what are some good medications so have on hand?

[Coriequest, posts: 99]

I keep Maracide, Maracin, Maracin 2, Maroxy and Kanamide. This after running to the LFS which was almost always out of the one needed...whenever a fish was ill and often on a holiday or after hours etc, etc...
I also keep Praziquantel Pro and Fenbenzadole which are wormers. I am looking for Levamasol. I use some aquarium salt. And now i keep a quarantine tank! I dose Excel in my fish tanks which purportedly helps prevent fungus in corys while it helps your plants. Thinking I might get some metronazole too! I hate when my fish get sick so I would much rather be prepared. Pimafix did nothing when I had a sick fish...I think it's like taking vitamins, it might help but I can't prove it

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

formalin IS a dewormer, Mike

Not really. It has almost no ability to penetrate the body wall of an animal; it is effective only against external parasites (and only external parasites with thin skin, e.g. flukes and ciliates, but not external parasites with a hard shell, like anchor worms or fish lice

that's good to know; I know that it's quite effective against both skin- and gillflukes, hence my remark

I didn't know it would not work against anchor worms.

i have rarely seen fish lice (maybe i just got lucky) and thought I'd best remove these with tweezers when encountering them....

peroxide is also something I'd rather avoid.

I even give it prophylactically, through continuous dosing.

interesting!
looks like I got some reading to do

the problems I got with both formalin and peroxide are the strong concentrations

the diluted solutions we use for fish treatment are quite harmless indeed, but also instable over time, especially peroxide.
leave it by itself long enough and it'll just turn to water

so to make 'fresh' solutions that are precise, one must use the strong stuff which is stable enough
but those are the liquids I'd rather not touch, smell or have in the house.

[dw1305, posts: 347]

Hi all,

I don't understand salt as a medication, aquarium or otherwise

reply

It also, from what I understand, helps the fish breathe (even when no nitrite present), and there are some that say that the "osmotic pressure" is reduced, which can help as well.

I'd interested in peoples thoughts on this article (by Joe Gargas) -
"Water Chemistry: Osmoregulation ionic imbalance and pH",
<http://www.tbas1.com/Exchange/The%20New%20England%2011.pdf> pages 3 -10. I know nothing of Mr Gargas, but his comments on NaCl make sense to me.

cheers Darrel

[bunnyrabbit, posts: 20]

I just read the article briefly and the test of the water and it said that the "store" added 1/2 to 3/4 cups per 5 gallons of water. Seems a little high. I think it is recommended that the dose is 1 rounded tablespoon for every 5 gallon as a "stress reducer".

[MatsP]

I just read the article briefly and the test of the water and it said that the "store" added 1/2 to 3/4 cups per 5 gallons of water. Seems a little high. I think it is recommended that the dose is 1 rounded tablespoon for every 5 gallon as a "stress reducer".

If you actually read the whole area where that was mentioned you'll realize it was considered BAD!

I think the author of that articely would recommend (for true freshwater fish) zero sodium & chloride additives. Which I agree with as a general "normal situation" setup.

--
Mats

[apistomaster, posts: 4572]

Be sure to use plain NaCl as in Rock Salt or table salt if it's an emergency and not reef/marine mix salts. These latter artificial sea water salts are loaded with other minerals and are buffered to reach a stable pH of 8.2 to 8.3. The rock salt is often sold in grocery stores for regenerating water softener's de-ionizing resin or as a de-icer. Be careful not to buy calcium chloride de-icers.

My fish medicine chest always contains the following:
Malachite green for Ich and Velvet. Praziquantel has also been found to be effective on these skin protozoan parasites as well as being an effective de-wormer.
Methylene Blue is useful to keep on hand for reducing fungus spreading among eggs
Other med I use for parasitic worms is Praziquantel ie: Hikari PraziPro.
I stock levimazole but haven't used it much.
I don't know what antibiotics I would recommend since I have chloramphenicol HCL and no OTC antibiotic can begin to compare with it's efficacy but chloramphenicol HCL is very tightly controlled.
You can get 10% flubendazole powder and levimazole from Charles Harrison http://www.inkmkr.com/fish

It is my personal opinion that herbal fish medicens like Pimafix and Melafix are useless. I do not believe in using any homeopathic or naturopathic medications for any ailment be it for animals or fish.
I belong to the Grace Slick school of thought as she expressed when she said, "I don't care if there are chemicals in it as long as my lettuce is crisp."
Metroniadazole is good to have.

[MatsP]

Be sure to use plain NaCl as in Rock Salt or table salt if it's an emergency and not reef/marine mix salts. These latter artificial sea water salts are loaded with other minerals and are buffered to reach a stable pH of 8.2 to 8.3.

That would be fine at the approximately 1/10th of the concentration of marine conditions that we want for freshwater medication. pH isn't particularly important.

Be careful not to buy calcium chloride de-icers.

Not entirely sure about this, but just to be safe, yes, do avoid this.

--
Mats

[apistomaster, posts: 4572]

Hi MatsP,
I primarily keep soft water fishes and would never use a reef salt for medicinal purposes but to each there own.
How about the fact that plain rock salt is dirt cheap and doesn't alter the pH?
Most would prefer to choose that route.
It can cost 10X as much for plain rock salt packaged as "Aquarium Salt". Why pay so much when the chemically identical alternatives are so much cheaper?

