Salty150
New member
I guess my question was - if Formalin treats more diseases than PP - why isn't it used more than PP?
PP seems to be the "go to" drug/med.
New Life Spectrum Ick Shield
- Thread starter jschultzbass
- Start date
I guess my question was - if Formalin treats more diseases than PP - why isn't it used more than PP?
PP seems to be the "go to" drug/med.
i dont know if it is but i prefer prazipro/prazinquantel as it is easier on the fish and not a carcinogen. if there are things outside of the scope of prazipro/praziquintel's abilities, there are other treatment options available.
Salty150
New member
Yeah... I am just trying to find the least amount of meds/drugs to do the trick...
I wish ParaGuard was more effective...
Deinonych
New member
What are you treating for?
Salty150
New member
I am trying to find the "go to" med or combo for QTing fish after purchasing them...
It seems as though some use one thing, some use another, some use another - as is to be expected.
I am just trying to find one or two (or whatever) that are the "best"...
Right now, I put the fish immediately into a hypo QT - then get them eating...
Then after they are eating - I am thinking of maybe using Formalin (not as a bath - but as a few days long med at the recommended dose).
The using carbon to get rid of the Formalin - and using another med? Maybe ParaGuard??
Deinonych
New member
Personally, I adopt the "do no harm" approach and use meds only when necessary. The only exception to this is Prazipro, as flukes can often go unnoticed and it's one of the gentlest meds at our disposal. My QT protocol is as follows (I purchase all my livestock online):
1. Give the new acquisition a few days to acclimate and get into a regular schedule (longer if necessary, depending on species)
2. Two rounds of Prazipro, 7 days apart
3. TTM
4. A couple weeks of observation
5. Transfer to DT
Some folks do a Formalin dip prior to placing in QT. I forego this since all my livestock is procured online and they are already stressed enough from shipping. I also keep the following meds on hand in case something pops up, but I never treat with these prophylatically:
1. Formalin (Brooklynella, Uronema)
2. Chloroquine Phosphate (Amyloodinium)
3. Kanamycin, Nitrofurazone (bacterial)
I also have a bottle of ParaGuard on hand that I may try sometime. Might work well as a dip. It's supposed to work well against Brook, but I've never tried it.
1. Give the new acquisition a few days to acclimate and get into a regular schedule (longer if necessary, depending on species)
2. Two rounds of Prazipro, 7 days apart
3. TTM
4. A couple weeks of observation
5. Transfer to DT
Some folks do a Formalin dip prior to placing in QT. I forego this since all my livestock is procured online and they are already stressed enough from shipping. I also keep the following meds on hand in case something pops up, but I never treat with these prophylatically:
1. Formalin (Brooklynella, Uronema)
2. Chloroquine Phosphate (Amyloodinium)
3. Kanamycin, Nitrofurazone (bacterial)
I also have a bottle of ParaGuard on hand that I may try sometime. Might work well as a dip. It's supposed to work well against Brook, but I've never tried it.
Spar
New member
+1
I do this exact same QT protocol, except I jump straight into TTM.
Re: Meds, I have bought several dozen fish in my day and have only had one instance of something other than ich. Sadly that fish died (from velvet) during QT, but this one fish made up maybe 2% of all my fish purchases. I merely don't see any advantage of risking the 98% to save the 2% by using meds on all incoming fish (other than Prazi). If one of the 98% were to die from undue stress from meds that offsets what I am working for.
I dont have formalin but have been using ParaGuard as a replacement for flukes at the moment. I've had to dip my clownfish twice 2 days apart because Prazipro is so slow. The fish is still alive but just likes sitting on the bottom of the tank, occasionally swims a bit but its pretty uncoordinated. Not eating still
. Wish there was something else I could do for the fish.I dosed my qt tank yesterday due to some tangs having ich. Woke up this morning and realized that the qt tank was getting sunlight from the window. I covered up the qt tank to prevent sunlight from hitting it. I think the tank was exposed to sunlight for 2 hours. Do you guys think that was enough time for the UV from the sunlight to degrade the CP?
I'm using the NLS Ick Shield powder.
I'm using the NLS Ick Shield powder.
Dmorty217
Saltwater Addict
There have been tests done to prove that UV light won't break down CP. You don't have anything to worry about. Test was done by someone who worked at a aquarium that metal halides were used and CP was checked by (whatever the name of the instrument is) and the CP levels were the same
Thanks Dmorty!
Its been one day and I already see less ich on my purple tang. Prior to treating them, the purple was the most affected. He looked like someone rolled him in salt.
Now I'm battling ammonia. I'm using a 40gal tank and added a large piece of live tonga rock from my display tank that was cycled. I just dosed Prime and added a bottle of Bio-spira. Any thoughts on this?
Dmorty217
Saltwater Addict
Yes
Hi Dmorty,
You seem to really have it down when it comes to the NLS powder. I just got some because my Achillies started showing ich, so I decided to treat my whole DT since I have only a couple corals atm.
