JR on "FLUKES"

(Well, what did you expect? FLUKES on JR?)

A post was made on the NI web board, asking if a Potassium Permanganate treatment was being done properly, to treat "skin flukes." The person asking the question knew that the life cycle of the fluke needed to be taken into consideration, but wasn't quite sure how. Here is JR's reply to that post.

Re: skin flukes

Hello xxxx, PP at the pond dose is not the best of choices for treating larger parasites such as flukes. It will knock the numbers down but depending on pond cleanliness it may not eradicate the parasites completely. This is likely the reason why the person advising you recommended two treatments. There is a lot of misunderstanding on this point. Some mistakenly think that the ineffectiveness of a standard PP treatment on flukes means that the fluke has a protected stage, is resistant or that they are egg layers and a second dose is needed to "break the cycle". None of these things are true regarding the skin fluke* The truth is PP is unreliable because the water itself can weaken the oxidation strength and therefore protect some of the flukes from deadly oxidation effects. Even dips are not 100% effective when dipping multiple koi as the bath becomes progressively "spent" of oxidation strength as more and more koi are dipped.

I use trichlorfon and mebendazole or the premeasured fluke tabs. Most on this board are fans of Supaverm. No matter what you use, recheck your koi in a week via a slime scraping to see that the flukes are gone. And do remember that skin flukes can be found in the gills and gill flukes can be found on the body, so location of the scaping is not a dependable indicator of species. I say this because gill flukes are tuffer due to slime coat protection on the gills and they have, as I think you know, eggs that are not effected with standard treatments. The trick is to give a second treatment before the hatched eggs are old enough to be breeders. As some have learned the hard way, this advice of two treatments in a row is not to be taken when using Supaverm.

JR

This produced the follow post (*edited*), by the person who started the thread:

Thank you for your reply. I cannot find any outlet that can supply me with the two medications you mentioned, so if the pp has not worked, I will attempt to use fluke tabs. I have also been recommended Chloramine T. Have you any advice on this product?

And JR replies:

Yes xxxx, Chloramine T will work but you must be careful not to overdose. Follow instructions to the letter and don't use it if you are not positive about your pond volume. I have a general policy of doing a 30% water change between every treatment of toxic compounds. Organophosphates (Fluke Tabs) and Chlor T would both fall into that catagory.

JR

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