API General Cure Help

[caribfan]

I am treating my new Mitratus butterfly and Borbonius Anthias for flukes with API General Cure. I received both fish at the same time and they are in the same quarantine tank.

I have followed the directions on the package and am almost 24 hours into the second treatment. Tomorrow at 5:00 pm will be 48 hours after the second treatment and time for a water change as stated by the directions.

My concern is that after the second treatment, the appetite has subsided on the butterfly. It also seems that the respiration is up somewhat.

Does anyone have an idea of what would be a concerning breaths / minute for this fish? Or better yet, a normal breaths/minute. I have an airstone in the tank, but didn't have it on initially - it's on now.

I am very seriously considering doing a 50 % change tonight, which is earlier than the box recommends. I figure i'll be better off doing a water change and having to retreat the fish, as opposed to losing it because I waited too long.

Thanks

 

[HumbleFish]

I looked it up, and apparently General Cure contains both metronidazole and praziquantel. I haven't used metro in years and that's because I found it can be pretty harsh on the fish. So, that might explain appetite suppression in the Butterfly. The heavy breathing is probably due to Flukes dying off, robbing the water of O2. The airstone will help and/or you can point a small powerhead towards the surface.

I would recommend just using Prazipro next time to treat Flukes. It gets the job done and is less invasive.

 

[sandwi54]

The fish are breathing faster because praziquantel reduces oxygen in the water. The airstone will help with oxygenation.

Metronidazole is a good medicine to use in addition to praziquantel, because there are many internal parasites that praziquantel has no effect on, but metro does. It is a standard procedure for Liveaquaria's Diver's Den to feed their fish with food dosed with metro. I have used General Cure many times in the past without any issues.

Of course, if you are sure that the fish only has flukes, then prazipro alone will be sufficient. However, I like to use General Cure on new fish simply to eliminate most of the internal parasites.

 

[caribfan]

The fish are breathing faster because praziquantel reduces oxygen in the water. The airstone will help with oxygenation.

Metronidazole is a good medicine to use in addition to praziquantel, because there are many internal parasites that praziquantel has no effect on, but metro does. It is a standard procedure for Liveaquaria's Diver's Den to feed their fish with food dosed with metro. I have used General Cure many times in the past without any issues.

Of course, if you are sure that the fish only has flukes, then prazipro alone will be sufficient. However, I like to use General Cure on new fish simply to eliminate most of the internal parasites.

I was actually going off of a recommendation you made to me earlier about the general cure and that's why I used it. I am happy to report that the fish is eating well again and the breathing, while slightly elevated, is what I would consider acceptable. I think it will have no issue making it to the water change tomorrow night.

For the intestinal worms, is treating the tank enough, or do I need to soak the food in a dissolved solution of the general cure. If so, do you have any details on how you do that?

 

[sandwi54]

That's good to hear caribfan.

Do not soak foods in any medicine that does not indicate to be safe for food soak, including General Cure. It is very easy to overdose when soaking food in a medication that is not meant to be used as food soak, simply because you don't know how much dosage to use. I have read many stories in which people killed their beloved fish by soaking food in prazipro. If you want to soak food in metro, you can buy Hikari's metro+ or Seachem's Metronidazole, both of which are meant to be used with food and include directions and proper dosage to use.

 

[caribfan]

Thanks for that advice, I'm a big fan of the sachem product line. Is it necessary to soak the foods to treat for internals, or will the aquarium water being treated be enough?

 

[sandwi54]

Soaking the food in metro will be more effective. However, I would try treating the water first, and if that doesn't work, then do the food treatment.