will be useless. The longer you equivocate about the snails, the more suffering your fish will go through and the less chance small fry and eventually the others will have of surviving. It would be like giving you an aspirin for a cut finger.
There are thousands of parasites. There are scores of flukes, but their physiology is enough alike that they can be killed with the same items.
If Parasite Guard (by Jungle?) kills the snails ask if they have another dewormer. Give the shop people a list of the helminth (worm) killers alluded to in the comments below and in Peter's comments.
You haven't mentioned what kind of snails you have. Guessing that they are pond snails, you are struggling to save 25-50 cents worth of snails while killing $10-20 worth of fish. It is possible that a week or so after all the fish have died and been removed from the tank, that new fish could be added to the aquarium.
Dry out any nets used in removing dead fish or they could carry freeswimming young flukes to other fishes. Leaving suspect equipment outside in winter weather probably would kill off hitch-hikers too.
A really risky remedy is to run up the tank's temperature to 86 degrees/ 30 degrees C for 12 hours. Burgess, Bailey and Exell feel that will kill the flukes. HOWEVER, if the fish have labored breathing (meaning that the flukes are rapidly multiplying and covering their gills) they will also die.
Your shop person is to be commended for mentioning about the possible loss of the snails. They should be able to make another recommendation, even if they only sell Jungle products. I went to the Jungle home page http://www.junglelabs.com/
and wasn't too effective in navigating it. They recommend fizzy "Tank Buddies" which I think were mentioned by lauren. Ask your shop if they have Parasite Clear Tank Buddies. It has Praziquantel, an anthelmintic which "should" do in most flukes. The product is designed to go after the "fish louse" or Argulus and, while not as effective for worms as that Parasite Guard, may do the trick.
It is hard telling newer aquarists about the idea of a quarantine tank, but a month quarantine would have exposed those flukes and you could have treated them there. If your shop had flukes on some fish, there is a chance of reintroducing flukes with future purchases from there, unless they watch their fish for a few weeks and/or treat their tanks for them.
Good luck and all the best!
u.s.
[ Parent ]
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