Re: Sick rainbowfish advice

[steev ward <steevward@mac.com>]

>Would it matter which kind of ich medication I use? I usually
>use Methylene Blue.

I would say that Yes, it does matter, but that's another subject to discuss.
Methylene Blue is mild and safe for the fish even in really strong dips and
baths. But will it do the job? It isn't very effective in killing Ich, but then
we aren't talking about Ich but some other protozoan. We'll see. Part of the
question is "How fast does it have to work?" It may take a while, so the fish
need to hang in there for a while. If you have the time and want to be
conservative Methylene Blue is a good choice because it won't hurt the fish and
will almost always do SOME good especially when fish are having trouble
breathing.

Ich medications that are composed of Malachite Green and Formaldehyde are
stronger, faster, and more effective on protozoans. Problem is that they are
harder on the fish. Some fish are too sensitive for these chemicals. Others like
cichlids and goldfish can take a double dose of most brands. If you are treating
a sick fish in a hospital tank this is the way to go though. Protozoans like
Costia and Chilodonella can be killed of with just a couple treatments
sometimes, because they don't have a resistive stage like Ich does.

Plants don't like any of these chemicals, so the way to deal with a planted tank
is either to remove any plants that you want to save, before treatment begins,
or to do the treatment in a separate tank. After the plants have been away from
fish for a while (or fish kept out of the plant tank) they can be considered
safe to put with fish again. I don't worry too much about  parasites on plants,
but some people do.

It is important to remember that we don't really KNOW what is wrong with your
fish (or Clay's). This is guesswork based on certain assumptions.

Steev

 ------------------
 To unsubscribe from this list, please send mail to majordomo@thekrib.com
 with "Unsubscribe gsas-member" in the body of the message.  Archives of
 this list can be found at http://lists.thekrib.com/gsas-member/