Quarantine Tank and MelaFix advise

[mling]

I have never had a quarantine tank, QT, for treating diseases before now. I need some general QT advise.

I have a Lion in a 10 Gal QT for treatment of Cloudy Eye with Melafix. It has been there for 4 days and the eyes are a lot clearer. However it is still not as active as before and has only eaten 1 krill. While this may be normal for most Lion it is not for this one since it was always begging for food before this.

The instructions for Melafix says to continue dosing for 7 days with NO water change. With no skimmer on the QT, is this not too much medication for a fish ? Also, since there is no skimmer what do you do about water quality in the QT ?

How long do you leave a fish is QT before water changes ? Do you need to have a power head running ? I have 3 LF in the tank and turn the power head on now and then.

 

[kevin2000]

My 02

Since the fish is in QT .. why not use a legit antibiotic vs Melafix which is a herbal remediy that many would argue is almost worthless. When using an antibiotic the std treatment period is usually about a week.

 

[Percula9]

Check NH3 levels in the Qt if there is no bio filter.

 

[reeferaddiction]

i curently have fish in qt and was using melafix for a bacterial infection with little improvement and just switched to real medications. as for water quality you must do daily water changes if no significant biofiltration is in place but you must dose the new water with the medication. i am not sure about melafix but some medications disipate in time hence the reason to dose every few days, so you are not increasing the amount of medicine each time you dose you are just sustaining the proper amount

 

[Spracklcat]

Yes--agreed with all above. Without anything to act as a biological filter, water changes are the way to go--frequent and large.

As for his appetite, try adding some Vitamin B12 to the water an hour or so before feeding--it is an appetite stimulant in fish.

 

[mling]

So what "real" medication is recommended ?

Thanks for all the suggestions.