Forums / TEAM Marine Depot / Disease, Health and Wellness - by Kelly Jedlicki / Medicine Cabinet / Latest Posts

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:35:20 GMT

There are many threads on praziquantel - when in doubt use the search button in the upper right hand control panel.....this may get you a faster answer if I am away from the computer.

Per Dr Noga: 7.6mg/gallon for 1 - 3 hours for adult cestodes.

For monogeans: 76 mg/gallon for 1.5 hours or 38 mg/gallon for 3 hours.

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Reefer334 — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:10:28 GMT

If using Praziquantel as a dip how much do use for how much water?

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 23:36:58 GMT

Hi Brian!

Great to see you on here....and thanks for the reminder.

Being in the medical profession, you take for granted and assume a lot.....but I unfortunately became lax once (or ignorant) and was handling sulfa (ungloved) for one of my pets (I am allergic to sulfa). I developed a nasty allergic rash.....

Thanks again for the reminder!

RE: Medicine Cabinet

WBrian — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:13:51 GMT

Hi Kelly!

It's Brian from Virginia Beach. This is a great thread. I've enjoyed and learned from reading it. I'm not that great a resource when it comes to Fish disease and treatment (that's why we keep you around!). But I feel obliged to add that people who are allergic/sensitive to any given medication should use extreme caution in which meds they choose to treat their fish with, and be aware of the possibility of an allergic reaction from these "fish meds". Amoxicillin is amoxicillin, regardless what name it's sold under. So use caution!

Keep up the great work here!

Brian Murphy

RE: Medicine Cabinet

mightyreefer — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:40:48 GMT

I just ordered a bottle of the praziqual stuff from them. Other than the extremely expensive shipping cost it was relatively simple. The website was easy to use and understand and it was processed quickly........

Here's to hoping that it saves my fish. $60 anglefish just turned into a $90 angelfish.

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 03:34:28 GMT

I have ordered from them and have recommended them to many.

Have you tried them - any feedback??

RE: Medicine Cabinet

mightyreefer — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 23:43:29 GMT

http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/

seems like a good provider of meds.

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 20:44:31 GMT

I would suggest keeping Mardel's maracyn-2 or nitrofurazone or kanamycin on hand. If a fish is not eating, baths or prolonged immersion may be required.

I would also strongly suggest a dewormer for all fish - praziquantel is my first choice.

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Trickman2 — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 12:32:39 GMT

My medicine cabinet:

metronidazole powder, Seachem focus, garlic Guard, Formalin, Copper.

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 07:59:31 GMT

A 2 - 5 minute dip will not remove parasites that are "embedded" & feeding in the gills and skin.

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Caspo — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 07:48:13 GMT

Great Thead!
Kelly, I must have had great luck over the year with my fish.
I've never needed to use any medication. However, maybe I did and never new it? Ingnorance is bliss.
I read in one of the posts, to due 30- 60 minute fresh water dips in some instances.
Wow! years ago it was 2 -5 minutes, and if the fish looked stressed, "Gett'm Out"

Am I missing something here?

Thanks,

Tom

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 19:47:49 GMT

Mickey,

Welcome to MarineDepot.com and this forum.

I will sticky per your suggestion

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Mickey — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 18:12:41 GMT

This post has a lot of good information. Can I suggest that it get "pinned" to the forum? I've already had to search for it twice over a couple of weeks because I forgot something.

Mickey

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 06:32:36 GMT

I try not to use a net to catch a fish but prefer to use the net to "corral" the fish into a container. This is less stressful and will not cause the abrasions/fin damage that nets can have on a stressed/thrashing/struggling fish.

I always weigh a container with a predetermined amount of water on the scale and then zero it. I then will add the fish.

Thanks for the compliments and for sharing/posting.

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Killerwhale — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 06:20:01 GMT

Kelly sorry if this is a stupid question but are you measuring a small bit of water to put in scale(probably just zero the scale) and then net the fish onto the scale?I have just heard that netting a fish was not good. Maybe a necessary evil or do you have a better way. I saw a thread on Anthony's forum about humidity and you spoke about all of your aquariums.I like most am jealous.I wish all you team depot guys would post some pics of all your handy work.

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 20:31:27 GMT

There are small gram scales. Here is the scale I use for my smaller fish:

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Killerwhale — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 20:18:29 GMT

How do you get weights on small fish such as chromis, fire fish, or something really small like neon gobies?

