 50% water change every 7days followed by redosing. Salts were also added to the water to prevent secondary infection.
Here's a link to the article: http://www.aalas.org/pdfUtility.aspx?pdf=JAALAS/40_06_08.pdf

Keep aquarium salts in the water for now to help with secondary infections until you can get what you need. I did that for over 2 weeks until I could get the drugs I needed. Hang in there and keep searching.
 
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Hello,

I used tetra's Parasite Guard tablets on the anchor worms on my axolotls a few weeks ago and haven't seen any new ones yet. It has diflubenzuron in it as well as a few other things that i researched and looked safe for the axies (but not absolutely sure) mine did not seem stressed at all. Hope you get it under control. Also read somewhere that the lifecycle cannot continue if the temperature of the water is less than 15deg C. Not sure for how long.

Got it at petsmart $4.99 for 8 tablets (one tablet does 10 gallons but i half dosed it) Yellow box.
 
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how much salt do you add to a tank?

so the tetra product looks like it works? can you confirm if attached anchor worms are dead and have dropped off?
 
I haven't had to add any salt to the tanks yet, have fairly hard water here that seems to have lots of salts in it. My axies only had afew each that i pulled off when they were alive and less fragile (tell you the truth i wasn't sure what they were until i pulled them off and looked under a microscope and searched the internet) They are quite gross up close, spewing eggs/larva/nauplii everywhere. I took the carbon out of the filter like the box says and put one tablet into a 10 gallon tank (half dose) That was weeks ago and i haven't seen any come back yet. The box recommends three treatments a week apart (for fish) if i remember. My friend had anchors at the same time and tried the API treatment and it did not work at all, hers are back with a vengence. Pretty sure the anchor worms came from the pet store as we both got them from same place. That leads me to believe the Parasite guard works as I seem to have gotten rid of them. And it's so cheap i am going to quarantine feeder fish from now on and treat them with it so i never have them again, or just stay away from feeders.

Another thing i did at the same time was crack a window in the basement and lowered the temperature to 12-14C for a few week as my search of the internet found a paper that said that anchor worm cycle cannot continue if temperature is less than 15C. Not sure if true but since axies like the cold i tried it too. I guess fridging axies would do this as well if its true.
Anyways sorry to get long winded, search this site and the internet about the ingredients of Parasite guard, from what i remember they were all either safe(ish) or not on any DO NOT USE lists that i could find, and then decide if you want to use it. I checked on my guys twice daily at least with a flashlight loooking over every inch of their body checking for worms and any signs of stress (if stressed would have pulled them out of tank, but they never showed any signs of stress with this treatment and ate like the pigs they are the whole time).

Hope that helps,
Good luck,
let me know how you make out and what worked for you in case i have to deal with these nasties again.
 
Tetra parasite clear, Active Ingredients: Praziquantel, Diflubenzuron, Metronidazole and Acriflavine.

I know the first three are safe, but I don't know about acriflavine (topical antiseptic). There is strong suggestion it will kill all plants and moss in the tank and possibly damage the biological filter. So if you have a live planted tank like mine everything might die off. Some suggest it effects the slim coating of some fish but there is no proof of it's harmfulness and it seems recommended over other chemicals for scaleless fish. I find no current record of it being used or approved for amphibians yet. Doesn't mean it's not safe, we just haven't tested it enough times.
 
Called Parasite Guard here in Canada. Tried to attach a picture hope it works!
 

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Oops, sorry about the typo. The site I was looking at said clear even tho the box clearly says parasite guard. Gotta love the net.
 
thanks

ill keep an eye out for the tetra product. i ordered a different product online... lets see if that makes it through the border :). not sure if it is a controlled chemical or not
 
back to tackling these annoying guys got a hold of some of this CyroPro i did about a 40% water change and dosed looks like it is a 21 day process. will update every 7 days or so
 
both guy are still alive and behaving normal... so i take it the ingredients are safe for now.
 
5 days in.
attached anchors looks like they have dropped or dropping their nasty forked tails -- dying miserably hopefully
axolotls look normal and eating well
 
waster said:
5 days in.
attached anchors looks like they have dropped or dropping their nasty forked tails -- dying miserably hopefully
axolotls look normal and eating well
Click to expand...

I hope so too! Keep it up mate and well done again, this really has been a long haul for you.
 
week 2 of the 3 week treatment has begun. did about 40-50% water change and dosed

the few anchors they had are still attached --- still not sure if dead or alive
 
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