Ichthyophthirius multifilis (Ich)/ White Spot treatment advice?

Hi Tom,

If this disease responded to treatment with metronidazole, then it was not a fungus because metronidazole does not kill fungi, so all of this makes no sense. Fungi can build up resistance to medication just as any other organism can. Flagyl is not an antibiotic, it is an anti-protozoal, antibiotics kill bacteria.

I would not repeat the dose.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks Professor.

I accepted the word of the chemist, who told me it is an antibiotic. He even refused to give it to me as he said it is a schedule 4 antibiotic and I had to go get a prescription from my vet. But never mind, he was probably not in the mood to go into technicalities and just generalised with a layman. Now that I know it is not an antibiotic, I also understand better why you said it will not affect the bacteria in the filter. I was worried about that, but never the less believed you, as Microbe Lift specifically warns not to use their product while there is antibiotics in the water.

 

The term "antibiotics" are used very vaguely for a whole group of medications which actually have nothing to do with each other. Metronidazole is an antiprotozoal drug and not antibacterial and that is why it does not influence your filter. The pharmacist was completely correct about the prescription but because this is not really a serious drug he did sell it to you.

So all is ok but you need not worry about dosing a second time.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

As an exercise in fact gathering I went to a pharmacy chain store - they will not give you Metronidazole OC .. so you will need to go to the vet to get a script - but I suspect most will want to see the fish (could be an issues since that will stress the fish even more). While at the pharmacy I asked what the generic was and the price. Generic trichazole (400mg) R8 for 20 tablets (so your driving to the vet will cost you more).

BTW it seems like this stuff is not ok for anaerobic bacteria so if you are experimenting with a DSB you might have an issue - to what degree I do not know.

Thanks for the info and direction setting Prof .. - so how do we get the snake oil banned from LFS shelves?


Later Ferdie

 

Yes Ferdie,

And this is where the fallacy comes in, with the flow rates that are normally used through filters, there are no anaerobic bacteria in any case, so just forget about this.

I agree about the generic Trichozole, this is what I use and I do not get it from the vet.

The medicines control board have difficulty in understanding a lot of plain biochemistry, so I do not know how they would react to the snake oil other than say that they do not know the stuff......

Kind regards,

Dirk