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 14:20:36 GMT

Killerwhale (8/24/2006)

If buying wormer from a vet, how much do you use when adding it to the food since fish vary so much in size and most are to small to weigh.

I have a food scale that measures in grams as well as ounces. What type & size fish are you wondering about the weight? If you buy praziquantel from the vet - it comes in tablets (smallest - 23 mg I believe). In case you haven't heard, praziquantel is not inexpensive either. As far as how much to add - weight of fish multiplied by 23 mg divided by 16 (16 ounces in a pound)....this will give you the mg dose you need to add/administer to food. See above post. If one is having difficulty figuring out dosages, please post & I will be happy to figure out for you.

I guess same question for antibiotics.Is a 15 min soak for food enough.A question about fresh water dips.Lets say you bring a new fish home and the salinity is 1.019 in the bag and you want to give a fresh water bath. I would adjust the ph in the bath to the qt tank or the bag water?

If your fish has spent a long period of time in the bag (i.e shipping), I would recommend acclimating the fish to a "normal" pH water with the same salinity. After the fish has been acclimated to water with a normal pH - then I would proceed with the freshwater dip.

Does it matter what the QT salinity is since they have been shocked by the fresh water dip? Could you at this point just start the QT salinity at 1.009? It is confusing when we have been told how important a slow acclimation process is when adjusting salinity.Can you explain why it is OK to do this? Is a freshwater bath standard for you or do you treat it like any med procedure and only treat when a problem is evident? Thanks

I use freshwater dips with methylene blue on all new specimens before they are placed in QT. I believe that this helps remove some of the external parasite load if there is any. I only treat prophylactically with hyposalinity those fishes that are "ich magnets" - puffers, tangs. After the freshwater dip, they are placed in the QT that has a salinity slightly lower than the salinity in the transport bag. If I am treating with hyposalinity, the salinity is lowered slowly over 8 - 10 hours. I think this causes less stress than freshwater dip to hyposalinity especially in a fish that has been shipped.

Hope this clarifies..............

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Killerwhale — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 09:56:55 GMT

If buying wormer from a vet, how much do you use when adding it to the food since fish vary so much in size and most are to small to weigh.I guess same question for antibiotics.Is a 15 min soak for food enough.A question about fresh water dips.Lets say you bring a new fish home and the salinity is 1.019 in the bag and you want to give a fresh water bath. I would adjust the ph in the bath to the qt tank or the bag water? Does it matter what the QT salinity is since they have been shocked by the fresh water dip? Could you at this point just start the QT salinity at 1.009? It is confusing when we have been told how important a slow acclimation process is when adjusting salinity.Can you explain why it is OK to do this? Is a freshwater bath standard for you or do you treat it like any med procedure and only treat when a problem is evident? Thanks

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 05:44:54 GMT

Anela,

The dose of oral praziquantel is 23 mg per pound of fish weight so:

1 pound = 0.45 kg = 454 gm

so the dose is 23 mg per 454 gm.

so a 19 gm fish would require 0.96 mg of praziquantel.

Shake vigorously before use.
Measure at the rate of 1 tsp per 20 gallons. One ounce per 120 gallons. This produces a concentration of 2.5 mg/L.
Distribute the proper amount around the edge of the aquarium or directly into the filter box to achieve the best overall distribution.
A single treatment lasting 5-7 days is normally sufficient. Repeat as necessary, but no more than once every 3-5 days.
May be used as a preventative at the standard dosage, when disease is likely.
Do not use any other drugs or disease treatment.
May cause noticable temporary foaming.

Specifications:
This is a ready-to-use, liquid concentrate that was developed as an effective way to deal with unwanted parasites in ponds, freshwater or saltwater aquariums. It is extremely safe and super effective giving you rapid control yet will not negatively impact your biological filtration.
Key benefits: treats flukes, tapeworms, flatworms, turbellarians; can be used as a preventive; non-toxic to commonly kept aquarium animals or plants.
Treats up to 120 gallons.

Ingredients:
Oxybispropanol (as an inert solubilizing agent) and <5% praziquantel by weight.

Hikari Prazi-pro comes in < 5% so < 5 gm per 100ml which :

< 1000 mg per 20 ml = <50 mg per 1 ml

1 gallon = 3.7854 liters

SO: if one does not dilute per above instructions ~ 0.019 ml would = 0.96 mg

IF one dilutes according to directions (2.5 mg per liter):

a 19 gm fish would need 0.384 liters = 384 ml of the diluted Prazi -pro (1 teaspoon per 20gallons).

