catdogfish wrote:Ashleigh, you should charge for all this advice, you have been very helpful!
No problem

Im glad your clown is starting to improve! The fact that she is eating well is a bonus, many cichlids who have HITH bad stop feeding and it can get quite difficult to treat- getting vits etc into them.
catdogfish wrote:I'm a little worried over another clown though who has been breathing rapidly ever since I got him. I'm thinking I might need the maracyn for future treatment here. I'm researching what else could be causing it, I don't think it is the amount of oxygen in the water as everyone else is fine and there is no gasping taking place at the surface. Could it be ich or perhaps damage incurred to the fish's gills before I got it?
When you say gasping, is it really that obvious? Any other external symptoms-red gills, clamping of fins? How long have you had the fish? Did you treat for ich before adding it to your main tank.
Yes it is possible that it could have been damaged before you got it-to make things a little eaiser for the fish in question if its just damage is to just increase aeration a bit, I dont think there would be much else you could do, unless anyone else has any other suggestions??
catdogfish wrote:
Also my favourite botia striata, who is still very active and feeding, is getting rather skinny. I'm thinking treat with round/flatworm medications, parasite medications and or maracyn 1 and 2?
You will need maracyn for a stage of the treatment for parasites. Maracyn is an antibiotic that treats bacterial/fungal infections. When a fish has a burden of parasites it is quite stressful, also coupled with the weakening of the fish due to not getting the nutrients it needs, plus damage internally, it will be best to treat with antibiotics after parasite treatments to take care of any secondary infection.
As for parasite treatments, I treat as follows;
I usually do two weeks or either Levamisole or Kusuri Discus Wormer Plus, both treat only round worms. It would be a two week treatment with 1/2 days inbetween. Kusuri Discus Wormer Plus is eaiser to get hold of ebay. Levamisole has to be issued by a vet-some are a bit funny about it. Plus the discus wormer is half the price and a longer date.
Next would be a week of Prazipro which contains Praziquantel. That just treats flatworms. I think the bottle suggests 7day treatment so thats what I usually do. No UV on at that time.
And last but not least Maracyn to treat for secondary infections etc. You dont have to treat with this but it is better to cover for all so I do. This can be mixed in with the Prazi treatement.
Hopefully that should do the trick. I personally remove individual fish if its to skinny that it cant compete for food, though the main tank should also be treated for parasites. The sick fish should be seperated from the main tank for maracyn treatment as I believe it can interfer with your bb, the other treatments listed above do not.
Prazipro is also not avaliable here, I ordered mine from this guy
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/easypet/
I think that answered everything
Hope its of some help
Ashleigh