Para Guard

[aqua1]

G'Day...

I've used Cupramine before and know it is deadly to parasites - but only during their water-born stage.
While the parasites are on the fish the Cupramine has no effect on them.

I've introduced a lot of new fish and plants lately and noticed that some of the fish are showing symptoms of having parasites - eg. rapid "brush-byes" against plants etc..
I thought I'd try something different this time around, and so am using Para Guard. Unlike with Cupramine, it appears as if the Para Guard can be used daily over an extended peiod without any toxic buildup which would negatively affect the fish [Directions state: Repeat (dosage) daily as required as long as fish show no stress].

From this I assume that I should continue administering the daily dosage until such time as I note that there are no longer any fish showing signs of irritation from parasites... ?
I've been using it daily now for about 5 days already, so not sure how long it will take to kill off all parasites which are on the fish...?

1. What is the time period of treatment which should kill off all parasites on the fish?
2. Does Para Guard also kill off parasites during their water-born cycle or not?
3. Do the active ingredients in Para Guard build up in concentration in the tank (as with Cupramine), or do they breakdown or become inactive after a certain period of time (as with Prime)? I'm asking this because I'm assuming that one may have to dose for up to 14 days before all signs of parasites on the fish are gone?

[Tech Support EH]

Hi aqua1,

Thank you for using Paraguard, and I hope to be able to address your questions. You are correct; unlike Cupramine, Paraguard dissipates from the system within about 24 hours, so daily dosing is suggested.

1) When treating for a parasite with Paraguard, it is best to use the medication daily for the entire life cycle of that parasite. In most cases, the fish will appear better within a week or so, however, treating for the entire life cycle will completely eradicate the parasite from the tank. I would recommend treating for a minimum of 21 days.

2) Yes, Paraguard will kill the parasite in the free-swimming stage of the life cycle.

3) As previously mentioned, this medication, unlike copper-based treatments, will not build up in the tank nor in the bodies of your fish.

We hope that Paraguard will be effective for you, and please let us know if you have additional questions. Have a nice weekend.

[aqua1]

Thanks very much - I will continue to use the Para Guard for another couple of weeks to make sure I cover the entire life cycle.

[Tech Support EH]

You are very welcome, and we hope you have a nice week!

[aqua1]

Sorry to have to revisit this post again ... but i have a related question.

So we have established the fact that Para Guard attacks parasites whilst they are on the host (fish) as well as during the water-born phases of the parasite's life cycle.

So my question then is why does it take 21 days of treatment to eradicate all traces of the parasite?

For the sake of argument, let's say there are 1 000 parasites in the tank at the commencement of treatment, of which 100 are lodged onto a host (fish) while the remaining 900 are swimming around in the water in various stages of their waterborn cycle.

Assuming that the Para Guard takes a few days before it actually kills any of the parasites, it can be safely assumed that the total parasite population will initially continue to increase, so for example after two days of treatment the total parasite population may now be 2 000, with 200 of them directly on hosts, and the remaining 1 800 free swimming...

At some point in time, those parasites who are doing the reproducing (usually the ones sitting on a host) will have weakened or died, and will therefore be unable to reproduce, hence it can be reasonably expected that the population will plateau at some point, say day 5, perhaps at a population of 4 000. At this point the population should start to decrease rapidly since there are no longer any parasites capable of breeding, and the continued use of the Para Guard should now steadily kill off those parasites now in the water stage of their development cycle.

I guess the point i'm trying to make is that individual parasites - whether they are on the host, or in the water, should only require a certain number of days of sustained exposure to the Para Guard before they die. Perhaps while on the host it may be 5 days, and perhaps while in the water stages it may be 3 days, but the point is every single parasite should be killed after a certain number of days. Sure, some of the parasites (on the host) will continue breeding whilst they are in the process of being killed, but then those newly born parasites (in the water stage) will then only have a few days to live (say 3) and will be dead long before they can reproduce.

to continue putting numbers to this, if we assume that it takes 5 days to kill parasites already on a host, and 3 days to kill parasites in the water, then the maximum time it would take to kill ALL parasites would be 8 days (5 + 3).

If it took 4 days to kill parasites on the host and 6 days to kill them in their water stage, then the maximum amount of time it would take to kill off all parasites would be 10 days (4 + 6).

So my question is where does the 21 days come from which you recommended earlier?

Is that an overkill or is Para Guard that weak that it actually takes 21 days to kill all parasites?
(This would require something like
12 days to kill all parasites on hosts
9 days to kill all parasites in water stage so that total is 21 days)

Just something to think about and am curious to hear your response.

My "deeper" thinking about this topic has been borne out of nescessity as i have a 240 litre tank, so daily treatment requires 30 ml of Para Guard, and multiplied by 21 days equals 630 ml - which is quite an expensive treatment!

So i really would appreciate a more certain determination of the actual strength of Para Guard and the resultant actual time of treatment required to eradicate all parasites from a given point in time (assuming no new parasites are introduced by adding new fish or plants until treatment is complete)

[Tech Support EH]

Hello aqua1,

Thank you for your questions/comments, and I hope to be able to clear this up a bit for you. The life cycle of the ich/cryptocaryon parasite essentially consists of three stages:

1) Obviously, the life cycle is just that, a cycle, but we can begin by talking about the feeding (trophont) stage, which is the stage in which the parasite is actually visible on the host fish. The trophont swells to roughly 50 times its original size, becoming large enough to appear to the naked eye, in which it appears like a grain of salt. The amount of time that the parasite remains in this stage is quite variable, depending mostly upon water temperature. Therefore, it can remain in this stage for only a few days, or for up to a week or so, at which point it sheds its cilia, grows a thickened gelatinous outer shell, and drops away as a tomont.

2) The released tomonts swim for roughly 2 to 6 hours before settling, and then encyst and begin reproducing. The parasite in this stage begins dividing rapidly, producing up to 200 offspring (tomites) from a single tomont. Like the first stage, the tomont stage is also temperature-dependent and can last hours or even days.

3) Ultimately hundreds of mobile tomites build up within the cyst, causing the cyst to lyse, or burst, allowing them to become free-swimming. In the free-swimming stage, they are known as theronts.

Many aquarists cease treatment when there are no longer any visible trophonts on the fish, however it is absolutely essential to continue medicating until the last encysted tomite has released its theronts, and the last theront has been eliminated by the medication. After all, it only takes a single tomite successfully settled into the fishes' epithelium to set the entire cycle back into motion.

This is why it is necessary to treat for at least 3 weeks, as the stages are not going to last the same amount of time in every case. Yes, when utilizing a medication that must be dosed on a daily basis, such as Paraguard, this can become somewhat cost-prohibitive, but it is the best way of ensuring complete eradication of the parasite.

We hope this helps and that you have a nice weekend.