how to be certain

[grelot]

Is there a way to be certain that a tank contains no fluke at all???

The situation is this. I have a tank with discus that had fluke in the past. I treated them and since then they seems ok. They seems to have no symptoms but I dont really know if it is because I completely destroyed it or if because the fluke population is low and doesnt cause symptoms.

The thing is that I would like to take one of those fish and put him in another tank with other discus. But the thing is I wouldnt want to bring fluke with him.

What is the safest way to do it??

[brewmaster15]

Short of looking under a microscope theres no way to be 100% Sure.

I guess my question would be , how do you know that discus in the tank you want to move a discus to...don't already have flukes?

My guess... most discus out there , unless raised artificially with ammonia cycled sponges...probably have Flukes to some extent.

-al

[grelot]

That is true I am not 100% certain that the other are 100% free of fluke either. But they never showed any sign of it so I thought that maybe they dont have any and so if they dont have any I dont want them to get some.

As for the microscope, how would you do that??? do a scrape of the fish??? What about the gills?? can you do a scrape of the gills without damaging it??

[Graham]

Taking a mucus or gill scrape is actually quite easy....it's even easier if the fish is a sleep. The cover slip is dragged down the side of the fish along the lateral line, then around the anus, then around the pectoral pits and the crease below the mouth. Just enough pressure is applied to get the mucus sample...you're not trying to de-scale the fish

This should provide a sampling of mucus....a drop of water on the slide and then set the cover slip. Apply a slight pressure to flatten things out and you should be ready to go.

For a gill scrap or snip the fish has to be a sleep...they just won't stay still long enough and you don't want to do any damage. The operculum is gently lifted and depending on the size of the fish a flat end dental tool or the cover slip can be used to gently scrape some mucus off the filaments.

If a snip is needed, rarely, then the very tip of the filament if cut off...small fine scissors are needed for this.........

Needless to say the smaller the fish them harder it is to do, so practise on a feeder GF

[grelot]

Needless to say the smaller the fish them harder it is to do, so practise on a feeder GF

What the GF stands for, is for practice on your girlfriend??

On the third pic, what do you point exactly??

[Graham]

LMAO it stands for Goldfish................The 3rd pic shows what to cut off....anymore than that and you'll leave the fish open for an infection. A gill snip is one of the last things that you'd do to a fish...extremely invasive