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Re: Plant-friendly anti-parasitic medication?
> From: KB Koh <KB_Koh at ccm_ipn.intel.com>
>
> I'm going to treat my whole tank with anti-parasite medication.
> My cories and danios are scrathing their head to the gravel.
> Will this cause any harm to the plants? Which medication is
> recommended/not recommended for planted tank? Thanks.
Those symptoms could be ich. Are there white dots esp on the fins
of the danios? For ich I used Super-Ich+ which contains Malachite
Green and quinine HCl. I also elevated the tank temperature to 80'F.
The plants tend to absorb the dye quickly and repeated dosing is
recommended (I think after 48hrs). I used this for about 6 days
and my ich infestation cleared up. At the moment, plant growth is
slower than usual but this could be because nitrates are now in
short supply due to active consumption by plants in stronger light
in order to compete with the algae. The brush algae situation is
greatly improved now with proper CO2 levels ~15ppm and thread algae
growth is slower. I have been doing weekly water changes but not
enough yet to fully replace the original water so some Malachite
Green may still be there. It didn't kill anything but the growth
rate of the Myriophylum seemed to be most affected. This tank has
no soil in the substrate and I now think this is very important
for good plant growth. It seems important to keep the nutrients
in the substrate rather than in the water to avoid algae problems
and permit luxurious growth of root feeding plants like Crypts,
Apons and Ludwigia. I have not been doing heavy feeding on this
tank and the fish bio load is very small now. Maybe the Malachite
Green is affecting growth or maybe not; but it seems safe for
the most part.
KB, are there any other symptoms such as bulging eyes, protruding
scales, other color spots? The white spots about 1mm are fairly
good proof of ich. Scratching can be other problems too.
Steve