[pandamonium]

I just fished out my two honeycomb cats and removed almost 10-15 fish lice off each of them. There are still some more but I figured it's enough trauma for the day. Apparently the only way to get rid of them is a medicine they no longer make? I also heard that these lice are common on goldfish, not on tropical fish.

Anyhow, wanted to share pictures of the nasty little things. I let them dry out and die.

Hoping to get more info on it. Just looking at my own digging, apparently organophosphates kill these things...but I would assume organophosphates kill everything else as well.

 

[dprais1]

try this

http://www.nationalfishpharm.com/products.html#De-Los

De-los, if I remember correctly this stuff isn't exactly gentle, but it is effective.

 

[msjinkzd]

Fluke tabs should work.

Or clout:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4724

Just be very cautious, honeycombs are very delicate fish.

 

[pandamonium]

It had to happen to the honeycombs too. The last time I did an Ich treatment on my tank, they were almost half dead but they survived, minus the single vector fish who happened to be a honeycomb. They are okay now, even with those lice they swam and ate and everything. I figure cleaning them off is good for now at least. I want to treat the tank but the majority of the side effects kill my other fish and shrimps

Thanks all for the links, I will definitely look at it if this lice spreads

 

[msjinkzd]

Read up on the life cycle of fish lice- it is no joke.

Argulus(Fish Lice) Life Cycle

Argulus have a direct life cycle using only the fish as hosts. They prey upon freshwater fish and marine fish. Argulus can spend a large amount of time swimming around and mating occurs when the male and female Argulus are swimming. The eggs clusters are dropped on any convenient submerged item. After hatching the Argulus makes several metamorphic changes as it goes towards adulthood. The entire cycle takes between 30-100 days depending on the temperature. After hatching they must find a host within a around four days or they will not survive.


Agulus(Fish Lice) Treatment

The most successful and effective treatments against lice are organophosphates. Using three treatments over the estimated life cycle of the parasite almost always eradicates lice. At typical summer pond temperatures of 68 degrees F or higher, treatments at 10-day intervals will kill existing adults and juveniles as well as emerging juveniles. Clout is one of the commonly available treatments and is quite effective.

 

[pandamonium]

Yeah I remember reading about organophosphates but I remember they were pretty controversial due to the environmental effects.

Geez these things are little devil spawns!

 

[msjinkzd]

i have only had to deal with fish lice once- NO fun!

 

[ThatGuyWithTheFish]

My honeycombs have been very hardy, at least when it comes to CO2.