gold fish how to care

How to Cure Flukes in Goldfish

Edited by Mahendra kumar,

Flukes are parasites that can affect the body and gills of a goldfish. This is another fish parasite that if gone untreated will infected your entire aquarium and can kill every last one of your goldfish. The symptoms of flukes include: scratching against surfaces, redness of skin, mucus on the gills or body, sunken bellies and rapid breathing. Under a microscope, flukes resemble a small worm that contains the next generation of flukes inside it. 

1. 1
   Take a small scraping form the sick goldfish and examine it under a microscope to diagnose the flukes parasite. -or- Raise the goldfish tank water to 70-78*F then treat the water with an aquarium salt solution and Dimilin or Program. Aquarium salt will treat over seven known pathogens and Dimilin or Program will eliminate all but the flukes parasite. By ruling out other illnesses, you can diagnose flukes.
2. 2
   Disconnect your biological filter but don't remove it. The flukes parasite can be everywhere in the goldfish tank, including the filters.
3. 3
   Treat the entire goldfish tank with Droncit. 3.5 pills (34-milligrams) per 10 gallons of tank water. Droncit is a pill form of praziquantel and is also used as a treatment for worms in dogs and cats. It is an expensive treatment but is the least harmful to your goldfish.
4. 4
   After the first treatment is complete, resume your biological filtration to keep the nitrifying bacteria alive. Even if the filter contains flukes, they will eventually go into the tank water in search of a host or otherwise die from starvation.
5. 5
   Let four days pass and treat the goldfish tank water a second time with the same process and dosage as the first treatment. This second treatment will kill the second generation of flukes that were not killed during the first treatment.
   • It's common to have several generations of larvae inside the mother flukes, so it's recommended that a third treatment is carried out four days after the second treatment.
6. 6
   Four days after the third treatment, you may once again begin performing routine water changes