Is there an effective treatment for fish louse Argulus available in UK?

Question

my girlfriend recently bought new fish and despite being told to quarantine them she put them straight in the tank and now we have fish lice. I am at my wits end as this is the third time she has done this and previously the fish died a horrible slow death over a period of months despite trying numerous treatments.

Answer 1

Not being from the UK, I can't speak to what is commonly available but let me give you a few suggestions to check out.

You can look for these active ingredients in the available medications: Ammonium Chloride, Benzene hexachloride, Masoten (neguvon) and Diflubenzuron. All of those are effective treatments for fish lice.

In addition, salt at a 3-5% solution for a 1 minute dip is effective in removing the parasites from the fish, but that will need to be repeated daily for at least a week for each fish in the tank as well as generous daily water changes to remove addition lice from the tank.

5% salt solution = 5 grams (1 tablespoon) per liter. A 3% solution would be 3 grams ( approx. 2 teaspoons) per liter.

Effective brands sold in the US and possibly available in the UK include Clout and Paracide.

Hope that helps

MM