Metronidazole for Ich?

[gwenvet]

I posted this in the newbie forum but WaterKeeper sent me here for more details:

I think that all my temp fluctuations stressed my fish and yesterday i noticed a small white spot or two on the blue tang. No abnormal behavior though. I'm interested in finding out more about using Metronidazole in the DT as it would be much easier to get the snails and crabs out than to QT the fish in a 20gal for 4-6 weeks! All I am finding are brief mentions to putting it in food, but as these protozoa are surface organisims, I don't see why treating the water won't be successful.

I don't mean to challenge anyone on the effectiveness of standard treatments, just trying to come up with a Tx that would be easier for me and I'm trying to use my veterinary brain to accomplish that. I have an old (1992) Tetra book on Fish Diseases and it has a doseof 250mg per 10gal for freshwater fishes and a dose of 3-6ppm for saltwater, but does not talk about using it for Cryptocaryon although it is a protozoan and should be susceptible.

Anyone have more info about DT treatments that I haven't seen?

 

[cerianthus]

I may be wrong but if my memory serves me right, use of metronidazole base Med should be avoided w/ scaless fish. Blue tang being very fine scaled fish, concern for its safety. I would rather QT sick one than to dose the main tank even though med will breakdown given enough time.
Why take a risk of having problem w/ inverts due to Med residue.
It is my understading that fluctuation of temp somehow triggerss dormant staged of protozoan. Thus have enough heaters to stablize the temp which will lessen the chance of outbreak.
Try Cu or hyposalinity treatment in QT.

 

[lesleybird]

Hi, I have a mild outbreak of ich in my tank now.... usually I use Kick Ick every other day for a month to 6 weeks and it suppresses it enough so that the fish get some immunity before it kills them. The Kick Ick is mildly effective but reef and crab/snail safe and it seems like it is in the same family as the metronidizole can't spell it. Anyway, I also ordered some metronidizole gel food from Thatfishplace.com a couple of days ago and am going to try this along with the Kick Ick as I figure it may help kill the ick as it feeds off of the fish's body while growing too. I might only feed this once a day for a week or two along with another feeding of regular food. Don't know if they will eat the medicated gel food. I may reconstitute the powder and put thawed frozen mysis in it and re-freeze before feeding. I will let you know how mine goes....let us know how your fish do.
Need to order these products stat overnight before the ick gets out of hand. Lesley

 

[jenglish]

If I remember correctly crypto is visible from the surface but is under the mucuos layer. This is what prevents cleaner shrimp and wrasses from being able to properly clean it. I'm not sure if this will effect the Metro's ability to treat it.

 

[billsreef]

At the point the ich is attached to the fish, it is under the skin. What your seeing is actually the inflammation around the parasite. This is why none of the known effective treatments work on the parasite while it's attached to the fish. Metrondiazole is also primarily active against deep tissue anaerobic flagellated protozoans, and not very effective on surface tissue aerobic protozoans such as ich, hence it's not very effective for treatment of ich.

 

[lesleybird]

I think most of us are looking for something to use in a tank with fish and inverts and even if it it is not very effective it may be better than no treatment. Don't know if the metronadizole is invert safe. Does anyone know for sure? Lesley

 

[billsreef]

So far, anything available for treatment with inverts in the tank, is about as effective as simply flipping a coin The only thing so called "reef safe" ich remedies are very effective at is separating you from your hard earned cash.

 

[cerianthus]

Metro with Inverts? Definitely no.
If I remember correctly, any med to treat Crypt on the fish is ineffective. I believe Med is only effective at certain stage of its life cycle.
One may say raise the temp to fasten the life cycle of Ick for F/W, but recently i read an article it may not be true for Crypto.
Idea of treating w/ whatever med for Crypt is based on attacking certain larvae stage provided that there are no invert. Personally, will never treat main tank w/ or w/o invert, regardless of what the bottle might claim.. Do so in Q/T.
Again, Hypo method when done properly is only way to kill this protozoans w/ simple concept of osmotic pressure (or diffusion gradient, it's been 30 years since Bio 101) while on the body in Q/T.
Also I don't think it's inflammation but it is actual parasite attached to skin.

 

[screwsloose]

from what i have gathered in my readings is that metro at low doses is safe for inverts. prazipro on the other hand is not. i did some research on api's general cure as a treatment option once and thats what i came up with.