Hope you can follow

Best of luck

RE: Medicine Cabinet

anela — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 22:18:45 GMT

[quote]MontiMan (8/19/2006)

Very good thread.

Where would you get some of these medicines? I have never seen praziquantel, fenbendazole (panacur), or piperazine. I have all of the other medications listed in my medicine cabinet, but I have nothing for a dewormer.

[/quote]

fenbendazole (panacur) and piperazine are both dog/cat dewormers and are available OTC from online pet supply stores. i get liquid fenbendazole from my vet and give orally. i've used prazi-pro from hikari several times, either as a series of 24 hour baths or long term immersion. praziquantel is also available from national fish pharmaceuticals but theirs has to be diluted in alcohol.

i'd prefer to give prazi orally but i'm a chicken unless i know exactly how much to administer. i'm also a complete idiot when it comes to figuring out all those funky dilutions/solutions/etc.

kelly, since one of my new acquistions just passed a big ol' worm is there any way to figure out a correct oral dosage for say, a 19 gram fish, using prazi-pro?

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Rothie — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:19:59 GMT

Thanks,Kelly.I'll print that and tape it to the bottle,and also add it to my fish illness and disease file.

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:48:29 GMT

Sue,

I seldom if ever dose a QT with anything medications - only exception would be copper. I always prefer to do baths. Most medications do lose their potency when exposed to light and saltwater. Most will affect or totally wipe out the biological filtration - methylene blue being one that will wipe out the biological filtration.

I use the methylene blue in a freshwater dip before the fish is placed into a QT. The methylene blue does help eliminate some of the external parasites and does help with nitrite toxicity and oxygenation. I perform these baths for a minimum of 15 minutes but aim for 30 minutes.

I have not used the specific brand of methylene blue that you mentioned but the 2.3% strength is pretty "standard".

The recommended dose is 3.7 mg - 11.1 mg per gallon.....okay here is the math conversion (math geek coming out in me )

2% = 2 gm/100 ml

so that = 2000 mg/100 ml

so 1 ml = 20 mg ...... and 1/2 ml (0.5 ml) = 10 mg

So with your standard solution (~ 2% ) you would add roughly 0.19 ml to 0.55 ml per gallon of water.

Hope this helps.

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Rothie — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:58:45 GMT

Kelly-

I picked up a bottle of Kordon Methylene Blue(2.303% solution) after reading one of your replys about using it as a preventative on new fish.Do you recommend its use in saltwater or freshwater(reef fish) when used as a dip?Is it just for a preventative dip before going into quarantine,or do you treat the QT tank?Can you give me a recommendation on how much per gallon.The instructions on the bottole are pretty vague.

Thanks,

Sue

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 10:40:45 GMT

Killerwhale,

Welcome to this forum!!

Killerwhale (8/22/2006)

Since 2 died and one has a spot - I would definitely treat the one with the lesion. It needs to be segregated or moved to another tank as fish with wounds will often be picked on by other fish. The "weakest" link will be viewed as some thing to be picked on....the wound will be picked on and will get worse.

Now my question is per the above post.The directions say treat the tank for 5 days.If your recomendation is to feed the med how do you measure amount to give.and how long do you feed?

Maracyn 2 can be absorbed through the wound and can also be "ingested" by swallowing the water with the medication. I would probably dilute a tablet in a small amount of water. I would then soak a small amount of food in a small amount of the diluted med. I would add the rest to the hospital tank or bath water.

[quote] Does the med last for a few days if soaked in food or does it need to be mixed with every feeding?

It is best to mix/dilute the med daily as many antibiotics will degrade/loss effectiveness when exposed to air/water.

If the fish is not eating and you give it a separate bath, how potent do you make the bath and do you do this every day for the recommended treatment period?(5 days)

If the fish is not eating, you can add it to a separate hospital tank or administer via bath - I recommend adding one tablet per one gallon and aerate well. Let the fish stay in the medicated bath for one hour.

Since I have lost 2 would you just assume the rest need to be treated even though they are active and eating?

I would treat the "infected" fish only at this point. The others may be stronger and have stronger immune systems to have fought off the pathogen. Treating fish that are not sick can lead to the development of drug resistant strains of bacteria. I would make sure the water parameters are kept pristine and the "uninfected" chromis are given a good variety of nutritional food enriched with vitamins, HUFA and beta glucan.