[MatsP]

Hi MatsP,
I primarily keep soft water fishes and would never use a reef salt for medicinal purposes but to each there own.

As I suggested before, regular table salt is absolutely fine, and that's also not very expensive - no more than a dollar per pound (at least here in England), and easily available in any shop that sells food of any kind. Unless you have a large number of tanks, a pound will last quite some time.
In fact, here's a batch of salt for about $0.50 per lbs:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Morton-62247/17340155
(But it's probably easy to find a better choice in store, and other supermarkets are available )

How about the fact that plain rock salt is dirt cheap and doesn't alter the pH?

I thought we agreed that pH isn't particularly important, in previous discussions. The whole point of using salt is to raise the conductivity. I'm pretty sure that salt in itself has a much bigger effect

Most would prefer to choose that route.
It can cost 10X as much for plain rock salt packaged as "Aquarium Salt". Why pay so much when the chemically identical alternatives are so much cheaper?

Which is why I said "it's fine to use table salt" - admittedly, that's in the fourth post in this thread, so a few pages back. I still maintain that this is the easiest to get, and a very economical, salt to use.

However, if someone has marine salt sitting in a bucket, there is no need to go out and buy another type of salt, which is my point in the previous post. With many tanks, some salt that is cheap in bulk will be good too.

--
Mats

[racoll, posts: 4494]

However, if someone has marine salt sitting in a bucket, there is no need to go out and buy another type of salt,

I think Larry's point is that using reef salt is a bad idea, as the fishes you are treating will be sick (obviously) and stressed. Therefore adding chemicals that will raise the pH, may stress them further.

Reef salts when made up to seawater, will have an alkalinity of 4.0–5.0 meq/L due to the additional bases such as carbonates (e.g. see here).

[MatsP]

So, based on the Seachem information, combined with:
http://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/10032 ... -ppm-meq-l
2.8 * 5 meq/l = 14 dKH
But we are not using 34g/l but, say, 5g/l = 1/7 * 14 -> 2 dKH increase.
I'm guessing the CO2 level is above 0 and below the "typical wanted for planted tanks", so say around 5-10 ppm, and KH wasn't zero to begin with.
http://www.aquascapingworld.com/magazin ... nship.html
According to the above table, the pH will rise by 0.2-0.4 units. In most cases, that will be much smaller change than you'd see from other natural changes (unless KH is already really high, but here the relative change is greater).

--
Mats

[racoll, posts: 4494]

According to the above table, the pH will rise by 0.2-0.4 units. In most cases, that will be much smaller change than you'd see from other natural changes

Yes, it was never going to change by much, but still, a rise of 0.2-0.4 units is not insignificant, and importantly, can be entirely avoided.

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

Most would prefer to choose that route.
It can cost 10X as much for plain rock salt packaged as "Aquarium Salt". Why pay so much when the chemically identical alternatives are so much cheaper?

why first spend hundreds of dollars/euro's/pounds on fish and then when the fish get sick pinch the pennies when it comes to medications?

that's like buying a big ol' car and a big ol' house for Grandpa, but once the poor bastard gets the big C and has no money, you refuse to pay the hospital bill....
this mindset is alien to me.

if the good stuff is cheap, OK, but going for cheap just because of cheap; while spending to much on the fishes?
mindboggling


if my fish get sick I'll get the stuff that makes them better
if it's cheap. fine
if it's not cheap at all...

my fish need to get better!
the rest is really not important

[racoll, posts: 4494]

It can cost 10X as much for plain rock salt packaged as "Aquarium Salt". Why pay so much when the chemically identical alternatives are so much cheaper?

if the good stuff is cheap, OK, but going for cheap just because of cheap; while spending to much on the fishes?
mindboggling

Saving money at the expense of the fish wasn't really the point. The point was that sodium chloride cures fish, so why pay more for the stuff than you need to.

[apistomaster, posts: 4572]

racoll made my point well enough that I have nothing more to say except they are your fish and you can do what you want to them. I don't care.

[Birger]

This is a useful thread to some...lets stay on topic. Back to the Meds themselves please.

Thank you
Birger

[john82, posts: 69]

I'm quiet interested in this post as I have just started keeping discus in with my plecos.
It has been recommend to me to use a wormer once a month.
Fluke solve and kusuri.
Are these ok to use with plecos?
I also am interested in seeing what people keep just in case.
I have king british white spot treatment from a outbreak when I first got the tank.
Is it worth having melafix and pimafix incase as well?
Does any one have any other suggestions that should be stocked.

[MatsP]

I'm quiet interested in this post as I have just started keeping discus in with my plecos.
It has been recommend to me to use a wormer once a month.
Fluke solve and kusuri.
Are these ok to use with plecos?

Absolutely fine with plecos. I've used both on my pleco tanks. I think it will be a bit unnecessary to medicate every month - I doubt it will hurt your fish, but it is eventually going to be expensive...

--
Mats

[john82, posts: 69]

Thanks mats.
How often would you recommend using the wormer?

[MatsP]

Thanks mats.
How often would you recommend using the wormer?

I tend to treat new fish (if I think it's needed). Once the fish are settled and treated, they shouldn't need treating. Note, I haven't kept discus, but I don't think they should need regular treating with antiworming medication.

--
Mats