Medication Recommendations

[Tony]

I'm about to order some supplies from Foster and Smith and one thing that I need is a better selection of medication for them when they get sick. Looking for recommendations on a solid cichlid "first aid kit."

There's a lot out there.... anti-bacterial, anti-parasitic, penicillin, amoxicillin, tetracycline.....????

Thanks in advance.

 

[UNCLERUCKUS]

MELAFIX.....JUNGLE LAB TABLETS FOR PARASITES.......THERE IS ANOTHER THAT STARTS WITH M THAT I CANT REMEMBER THE NAME OF THATS REALLY GOOD TOO. THOSE AND SALT IS WHAT I WOULD HAVE HANDY. I RECENTLY FOUND A UNKNOWN PARASITE THE OTHER DAY IN MY TANK. I DRAINED IT CLEANED IT THEN BOILED A FEW GALLONS OF WATER. I THEN DOWSED MY SUBSTRATE WITH SALT AND ADDED FRESHLY BOILED WATER. I ALSO CLEANED FILTERS AND REPLACED MEDIA CARTRIDGES. PARASITES GONE. THIS WAS A LITTLE WORK BUT HIGHLY EFFECTIVE AND WORTH IT.

 

[Tony]

Awesome. Thanks DQ. Glad you were able to take care of that parasite. How big of a tank was affected?

The jungle tabs you're talking about are the ones that fizz when you drop them in the tank?

 

[UNCLERUCKUS]

150G TANK. YOURE DEAD ON WITH THE TABLETS. FOR LARGER TANKS AND THE TABLETS I WOULD DRAIN THE WATER TO ABOUT 2" ABOVE SUBSTRATE AND TREAT THE WATER THAT WAY.

 

[fischfan13]

Metronidazole
There is also Praziquantel, but I believe that Jungle Labs Parasite Clear has both Praziquantel and Metro in it.
Melafix is good to have as well.

 

[Tony]

Darn DQ, serious pain to have to sterilize a 150!

Bill - Sounds like the Jungle Labs is the way to go then, seeing as how it contains both of the meds. Broad coverage is a good thing. I have a nearly empty bottle of Melafix and will be ordering the gallon sized container. Thanks!

 

[UNCLERUCKUS]

YEAH IT WAS A PAIN BUT I LOOKED AT IT THIS WAY. I HAD TO DO A WEEKLY WC ANYWAY AND MY FISH ARE WORTH IT. TONY YOU CAN ALSO MAKE MELAFIX...ITS 1 % TEA TREE OIL AND 99% WATER

 

[Tony]

Make Melafix? For real? Stuff is like $40 or something for the big bottle.

 

[UNCLERUCKUS]

Make Melafix? For real? Stuff is like $40 or something for the big bottle.

melafix diy receipe
BELOW IS A POST I FOUND ON ANOTHER FORUM. INTERESTING INFORMATION HERE. I MAY TRY THIS OUT MYSELF.



I see a lot of people on the forum using Melafix and since it is one of the biggest rip offs in the trade (however good it might be) I though I would make a post about how to make your own melafix. It can save a lot of money if you want to treat a large aquarium.

Melafix is 99% distilled water and 1 % Tea tree oil (meluca oil).

You can make your own distilled water or buy it cheaply. Tea tree oil is available online and in any health store, alternative medicine stores, walmart (thanks owlbehere) etc etc. You should have no problem finding it.

You then mix 1 ml oil to every 100 ml water and you get your own Melafix with the same strength as the store bought medicine (as close as makes no difference) Try to get the measurements as exact as possible but if you are a couple of ml of with the water it is no big deal. It is the oil you need to take care when you mix.

Addition by Korith: Bettafix is just a weaker solution of Melafix. Melafix I think 5x more concentrated than Bettafix. So if melafix is 1% solution, than bettafix would be a .2% solution.

Addition by fraggle: To make your own Pimafix it's 1% Bay oil or Pimenta racemosa, same as concentrations as the Melafix, so 1ml in 100ml of water




HERE IS THE POST I POSTED BACK IN JULY.

 

[Tony]

Dude! That is AWESOME!!!

Totally gonna try it.

Thank ya brother.

 

[SubMariner]

PraziPro is essential for your fish room, not to mention Metronidazole.

And don't forget Cupramine by Seachem, it's a Copper that kills ick. "Elementary my Dear Watson"...

Also, Melafix and Pimafix are great natural meds.

Last but not least Stress Zyme or Bacter Boost, in case your good bacteria crashes.

Good Luck Tone,


RM

 

[fischfan13]

Tony, the ONLY Meds that I keep are Metro, Melafix and Pimafix...that's it.

The Jungle Labs stuff that DQ speaks of is definitely essential as well.
Make sure that you always have salt on hand...epsom and either sea, kosher or aquarium.

 

[cmcpart0422]

I usually have metro and clout around the house. I keep clout for my tropheus incase of bloat.

 

[Jumbie]

I keep the Jungle Lab stuff on had as well as metro, melafix. Richard had a really good recommendation about keeping some bacteria on had incase you wipe out yours in the tank. This happened to me a few weeks ago, I did a 70% water change and tossed out all the filter media and put new ones in. Don’t know what I was thinking but I now keep extra bacteria on had.

 

[msjinkzd]

I keep metronidazole powder (to make gelatinized medicated foods), liquid praziquantel, and erythromyacin on hand as well as salt. Take note of the shelf life when purchasing.

 

[Jumbie]

Oh yeah SALT!!!! A very important item to have in your fish room I think I paid $6.99 for a 20lb bag of rock salt from Home Depot.

 

[msjinkzd]

also, if you crash your biofilter, you can always add media from a different established tank.

 

[Cartel]

YEAH IT WAS A PAIN BUT I LOOKED AT IT THIS WAY. I HAD TO DO A WEEKLY WC ANYWAY AND MY FISH ARE WORTH IT. TONY YOU CAN ALSO MAKE MELAFIX...ITS 1 % TEA TREE OIL AND 99% WATER

I made a gallon of "melafix" a couple months ago. It cost me a whole 10 bucks to make!

 

[Tony]

I made a gallon of "melafix" a couple months ago. It cost me a whole 10 bucks to make!

It come out all right?

 

[Tony]

Thanks so much to everyone for their suggestions. Did a bit of comparing products and came up with the following shopping cart list:

-Melafix/Pimafix - Gonna go pick up some bay oil (Pimafix) and tea tree oil (Melafix) and attempt to DIY. They run $35/gallon at Foster and Smith and figured I could save a bunch by making my own.
-Metronidazole tablets (parasites)
-Prazipro/liquid praziquantel (parasites)
-Clout (parasites)
-Jungle Parasite Clear (parasites)
-Stress Zyme (bacterial repopulator)
-erythromyacin tabs (I have already tetracycline tabs - is this about the same?)

Ok... so I think that some of the parasite treatments are redundant, no? Or are they for different types of parasites?

Dang... that's a big shopping cart.