Powder Blue Treatment

[ChicagoReefMan]

Will Metronidazole have deleterious affects to the beneficial microflora of my tangs intestine. I cannot remove it and I think I will use sea monkeys in a solution with the powder and then feed the monkeys to my tang and other fish. BTW my PBT is itching himself on the rocks but has no white dots or anything.

 

[blackdak]

have you tried adding garlic oil to the food instead of going to antibiotics? Many people I know have had success of regular feedings infused with garlic. Why the antibiotics anyhow? Have you diagnosed an infection?

 

[anjhof]

Get a cleaner shrimp. I had a powder blue that had ich and he was 'serviced' by the shrimp until it went away. I also added a uv sterilizer too - which probably helped.

 

[ChicagoReefMan]

Garlic only works if you use real garlic because the chemical that treats ich is present only when the garlic is freshly cut. I have read that garlic can help prevent or in some cases it may supress the ich. A cleaner shrimp does not help with ich. It can help with other things but certainly not ich. Thanks for your responses. Are there any experts out there!

 

[Lucas9]

From what I have noticed ick only shows up when fish are stressed out, ph flactuates too fast, or some other param out of control. On my fish ick usually just goes away after a day or two.

 

[bboersma79]

I recently bought a blue throat trigger that developed ich, I fed w/garlic (the expensive bottle sold at pet stores) and it has apparently gone away, I have him in QT still but will be adding him to the display shortly.

 

[jasutton]

no metronidazole should not affect the normal flora of your tangs GI tract, that is if their flora is the same as ours. Metronidazole is mainly used for humans with Clostridium difficile that overruns the normal flora of the our gut and takes over (usually due to some other antibiotic wiping out the normal flora)...but metro shouldnt really have an effect on normal flora...but this is for humans, fish i am not sure...

 

[jasutton]

I dont think that metronidazole will work on ick. Its a parasite not a bacteria. Still metro is used for trichimonas and BV (bacteriovaginosis) and other protazoa, so it might work. I would quarentine though...as far as i know there are no studies on its efficacy for Ick.

By the way you are absolutely correct on the garlic, strong work.

 

[kimha]

About 5 months back, I introduced a Powder blue tang into my tank and the whole tank got infected with Ick. After I cured the Ick problem, some fishes still scratching themselves against the rocks and sand. They have no white spots so there may be some other types of parasites. I hate to see my fishes suffer so I bought a UV sterilizer and some cleaner shrimps. My fish are very healthy and no more scratching for many months now. I think Ick or parasite have a free swimming cycle at some point, and the UV lights really killed them off. During that time, I also saw my fishes stop by the shrimps and let them pick something off their skin. I was amazed that the fish knows to treat the shrimps as their cleaning stations. But that was over 4 months ago. I don't think there are any more parasites in the tank so the fishes don't go to their free cleaning service anymore. If you really need to get rid of all the parasites, a UV may be needed.

 

[ostrow]

Metronidazole DOES work on ick if in the right form See here:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=680918&highlight=focus+seachem+food
and
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=687775&highlight=focus+seachem+food

 

[anjhof]

Sorry for trying to help. I was only passing along experiences that have worked for me. I don't claim to be an expert, but I can tell you what worked for me. If you ask for help, maybe you should listen to advice you are given before telling people they are not qualified to help. You'll find a lot of helpful people on here who may not be marine biologists but have valuable experience and knowledge you can learn from.
I am curious why you say that cleaner shrimp definitely won't help with ich. What makes you so certain of this? Are you an expert on the matter? If not, what makes you qualified to say this? I am not trying to be rude, but if you try to apply your logic on yourself, you'll see it doesn't make sense.
Again, please keep an open mind. We are here to help.

 

[jasutton]

For humans: Unionized metronidazole is readily taken up by anaerobic organisms and cells. Its selectivity for anaerobic bacteria is a result of the ability of these organisms to reduce metronidazole to its active form intracellularly. The electron transport proteins necessary for this reaction are found only in anaerobic bacteria. Reduced metronidazole then disrupts DNA's helical structure, thereby inhibiting bacterial nucleic acid synthesis. This eventually results in bacterial cell death. Metronidazole is equally effective against dividing and nondividing cells.

I dont know if the Bioloigist in that other thread is correct on his theory of how it can kill the crypto but it sounds plausible. However in hgumans most of the active metro is being absorbed DIRECTLY by the bacteria/protazoan in the GI tract. with one caveat that makes the biologists theory plausible: BV resides outside the GI tract and its not anaerobis, its aerobic so it shouldnt be as proficient at reducing the metro to its active form and then uptaking it BUT IT DOES!! and i dont know why...and i dont know how protazoa reduce metro to its active form either...

So apparently metro works on ich, but it seems its not particularly known why?


thanks for the reading ostrow, that guy is very informative

 

[ostrow]

Yes. I can tell you that I swear by this feed regimen for crypto and fortunately have not seen a single spot on any fish since my last post in those threads. Correct, not exactly known how the metro works but the logic/hypothesis indicated seems on the mark.

The key is getting the powder to adhere to the food and the focus to my eye needs "help" as my recipe indicates.

BTW: anyone who says cleaner shrimp have no effect on crypto has never watched a cleaner shrimp in action on a tang with a mild infestation. I don't believe cleaner shrimp can "keep up" and eradicate an outbreak of visible proportions, but they certainly bring relief.