My experience with tetracycline

[JoeDiscus85]

Amazing!!!!!!! I noticed a few of my discus doing the shimmy, Scrathcing against objects, And the real proof was when my big brown was only breathing from one gill thats when i knew FLUKES!!!! So i looked aroung frantically in my drawers for somthing to take care of this, And i had some tetracycline bought a while ago just never used. So i put in my first dose last night, And have observed them for a while, At first my fish FREAKED out especially my cory cats and my java loach, The discus just seemed a little annoyed. Havent seen one fish scratch and my brown is breathing from both gills today : ) . Ill keep everyone updated!



Joe

[Merrilyn]

Tetracycline is an excellent med. It worked so well with fish diseases, that it unfortunately became common to chuck it into a tank at the first sign of fish looking a bit off. So widespread was the overuse amongst the asian breeders, that a lot of fish diseases became highly resistant. These new strains of 'super bugs' required stronger and stronger antibiotics to knock them out.

It's still an excellent medication, and deserves a place in the fish medicine box, but it does have one major drawback.

It will wipe out your bio filter along with any other bugs in your tank.

Use it strictly in a hospital tank, or be prepared to recycle your filter.

[Robdog]

I've heard conflicting info on the Bio Filter Wipe Out theory Mez. Some say it does, some say it doesn't.

Have you ever used something called Trisoprim? Now I've heard 100% that it'll knock the socks off your bio filtration.

[chorrylan]

umm tetracycline is an antibiotic. It'll kill bacteria but should have no effect on something as large as gill fluke.
If your problem really is gill fluke then you'll need something else to combat it. (the tetracycline might still be useful to combat secondary infections but is not going to resolve the original problem unless of course you diagnosis was incorrect)

[JoeDiscus85]

I have a formalin, Malachite green med for ich, Ive read you can treat flukes with formalin, What about malachite green? Ill let the antibiotics run their course and ill continue with my 1/4 water change a night until the antibiotics are gone, then ill dose with the formalin/malachite green medicine. Is this safe?



Joe

[Fat Discus]

chorrylan is right tetracycline is an antibiotic. It dosnt control flukes, its kinda used more for bacteria problems. It shouldnt effect your biological filters either. If something like "doxycycline" I think thats how you spell it. was to be used. Then you would have to change/remove your filters