Antibiotics

[ChuckV]

Hi people!! Does anyone have any experiences with the use of antibiotics that
are easy on the biological filter?

Sometimes the cure may be worse than the disease. I may want to treat
my 90 gallon tank but am afraid of destroying the biological filtration.

Any suggestions please?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

What are you treating your fish for in particular? There are a few sort of "cure-all" meds but there aren't any medicines that will cure every disease/parasites known in the hobby, so you need to be more specific about what you are treating your fish for exactly .

 

[ChuckV]

Thanks for your response. If you look at my post in the Catfish forum "Albino Cory Problem"
you will see I have no earthly idea what the problem or disease is. I really do not
know if there is a disease maybe my use of water sans minerals has been causing the
problem.

Some have suggested that it may be a bacterial problem. Therefore I was just wondering
if I had to treat the tank with an antibiotic which one to choose that is easy on my biological
filter.

I am now trying to slowly change my water chemistry to include Ca++ and Mg++ by
using more hard tap water and less RO/DI water. Hopefully it is just a water
chemistry problem and not a bacterial problem.

The albino corys in both tanks are losing barbels and fins, There is no telltale sores
or reddish marks. they just seem to dissolve over time. Otherwise they seem healthy
and my other fish are thriving.

If changing the water chemistry does not alter the symptoms or if my other fish begin to
have a problem then antibiotics may be the answer. I know that minocyline is easy on
the filter as is nitrofurazone. I also know that erythromycin is likely to destry the
biological filter.

I was asking if anyone had to treat with antibiotics and their biological filter was
spared what did they use.

Sort of information for future use.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hm i'm not sure of all the anti bacterial and anti fungal meds available over where you live are, but i think Pimafix should be available where you live- it is good at killing off external bacterial and fungal infections and does not harm the biological filtration, although it is not the strongest such med there is for these problems, it is worth a try, i have had success with it in the past for treating fin deterioration problems on fish in the past .

 

[ChuckV]

Thanks again for your reply. I have both Pimafix and Melafix. I haveused them
in the past as a sort of tonic.

After I get my water stabalized with a new ratio of tap and RO water I will
give them both a try.

 

[Bignose]

So. Let's see here. You want an antibacterial medicine -- a medication that affects bacteria by either directly killing them or at least stopping bacterial growth -- that kills bacteria but doesn't kill bacteria. An antibacterial is an antibacterial. Unless it is highly specialized, the medicine will kill any bacteria it finds, whether it is unwanted (like the ones you suspect are attacking you fish) or wanted (like the filter bacteria). The medicine doesn't know which ones are wanted and which ones aren't. The highlt specialized medications aren't going to be cheap, and aren't going to be available for fishkeeping.

About the only discrimination available for fishkeepers are some medicines are specifically anti gram positive bacteria and some are anti gram negative bacteria. But, those discriminations are not perfect in any way, and any powerful antibacterial medication is going to affect the filter.

If you choose to treat with antibacterials, you must also choose to do several large water changes per week. Several per day would be even better. So long as the temperature, pH, and hardness of the replacement water is near the stats of the tank water, you can do very large water changes without an ill effects. I am talking like 50%, 75% or even 90%.

Edited to add: Chuck, I told you in your other thread (though apparently you didn't read it) that barbel erosion is usually due to organics in the water. Please have a look at: http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/fishes/catfishes.shtml just a little of the way down the page is a section on Corydoras barbel erosion. So, again, I'll ask you, what are your water stats? Specifically, what is the nitrate reading? And how often and how large of water changes do you do?

 

[celaeno]

losing barbels could be due to dirty substrate. deteriorating fins could be fin rot. i used mardel maracyn 1/2 when treating for fin rot. it had no negative effect on the beneficial bacteria.

 

[confusion]

Seachem's sulfathiazole and kanneplex are antibiotics that I have used successfully and do not hurt the bio filter.

Also, I've never successfully treated anything with pimafix or melafix.

 

[raptorrex]

Seachem's sulfathiazole and kanneplex are antibiotics that I have used successfully and do not hurt the bio filter.

Also, I've never successfully treated anything with pimafix or melafix.

it would be down to the amount of the drug in the preparation, but Sulfathiazole, is a quite toxic. and as Bignose says ALL anti bacs have an effect on your filter, but a carbon section may help. is it not better to take professional advice when using a drug like this? making the bacteria resistant, by incorrect dosing could cause problems. and baring in mind how, comparatively, toxic it is to humans, perhaps something you could do without. i am not saying it is not safe to use, just bare in mind the above if you do.