Acriflavin / metronidazole for brook

[mattcoug]

According to Steve's sticky both acriflavin and metronidazole are effective against brook, however formalin dips is the only method I've been successful with.

Have folks had success with acriflavin or metronidazole?

-Matt

 

[ThRoewer]

Dipping in freshwater with formalin/malachite green is what I do prophylactic with every fish - just to be sure I don't get some nasty into my system.

It is effective to kill the parasite and usually enough at the early stages of the infection.

But at the time you can see the infection on the skin it needs more to safe the fish because what you see is in most cases the secondary opportunistic bacterial infection.
I had good results saving heavily infected wild Solomon percula with Trimethoprim/Sulfamethoxazole (Septra), a broadband antibiotic.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

As for treating brook there was a thread recently where someone was treating brook with metro but it failed. As to why it could have been an incorrect dosage, incorrect administration or the meds were expired. I cured a flame angel of brook with 5 dips of formalin.
Are you dealing with brook now?

 

[mattcoug]

Ya, I had a breakout a couple months ago, now my garage has 19 new qt tanks holding surviving fish that have gone thought a full formalin dip process. I've gone though 2,000 gallons of saltwater and countless hours spent. All the while my display tanks are empty, I lost way too many fish, and the first time I started putting fish back together there was at least one that was a silent carrier that restarted the process for quite a few fish. So I am defiantly interested in finding a less resource intensive way to tackle brook and a way to guarantee each fish is clean before putting them back into display.

 

[snorvich]

As for treating brook there was a thread recently where someone was treating brook with metro but it failed. As to why it could have been an incorrect dosage, incorrect administration or the meds were expired. I cured a flame angel of brook with 5 dips of formalin.
Are you dealing with brook now?

Dips are good if the fish goes back into a clean tank where it cannot be reinfected.

 

[mattcoug]

Dips are good if the fish goes back into a clean tank where it cannot be reinfected.

Steve, would using acriflavin or metronidazole in the QT rather than formalin, as the long-term-bath component of treatment be effective? (formalin dip on day 1,3,5,..., and placed back into QT dosed with acriflavin or metronidazole)

 

[mattcoug]

The procedure that has been effective but extremely intensive time/$ wise for me is:

day1 - place individual fish in 5 gal bucket A with 2 gal display tank water with airstone and heater
- dose bucket A with 2 ml formalin for 1 hour
- in bucket B put 2 gallons new premixed temp adjusted(74) salt water(1.015sg), .2ml formalin, airstone, heater
- after the hour in bucket A, move the fish to bucket B
- clean/dry everything from bucket A

day2 - add .2 ml formalin to bucket B

day3 - crazy feed tons of various foods for 30 min in bucket B
- add 2 ml formalin to bucket B for 1 hour
- prepare bucket A - put 2 gallons new premixed temp adjusted(74) salt water(1.015sg), .2ml formalin, airstone, heater
- after the hour in bucket B, move the fish to bucket A
- clean/dry everything from bucket B

day 4 - add .2 ml formalin to bucket A

day 5-14(or more) - repeat.

Once the fish is completely normal behavior/color/appetite -Repeat 3(6 days) more dips

Move fish to final brand new clean QT tank using polyfilter in HOB filter dosed with bio-spira/dr tims

Now all my fish are in QT, waiting to complete 8 weeks fallow before returning any fish to DT

Here is my question - how can I guarantee each fish is clean before adding it back to DT and setting me back again?



Notes - tiny fish can be successfully combined in 5 gal bucket
- large fish got put in 5-10 gal water in 30 gal brute cans - formalin rates remained the same 1ml/.1ml per gal
- 3 dips over 6 days was effective on a lot of fish, but at least one fish didn't work so I had to restart and extend
treatments to this minimum 7 dips over 14 days. I now do at least 3 (6 days) more dips for all fish after fish is
completely returned to normal behavior/color/appetite
- I massively overfeed on the feeding days, and uneaten food would just get left behind when fish were moved
out, then later cleaned.

 

[mattcoug]

The other questions I have RE formalin are:

1. does it kill the brook parasite, or just cause it to drop off the fish
2. does adding the .1ml/gal as part of the long-term-bath component kill brook swimming in the water or only aid in getting more parasites to drop off the fish?


Thanks for all your help and advice,
-Matt

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Dips are good if the fish goes back into a clean tank where it cannot be reinfected.

I didn't go into that, but yes I would put them in a new QT after each dip like TT as was suggested by Humblefish

 

[Newsmyrna80]

The other questions I have RE formalin are:

1. does it kill the brook parasite, or just cause it to drop off the fish
2. does adding the .1ml/gal as part of the long-term-bath component kill brook swimming in the water or only aid in getting more parasites to drop off the fish?


Thanks for all your help and advice,
-Matt

It does kill the parasite but not the eggs. The long term bath is not recommended as the dosage level to kill the parasite is lethal to the fish if exposed to it long term.