Prazi + CP = Disaster

[HumbleFish]

To preface, let me just say I've done this before and witnessed no negative interaction. Also, ammonia alert badge and Salifert test kit showed 0 ammonia at the time this happened.

I was QT'ing a Copperband Butterfly, a Chevron Tang and a chromis in a divided 29 gal QT. Taking on the tang was somewhat unexpected (long story), but a few days ago I saw stringy white poo coming out of him and suspected flukes. The fish were already being treated with CP, so I opted to dose Prazi in conjunction as I have done this before and noticed no ill effects.

For the first 24 hrs, everything was fine. But yesterday afternoon I noticed the water had turned cloudy. A hour or two later the CBB was on his death bed, and the other two were laying on their side breathing rapidly. A little disclaimer: The CBB dying is not that surprising, as I haven't seen it eat in weeks. After testing for ammonia (and showing 0), I decided to move all the fish to my frag tank. I didn't have enough freshly mixed s/w on hand to make much of an impact by doing a WC, and I didn't feel carbon would remove the meds fast enough to save their lives.

The CBB died, but the tang & damsel recovered within an hour or two. In fact, they both ate before the lights went out in the frag tank last night. So, just a word of caution for anyone reading this thinking of mixing Prazi with CP.

[Deinonych]

Ouch. Sorry for your loss. While I've never lost a fish mixing those two meds, I have experienced reclusive behavior. When my foxface was in QT, he had a mild case of crypto that I was treating with CP. About midway through treatment, I noticed a lot of stringy feces, so I dosed some Prazipro. Almost immediately, he started hiding in a piece of PVC and wouldn't come out. He stayed this way for about 4 days, during which he also went on a hunger strike. I did a water change after 5 days and he went back to normal. I haven't mixed those two meds since, and probably won't ever.

[jcdeng]

In the big CP thread there was a few posts indicating that CP + Prazi would cause extreme oxygen depletion.

[JoeVandal49]

So in cases where a specimen has both Ich and flukes, or velvet and flukes, what would the recommended treatment process be?

Im assuming with Velvet with flukes, you would start treatment of cupramine right away and then treat with prazi after, based on the aggressive nature of velvet.

What about ich with flukes? would one advise starting cupramine or prazi first in this case? Assuming you were going to treat the ich with cupramine and not the other methods of treatment.

Just curiosity.

[HumbleFish]

Originally Posted by jcdeng

In the big CP thread there was a few posts indicating that CP + Prazi would cause extreme oxygen depletion.

I must have missed it. I bet that's exactly what happened.

Originally Posted by JoeVandal49

So in cases where a specimen has both Ich and flukes, or velvet and flukes, what would the recommended treatment process be?

Im assuming with Velvet with flukes, you would start treatment of cupramine right away and then treat with prazi after, based on the aggressive nature of velvet.

What about ich with flukes? would one advise starting cupramine or prazi first in this case? Assuming you were going to treat the ich with cupramine and not the other methods of treatment.

Just curiosity.

For ich & flukes, my method of attack would probably be TT combined with Prazi (on transfers 2 & 4).

For velvet & flukes, I would FW dip to provide immediate relief for both ailments. And then begin either CP or copper treatment ASAP, as velvet is far more deadly than flukes. I guess you could just keep giving weekly FW dips (or formalin baths) to keep flukes at bay until you could begin Prazipro treatment.

In retrospect I should have FW dipped the tang instead of trying to mix the two. It was stupid on my part.

[Nina51]

sorry for the loss but stop beating yourself up.

[sandwi54]

It is definitely oxygen depletion especially if you don't have good surface agitation. Prazipro can cause the oxygen to deplete easily because it contains ethanol, which, just like vodka, encourages bacteria to grow and use up oxygen. That's the reason why tanks usually turn cloudy when being dosed with prazipro. Adding CP to it would only make it worse.

[HumbleFish]

Originally Posted by Nina51

sorry for the loss but stop beating yourself up.

Thanks. At least I was able to save the tang & chromis. I just really hate killing fish!

Originally Posted by sandwi54

It is definitely oxygen depletion especially if you don't have good surface agitation. Prazipro can cause the oxygen to deplete easily because it contains ethanol, which, just like vodka, encourages bacteria to grow and use up oxygen. That's the reason why tanks usually turn cloudy when being dosed with prazipro. Adding CP to it would only make it worse.

Awesome info!