Need Help on My Zebra

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vandecruz
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Need Help on My Zebra

Post by vandecruz »

Guys, i am a newbie in keeping Zebras and recently have just gotten some Wild caught adults,after one day i noticed that one paticular piece is not hiding which looks very different from the rest and i happen to spot some whitish patches around the dorsal area,firstly i thought it may just be some injury due to fight as these guys can be pretty agressive when it come to territory issue so i went for my dinner as usual,when i came back and do a check on them again,i found that the whitish patch had eventually moved on to the right side of the dorsal area,really puzzled by that so i try to use a torch to shine straight at it and while fish move,to my shock i saw one whitish transparent bug tend to move around on the zebra body too,so immediately i check out some articles and found that if i never id wrongly,there should be some stupid lice (Argulus) invading my fish,altought i know that u could try to catch these disgusting creatures out from the zebras body but i did not as i guess even if you catch them out ,high chances are their eggs will still be inside the tank somewhere somehow waiting to be hatch so straight away i went to my local LFS to get a bottle of WaterLife Parazin which is meant to eliminate Fish lice,flukes and etc.........
Today i have just apply the medication in and i hope these parazin could totally wipe out all these digusting creatures and on my closer observation,i noticed that this poor zebra is breathing faster than normal one,Both eyes are sunken,Belly are badly sunken too,i m really afraid that this fellow will not withstand out more than a week,I really hope that u pros out here could give me some advises and do u think is there any chances that this poor guys will recover as it already have sunken eye and belly,Currently as for my water parimeter i m keeping them in Ph 7.2,temp at 32Deg as i used a heater to stimulate them to eat,the rest of the zebras are doing fine so far!!!
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Line
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Post by Line »

Hello

He has probably Argulus in the gills too.

Sunken Eyes, and belly - fast breathing isn't good. Sorry to say, it can be difficult to get them back to life. But not impossible.
And he has to fight the poison from these lice, and even perhaps secondary infections from the wounds.

He is having difficulties to breath, therefore I would personally recommend to lower the temperature. Step by step.
32°C are pretty much.

You're right - they get more appetite with high temperatures - but remember this is because they need to eat more because of using more energy.
If he doesn't eat - he is "starving" much quicker.
With low temperature - body activities slow down - and he doesn't need so much food.

I would go down at 28°C over two days. Look if he is breathing better, perhaps go down at 27°C in 1 more day.


Hope the medicine helps. I don't know it, so I can't comment on this.



Best regards
Line
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vandecruz
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Post by vandecruz »

Thank alot Line for your tips, i greatly appreciate it..Anyway just to share the latest update on this poor fellow,yesterday night after much consideration,i have decided to net this fellow out and start my lice catching project,after half an hour i managed to catch out 9 pieces of this freaky lice,eventually throughout the process of catching,i managed to pull out 5 pieces of these lice from the belly area and the other 4 pieces from the top dorsal area where they love to hang aroun,you will need a torch to shine while catching them as if they do not move. it will make the catching job even more tedious because u can't prcisely spot where excatly are they only till that moment when they get to move around.Finally after the whole process and a few time of final check of any remaining lice on this poor fellow ensuring that there is totally none of it left,i release him back to the tank and fair enough after some close observation,i can see that this fellow is doing better with no shaking or rubbing against object movement,the breathing also go much slower compared to before....Today i can see this guy is doing well and when i approach the tank,u can see this guy quickly running for shelter which is a very good sign,now the only thing is to stimulate this guy to start to eat again and i m less worried
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vandecruz
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Post by vandecruz »

Just came back from the local LFS getting a bottle of seachem Garlic guard as i am gonna blend it into the bloodworms before feeding them and hope the garlic will stimulate this poor guy to start eating again,will update u guys on the result again
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Post by twinspots_goby »

I'm happy for you that there is a chance you can bring him back. Finger crossed for you. :)
L46 x 24 adults + 60 fries
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vandecruz
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Post by vandecruz »

yes i m really lucky indeed,just happen to saw that poor fella started eating bloodworms ,guess the garlic do really work out well for me and i guess all i need to do now is to give extra care to condition this fella up,will cross my finger too and hope everything will turn out fine for him
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Post by Line »

Hello

That is very good news. Happy to hear that !!!


By the way... I think I read somewhere, that the cyclus of these lice can count uptill 130 days.

Best regards
Line
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vandecruz
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Post by vandecruz »

yea you are right bro,i think i have read some articles on it who mentioned that too,so i guess i really have to take note of them for these 2 months and hope everything will turns out good ,now the one with the lice before has eventually fatten up ,i m still in the conditioning process
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