Please keep us updated.

Best of luck.

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Killerwhale — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 06:24:33 GMT

Kelly, I have a batch of green chromis in QT and suspect bacterial infection is a problem.I found another thread of yours that matches the symptoms. I had 7 but lost 2 almost immediately. The other 5 have been eating like pigs for about a week. I am taking salinity down slow and is at 1013.This morning they all ate well again but after eating 1 went and sat on the bottom away from everyone else.(It is not being picked on) It looks perfect but may be breathing a bit fast but it is hard for me to tell. Green chromis always seem to breath fast to me. The food is enriched with every thing you recomend. Even though one fish does have a spot on its side I have been avoiding treatment because everybody is still active and eating. I have marycin 2.Now my question is per the above post.The directions say treat the tank for 5 days.If your recomendation is to feed the med how do you measure amount to give.and how long do you feed? Does the med last for a few days if soaked in food or does it need to be mixed with every feeding? If the fish is not eating and you give it a seperate bath, how potent do you make the bath and do you do this every day for the recomended treatment period?(5 days) Since I have lost 2 would you just assume the rest need to be treated even though they are active and eating?

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 04:50:59 GMT

Jungle makes a medicated food - "anti-parasitic" that contains praziquantel, metronidazole, and levamisole.

Gel-Tek makes a product called Ultra Cure PX: metronidazole, flubenol and praziquantel. (states contains fish pheromones which enhances feeding behavior).

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Steven Pro — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 04:04:12 GMT

MontiMan (8/19/2006)

Hikari makes a product called Prazi-Pro in which the active ingredient is Praziquantel. And, I know I have seen Piperzine for sale at a number of LFS's by that very name.

RE: Medicine Cabinet

MontiMan — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 21:07:37 GMT

RE: Medicine Cabinet

chefthomasr — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 18:12:01 GMT

Kelly,

Thank you so much for your speedy reply! And of course for the info!

I appreciate the complement. I'm on your forum a lot but I rarely post - always trying to learn.

Jenny

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:45:05 GMT

Jenny,

Thanks for the clarification.

For freshwater dips 15 - 30 minutes. Formalin dips 30 - 60 minutes. Antibiotic baths - 60 minutes.

I prefer giving antibiotics via the oral route - food. Sometimes if the fish isn't eating, then administering via tank water is the next option. I prefer giving medications via baths in a separate well aerated container over administering to the hospital tank. If administering via hospital tank - make sure it is a bare bottom tank without carbon, skimmer or UV sterilizer as these will remove or destroy the chemical properties.

Directions should accompany the medications. If not, there should be a concentration or strength on the container. There are proper dosages for fish. If your's does not come with instructions, please post & we can figure out dosing for you (your fish).

Thanks for sharing and hats off to your good husbandry skills!

RE: Medicine Cabinet

chefthomasr — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:32:53 GMT

Thanks!
Lugol's is for the corals .

I've actually never medicated a fish before...I rarely take meds myself so I feel a little weird about giving them to other animals. But when they need them they need them.

The proper instructions are on the bottles yes?

And when we are talking about dips? 15-30 minutes is that appropriate?

Thank you for your help!

Jenny

RE: Medicine Cabinet

Puffer Queen — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:33:56 GMT

Jenny,

Welcome to this forum!

Great post.

For dewormers: praziquantel, fenbendazole (panacur), piperazine (in that order of preference)

For external parasites: Formalin, copper - cupramine, methylene blue (good to use with freshwater dips).

For antibiotics: Nitrofurans, kanamycn, minocycline (maracyn-2), neomycin

Other helpful agents: Beta glucan, MS 222 (fish anesthetic), garlic

Make sure you keep track of expiration dates and keep them in a cool dry place.

What are you going to treat with lugol's?

Again, welcome!

Medicine Cabinet

chefthomasr — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:56:38 GMT

Kelly,

We luckily do not nor have any ailing fish.

But I have been thinking it would be a good idea to have medicines on hand in case. The LFS near us don't carry a lot of variety and ordering drygoods online can sometimes take awhile. So I was wondering what we should have in our "medicine cabinet?"

Beta Glucan, Formalin, Neomycin, Praziquantel, Copper, Lugol's?

If you have posted this elsewhere please forgive me but direct me to the right thread.

Thank you in advance.

Jenny