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Re: Medicines for Protozoa and Worms
On Friday, 2 February 1996, Lester Pasarell wrote:
> my fish....Angels (Pterophyllum scalare) after many years of been with me
> ...5 years...one have suddenly died....jus went to the bottom...lost
> buoyancy..ect ect
Usually this is the result of bacterial infection of the swim bladder
(or more correctly, of the sphincter that controls the transfer of
gas to and from the swim bladder). Flagellate infections can sometimes
produce the same symptoms.
> and the other one ( out of 4) is looking kind of
> shy...not eating..swollen belly....
Possibly an internal bacterial infection of some sort.
> in the outside (skin) they
> both look very healthy....so I am planing to give the whole tank
> medicine...thinking that I have some type of Protozoan or worm
> lurking their intestines and inner guts( I did not want to do a
> necropsy on my first fish.....I felt sad )-:)
Without a necropsy (and possibly a bacterial culture) you'll be shooting in
the dark.
> So....Can I give them Hex-A-Mit (aquatronics)=active compound Metronidazole
> or flagyl....same stuff they give out for Trichomonas sp in people...
Metronidazole is effective against many flagellates and obligate
anaerobes. It will work fine if your fish are infected with these organisms.
> and or Clout (Aquarium products) used also for parasitic infections contains
> a bunch of other "azoles" with out killing my plants
Clout (metronidazole, trichlophon, and malachite green) is effective
at controlling wide variety of external parasitic infections. It's
unlikely to be of any use for the conditions you've described. In
some cases bacterial infections are spread via protozoan vectors, so
while Clout won't help the sick fish, it may prevent the infection
from spreading. Plant damage should be minimal; some people have even
reported improved plant growth after medicating a tank with
metronidazole (doubtful, but you never know). Because Clout is very
stressful to many fish, I prefer to choose a single medication based
on a proper diagnosis.
> The idea was to treat the whole community of Angels, Corydora sp.,
> Plecostomus sp., Whatevergenus curviceps ......
> Maybe I am over reacting...all the other fish seem fine...
Probably best to quarantine infected fish. I'd be reluctant to medicate
the entire tank if the other fish are OK.
> I do not
> know the life span of angelfish...
More than 5 years (the one I had lasted 7, but other aquarists have been more
successful).
--
Kevin Conlin kcconlin at cae_ca "We're Canadians. We HAVE to be polite"
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