Wild fish treatment regimen?

[mscichlid]

Whenever you get wild fish in do you begin treating them or do you wait to see if something develops?

If you were to begin treating them right away, what preventative measures do you use besides QT?

What meds, etc.

 

[Andrewtfw]

It really depends on the fish. Wild cardinals almost always come in with some sort of chillinodella (sp?) that tends to show a few days after quarantine so we medicate immediately. In certain times of the year, our clown loaches tend to come in with ich so we do the same. Quarantine is ideal but not always practical. In these instances, a dose of meds and a good feeding or two up front can be a life saver.

 

[mscichlid]

Thanks Andrew. Which meds are you recommending?

 

[BevN]

I think it also depends on where your getting them from. We have a supplier that tranships and those fish are coming straight form out of country, get a water change and are in our tanks within a day of arriving in the US.

Those we treat quite differently than the ones we get out of Florida form another importer who conditions the fish.

The ones from the transhipper we treat for parasites but no other meds unless their is a problem. We do not treat for parasites till they are settled in and eating well.

I guess we have been lucky with the cardinals. We have never had any disease and lose only a few the first day. That does amaze me considering we get 700 tiny ones at a time.

A lot of how you treat depends on how they are treated before you get them. If your dealing with someone that does a stellar job of acclimation you shouldn't have to do anything. If your getting them direct that's a whole different ballgame.

 

[msjinkzd]

I do about teh same as bev. I get them in, get them in a tank and feed them (live) for the first day or two. Then I feed them a medicated food (usually metronidazole or fenbendazole, depending). If they are asymptomatic otherwise, I don't treat for anything.

Alot of it too depends on what country they are coming from as some countries are MUCH better than others in how they treat/condition the fish.

If I am getting wild caught fish, I always have salt, a gram neg and gram pos antibiotic, an intestinal parasite med and an external parasite med (in addition to the salt) on hand as you never know what is going to crop up.

 

[mscichlid]

Do you guys recommend formalin and levamisole?

 

[msjinkzd]

I always keep levamisole on hand, its hard to get and can be pricey and is the only really good way to treat camallanus. I have never used formalin

 

[dogofwar]

I quarantine religiously...no matter the source of the fish.

I treat for internal parasites (medicated food) and otherwise just use salt and melafix.

Matt

 

[BevN]

Probably getting harder to find because it's being used to cut cocaine. I have some but was from an old sorce.

I use kanamycin, Metronidazole, fenbendazole mainly. I don't keep a large store of meds. Also use melafix, alder cones, almond leaves and salt. Melafix and a little salt did wonders for clearing up cloudy eyes in a tank of fighting altums.

 

[Avatar]

Is there a down side to formalin?

I've been told 3 drops/gallon is a good prophylaxis for parasites.

 

[mchambers]

Formalin

I've been told 3 drops/gallon is a good prophylaxis for parasites.

Certainly can still get it with malachite green in ich treatments.

 

[Avatar]

I've had to deal with 2 cases of ich in as many years...

...treated the first with some 20 year old malachite green, knocked it right out. The second I tried some Korbel 'natural' something or other which basically required a week of treatment with about half a bottle for a 40 breeder (as opposed to a couple teaspoons of MG for a 55) and wasn't nearly as effective. Convinced the reason that hardly anyone sells MG is because it works so well that one bottle lasts forever and the service companies can't make any money from supplying it.

If it wasn't for having Corydoras I could have just 'cooked' it out of the tanks but that 87-88 degree threshold can be just as fatal as the ick. If anyone has good experience with anything thats as effective as MG I'd like to hear about it.