I have a few questions if you dont mind. Just for claritys sake.
1. What would your recommended dose be per gallon?
2. Cleaner Shrimps and Hermits should survive?
3. What length do you recommend dosing for, keeping in mind my tank is currently infected.
4. UV will not break down the medication, so I can leave my lights on as normal? t5s and radions.
5. Best way of removing medication from water/best way to know its all gone?
6. You mentioned in an earlier post that you had trouble treating tanks with sand. I have crushed aragonite on the bottom of my DT, is that going to be an issue? Is it any type of substrate that affects the treatment or only sand?
Thanks.
jmm
New member
I'm not Dmorty but I'll tell you some of the things I observed.
I decided to treat the display tank, too, because the fish was too hard to catch. I had fish, two kinds of cleaner shrimp, hermits and snails. There were too many snails to remove, all down in the sand and behind rocks so I counted them as a loss and depended on the hermits to remove them when they die. I have sand. I dosed as per the directions.
At first the snails just came out of the sand and even out of the water. I didn't have anywhere to put them so I left them in there. They died by the third day. The hermits and cleaner shrimp acted normally and continued to come to food. The fish cleared up. Right before the 3 weeks was up, the cleaner shrimp started staying in the same place and waving around. They didn't come after food (pellets). The hermits were unaffected. I reintroduced GFO, GAC, and protein skimming. I did a 1/3 water change one day and another 1/3 two days later. Two of the cleaner shrimp died, three got somewhat better and one remained dazed.
After a little more than a week, the fish got spots again. Dmorty told me the treatment doesn't necessarily cleanse the tank since the powder doesn't kill all life stages of the parasite. After giving the fish a few days of trying to kick the ich, I decided to try again. I know, lazy right? I figured that maybe the life stages would all cycle and I would get them this time. I removed the dazed cleaner shrimp but the three that got somewhat better went into deep hiding. I dosed twenty percent higher than the original dose and decided four weeks instead of three might be better. The safety of this was approved by the directions.
The three shrimp died almost immediately. The one dazed one I removed recovered completely in another tank. The fish cleared up immediately. I went five weeks and didn't do water changes but did start up carbon, skimming and GFO. After a little more than a week the spots came back on the fish.
The powder kills the algae very soon after you put it in. You know it's gone when the algae comes back, which it does soon after the four week mark if you skim and carbon filter.
That's why Dmorty and others recommend treating in a hospital tank. The stuff definitely works on fish but it doesn't cure the tank. At least, that's what I've found.
I decided to treat the display tank, too, because the fish was too hard to catch. I had fish, two kinds of cleaner shrimp, hermits and snails. There were too many snails to remove, all down in the sand and behind rocks so I counted them as a loss and depended on the hermits to remove them when they die. I have sand. I dosed as per the directions.
At first the snails just came out of the sand and even out of the water. I didn't have anywhere to put them so I left them in there. They died by the third day. The hermits and cleaner shrimp acted normally and continued to come to food. The fish cleared up. Right before the 3 weeks was up, the cleaner shrimp started staying in the same place and waving around. They didn't come after food (pellets). The hermits were unaffected. I reintroduced GFO, GAC, and protein skimming. I did a 1/3 water change one day and another 1/3 two days later. Two of the cleaner shrimp died, three got somewhat better and one remained dazed.
After a little more than a week, the fish got spots again. Dmorty told me the treatment doesn't necessarily cleanse the tank since the powder doesn't kill all life stages of the parasite. After giving the fish a few days of trying to kick the ich, I decided to try again. I know, lazy right? I figured that maybe the life stages would all cycle and I would get them this time. I removed the dazed cleaner shrimp but the three that got somewhat better went into deep hiding. I dosed twenty percent higher than the original dose and decided four weeks instead of three might be better. The safety of this was approved by the directions.
The three shrimp died almost immediately. The one dazed one I removed recovered completely in another tank. The fish cleared up immediately. I went five weeks and didn't do water changes but did start up carbon, skimming and GFO. After a little more than a week the spots came back on the fish.
The powder kills the algae very soon after you put it in. You know it's gone when the algae comes back, which it does soon after the four week mark if you skim and carbon filter.
That's why Dmorty and others recommend treating in a hospital tank. The stuff definitely works on fish but it doesn't cure the tank. At least, that's what I've found.
I also treated my display tank, but my experience has been different then yours. It has been a month and I have yet to see any Ich on the fish. I would do water changes every 3-4 days and would of course add CP each time. Maybe this helped in keeping the dosage up?
As for inverts, I took out all of my snails, but left the hermits and my Fire Shrimp pair. The hermits seemed to be fine, but I lost both of my Fire Shrimp within a day of each other. I was pretty bummed as they spawned the night before I started treatment.
jmm
New member
How big were your water changes and how far into treatment did you start them?
