Has Anyone Used Tetracycline?

[hollyp0p]

I am trying to treat a bad bacterial strain in my main tank which I thought I had shifted before, but it looks asthough it's back!

I have tetracycline for myself and it's the same dosage in each tab as for fish, on advice I have crushed a 250mg tablet up, mixed it with a cup of tank water and added it to the tank.
Trouble is I read so many different things about how many tabs to add per tank volume, and how many days you continue treatment, for instance last night found one that said 1 tab for every 10 gallons, daily for 5 days, but could be continued for up to 10........any idea how long tetracycline stays in the water, is that really a safe dosage?
Last time I treated tank for a week, and added only 2 tabs in that time, my tank is 55 litres (14.5 gallons) it didn't knock my filter bacteria at all.......not sure this was a good sign for treating a bacterial infection......do I need to up the dosage over the timescale??

 

[hollyp0p]

anyone?

 

[*Fishkies*]

Without doing water changes during the treatment. The medication builds up the more and more you put in. So if you put 1 tab in daily for 5 days. You have 5 doses of medication in the tank. If you continue for 10 days you have 10 doses of medication. The longer you treat the stronger the treatment in the tank will be. If you have about a 14.5gallon tank I would be adding about 1.5 tablets.

 

[hollyp0p]

Without doing water changes during the treatment. The medication builds up the more and more you put in. So if you put 1 tab in daily for 5 days. You have 5 doses of medication in the tank. If you continue for 10 days you have 10 doses of medication. The longer you treat the stronger the treatment in the tank will be. If you have about a 14.5gallon tank I would be adding about 1.5 tablets.

and do you think it's ok for me to add them daily??

 

[WILDER]

I would ask in tropical chat as I don't now either how long the tablet is effective for in the water.

 

[confusion]

I believe the normal dose is every 24 hours for 5 days.

Keep in mind that tetracycline in a broad spectrum anti-biotic, and will kill ALL bacteria - bad and good. You will have an uncycled tank after just the first dose. Ammonia in a tank where you have sick fish will make things much much worse.

 

[Tolak]

10-20mg/gallon seems to be the average dose, per National Fish Pharmacy, as well as Nelson Herwig's "Handbook of Drugs & Chemicals Used in the Treatment of Fish Diseases". When using most medications I change 50% of the water daily, and remed. This keeps any cycling problems from occuring. I also treat for 10 days, this prevents any drug resistant strains from developing.

 

[Colin_T]

you need to make sure the tank is spotlessly clean too. Gravel clean the tank every day when you do the water change. If there is lots of gunk in the filter or gravel the tetracycline will be wasted killing off that stuff and not do its job on the fish. A bare quarantine tank is better for using strong antibiotics like tetracycline.

As for how much to use. It depends on the strength of the tablet and how much water is in the tank. You can get different concentrations of the same medication and they require different amounts to be effective. Talk to a fish vet or animal health lab and see if they have any ideas. Also try contacting a few fish wholesalers.

And as mentioned above don't stop treating after just a couple of days because the bacteria can mutate and develop an immunity to the drug. And it will kill your filter so keep the feeding down and prepare for the tank to cycle again.

 

[WILDER]

Asked sh he said the antbiotics only get removed by water changes and black carbon.

 

[hollyp0p]

i used only two tabs last time it didn't touch my filter bacteria, have done two so far this time, intend to add another 2morrow, I wanted to see if I could get away with a light dosage first.

If not I will try the proper amount and intense dosage for 5 days next week, and be sure to clean the filter media a bit, not so bothered about the cycling, I do have other tanks if I need to cycle that one again, and I've found tetraaqua's Safestart to be very effective, and would add that and the harleys from my QT tank to settle the main tank back down if it gets affected!