Erythromycin as a treatment for ich
- Thread starter Bnebronco
- Start date
MrTuskfish
Team RC
Erythromycin is an antibiotic. Ich is an external parasite. That would like treating body lice with penicillin; makes no sense. Ich can, occasionally, leave bacterial infections, maybe the Erythromycin was used for that. Copper, hypo, and (probably, IMO) Quinine sulfate are the only cures for ich.
MikeFisher1972
Member
hmm
hmm
Can you get more information on this like what size tank "water volum"
and what was the amount of Erythromycin was added and how?
Please and Thank you
hmm
Can you get more information on this like what size tank "water volum"
and what was the amount of Erythromycin was added and how?
Please and Thank you
I used it to treat a rather severe case of Ich on my blue tang. it was recomended by a very long term experienced reefer as a substitute for metronidozole. He uses it when his display tanks at his lfs come under attack.
DT volume 1100ltrs, Qty was recomended at 1500mg on day 1 and another 1500mg on day 3 and lets say the signs and sypmtoms of ich, were gone in about 48hrs. Now this tang was heavily covered head to tail and had lost all of the deep blue coloring.
It needs to be cruched into powder and mixed with a little salt water for ease of plaing in the tank. I placed it in the return section of my sump. The skimmer of course goes nuts.
It did return but my understanding is that qty of the dose used was not high enough to treat a severe infection and i couldnt keep my hands out of the tank with some re-aquascaping, so i believe that is what set it off again as i just didnt give him time to recover.
Yellow tangs were also affected but full recovery with no further problems
It did not affect any of the pods, snails etc and i have 2 sun corals which are still going strong. No other corals in the tank atm.
It did take out some of the algae though as my skimmer is still skimming green almost 14 days later. With regards to the algae i have read that one of the side effects is that this will happen.
Nitrate test prior to addition was 20 and 7 days from addition sat at about 20 - 25. Not great but working on getting that down.
I have also read two things about bacteria loss - firstly that it is very hard on nitrifying bacteria and the other that, as it is gram positive and the sand bed is gram negative it is acceptable to use. Possibly selective on the bacteria it takes out.
Would i have done things differently from the beginning - certainly would have as i had the qt tank but just didnt qt long enough to start
I thought about ripping my whole tank apart to catch and re qt but just didnt for some reason. Tried catching them but way too smart for my fish trap.
I posted this not to get flamed by anyone but hopefully for others to see my mistakes and as part of this thread on Erythromycin.
Please understand this is only my experience and i am not recomending anyone use this as a treatment themselves. My advice would be to do your own due diligence first.
Whether it works effectively as a treatment or not, will still be subjective.
DT volume 1100ltrs, Qty was recomended at 1500mg on day 1 and another 1500mg on day 3 and lets say the signs and sypmtoms of ich, were gone in about 48hrs. Now this tang was heavily covered head to tail and had lost all of the deep blue coloring.
It needs to be cruched into powder and mixed with a little salt water for ease of plaing in the tank. I placed it in the return section of my sump. The skimmer of course goes nuts.
It did return but my understanding is that qty of the dose used was not high enough to treat a severe infection and i couldnt keep my hands out of the tank with some re-aquascaping, so i believe that is what set it off again as i just didnt give him time to recover.
Yellow tangs were also affected but full recovery with no further problems
It did not affect any of the pods, snails etc and i have 2 sun corals which are still going strong. No other corals in the tank atm.
It did take out some of the algae though as my skimmer is still skimming green almost 14 days later. With regards to the algae i have read that one of the side effects is that this will happen.
Nitrate test prior to addition was 20 and 7 days from addition sat at about 20 - 25. Not great but working on getting that down.
I have also read two things about bacteria loss - firstly that it is very hard on nitrifying bacteria and the other that, as it is gram positive and the sand bed is gram negative it is acceptable to use. Possibly selective on the bacteria it takes out.
Would i have done things differently from the beginning - certainly would have as i had the qt tank but just didnt qt long enough to start
I thought about ripping my whole tank apart to catch and re qt but just didnt for some reason. Tried catching them but way too smart for my fish trap.
I posted this not to get flamed by anyone but hopefully for others to see my mistakes and as part of this thread on Erythromycin.
Please understand this is only my experience and i am not recomending anyone use this as a treatment themselves. My advice would be to do your own due diligence first.
Whether it works effectively as a treatment or not, will still be subjective.
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MrTuskfish
Team RC
One anecdotal account doesn't make it a fact. Ich treatment is a very strange "science" and going by what happened with one case is dangerous. If this antibiotic did work, it would be common knowledge. The real, published experts (Fenner, Goemans, Michael, et al) all agree: only copper, hypo, or quinine sulfate will consistently destroy ich. They also agree (me too, finally) that ich can sometimes be "controlled" in a reef tank. But there is no such thing as a "reef safe" ich CURE.If you have a real source, not just one person'e experience, please share it. (I wish I had a dime to every fish that was lost to ineffective ich cures.)
MrTuskfish
Team RC
Very well put. There is so much in this hobby that is still very controversial, anecdotal & subjective (with ich, especially). Everything on this forum is pretty much just someone's experience or opinion; nothing more, nothing less. IMO, anecdotal experiences like yours should always include a "disclaimer"...like you did. You may be on to something with this treatment; but without more evidence, it is just your one-time experience and you acknowledged that. Thanks for sharing it!
Jeff
Premium Member
I agree
Erythromycin is recomended as just one of the treatments for some bacterial infections. It could very well prove to also be an alternative treatment for Ich depending firstly on peoples willingness to try for themselves and most importantly, their results.
Note i say treatment - not cure.
The best cure for Ich in your tank is take all necesary precautions to not introduce it.
All successful treatments start off as just one persons experience.
Then 2, then 3, then 4 and all of a sudden it gains traction. You start to gather evidence.
That being said, would i do it again, no i wouldn't - i would just qt properly the first time.
For those that are prepared to try - good luck and post your experience.
:thumbsup:
Note i say treatment - not cure.
The best cure for Ich in your tank is take all necesary precautions to not introduce it.
All successful treatments start off as just one persons experience.
Then 2, then 3, then 4 and all of a sudden it gains traction. You start to gather evidence.
That being said, would i do it again, no i wouldn't - i would just qt properly the first time.
For those that are prepared to try - good luck and post your experience.
:thumbsup:
MrTuskfish
Team RC
Why would anyone risk all their fish on a cure with absolutely no sound evidence that it works, when proven methods are available? Let the drug companies and grad students discover the new treatments---but not on my fish.
Thanks for your input to date, however no one has asked you to as you say, risk all of your fish. Up until your last post your input has been constructive and might i say, what ones interpretation of sound evidence is compared to another persons is completely subjective and where in this thread has anyone said that this is a cure.
Also do you have anything that supports your inference that there is a high risk to all fish. I'm sure you have at least googled Erythromycin as a treatment for marine fish before making that statement, if so you would have at least found that it is just one of the recomended treatments for bacterial infections therefore we could reasonably assume must be relatively safe for marine fish. From my searches prior to use i could not find anything that said it would wipe out the fish population.
If anyone has managed to research contrary to that it would be great if you could share it.
That being said, best now left for others to determine should they choose to. As i have stated all along this is only my experience and i am not asking anyone else to agree with the outcome.
You want to cure itch, dont do what i did, dont introduce it to your tank.
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MrTuskfish
Team RC
The risk I referred to was simply that using a treatment that, in all probability doesn't work, fish don't get effective treatment. Countless fish have been lost in this hobby due to not researching and practicing effective treatments. The list of things that were reported to cure ich is endless, references on the few that do work are common and those methods used with great success.
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