Re: sp. "Miua" and viejita

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>]

Greg,

I, too, try to avoid medicines when possible. For external parasites I use
a combination of 1 drop/2 L of malachite green + 1 drop/2 L of 37% Formalin
(standard medicinal formaldehyde) in a bare tank. Change 25% of the water
after 2 days & repeat the medication practice for a week (3 doses). Apistos
can handle this quite well, but some fish with no scales (catfishes) or
tiny scales (loaches & characoids) are very sensitive to malachite green.
Also increase air in the hospital tank because Formalin absorbs O2 in the
water. Try to keep the tank very clean because the Formalin is quickly
neutralized by organic matter in the tank. Also try to avoid getting any
Formalin on your skin - especially the dry white powder that usually
appears around the lid. Formalin is considered a cancer causing substance.
Prolonged contact has caused cancer in the internal organisms of test
animals. Malachite green also is a suspected carcinogen, so be careful
handling these chemicals. Better to be safe than sorry.

There are commercially available antiparasite medicines out there that work
well, too. Most are organophosphates that are similar to or the same as
well known insecticides.

I have read that oils & compounds in garlic will kill or drive out
parasites in the intestine. The garlic must be crushed & mixed with food.
It will not work unless the fish eats it. It is useless for external
parasites. I hope this helps.

Mike Wise

Grzegorz Prusinowski wrote:

> > Your female viejita may have gill parasites. I would
> remove her to a
> > hospital tank and treat her separately.
> how would you treat it? I prefer no to mess too much with
> the medicines. I used mashed garlic when I suspected
> bacterial infections, but I suspect it won't help for
> parasites?
>
> Thanks and regards
> Greg
>
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