Medicated food for African cichlids?
Hong-Chang Liang
I have a semi-adult blue "hap ahli" in a 55 gallon tank that
has been showing a slight bulge in the stomach, hasn't been eating as
much as before, and has clear, trailing feces. I bought some Tetra
medicated food for parasites and will be feeding the whole tank some.
On the container for the medicated food the instructions state
that I should feed the fish EXCLUSIVELY the medicated food for 7-10 days.
Is that true? Why can't I mix the medicated food with other food? Most
of my other fish are doing just fine and I'd hate to feed them just medicated
food for 7-10 days (I don't have a hospital tank either. I am using it
for keeping cichlid fry.)
If anyone has treated sick cichlids with medicated food before please
let me know what'd be effective. I'm thinking about feeding them some every
meal but mixing other foods in at the same time too.
Thanks for any advice!
Simon Doherty
Hello,
I have not used any of these products so the following is my idea of how the
medicated food works.
>Hi,
> I have a semi-adult blue "hap ahli" in a 55 gallon tank that
>has been showing a slight bulge in the stomach, hasn't been eating as
>much as before, and has clear, trailing feces. I bought some Tetra
>medicated food for parasites and will be feeding the whole tank some.
Do you really have to medicate the whole tank? I never medicate my main tank.
Since I can get a new 10 gallon tank for $10.00 I would rather setup a new tank
than medicate my main tank. But I have been very lucky. 3 dead fish in 6
years. These fish as with all others new fish (4 were purchased, Red Empress)
were placed in a holding tank to ensure their health. Three of the fish died
within two days. The other is doing well in my main tank. I have moved fish
from my main tank to medicate them.
That said
I assume that the only way to ensure that the sick fish gets an adequate amount
of medication is to feed all the fish the medicated food. Otherwise you would
have to catch the sick fish and feed it yourself. Usually sick fish do not
compete as well during feeding time. This may cause the healthy fish to eat all
the medicated food and for the sick fish to eat the non-medicated food. While
this may not harm your healthy fish it won't do the sick fish any good.
> On the container for the medicated food the instructions state
>that I should feed the fish EXCLUSIVELY the medicated food for 7-10 days.
>Is that true? Why can't I mix the medicated food with other food? Most
>of my other fish are doing just fine and I'd hate to feed them just medicated
>food for 7-10 days (I don't have a hospital tank either. I am using it
>for keeping cichlid fry.)
>
> If anyone has treated sick cichlids with medicated food before please
>let me know what'd be effective. I'm thinking about feeding them some every
>meal but mixing other foods in at the same time too.
> Thanks for any advice!
PS. I lived in Chambana (Champaigne -Urbana) for 5 years. What fish shop do
you use. Is Sailfin still around?
Good Luck.
Simon Doherty
si...@hops.wharton.upenn.edu
Stuart Hall
In article <4lgqvj$r...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, li...@aries.scs.uiuc.edu
(Hong-Chang Liang) wrote:
] On the container for the medicated food the instructions state
]that I should feed the fish EXCLUSIVELY the medicated food for 7-10 days.
I'd imagine that they tell you to do that because of several reasons.
First, you don't want your sick fish to have a choice of foods . . . what
if he doesn't like the TetraMedica? He'll just eat the non-medicated
food. Second, they might have gauged the dosage to work if it's the only
food given. Remember that that stuff is basically TetraMin with some
medicine in it. And that's the best way to give meds for internal problems,
since you don't have to worry about achieving a therapeutic concentration
in the water that may or may not cross the gill membranes.
S
Stuart
--
Stuart Hall
(stu...@onramp.net)
(sh03...@express.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu)
K.O'Neill
Is it not likely that you have a case of "Malawi bloat" and that
you should be treating with metronidazole (avail as Hex-A-Mit from
Aquarium Pharm) to reduce internal flagelette incidence. A good diet
for your fish would be: High Vegitable Content Food (Wardley Spirulina Plus
Frozen Brine shrimp
Freeze Dried Ocean Plankton(Murex)
..Just My $.02 worth
K.
Orly
In article <4m6qmh$b...@steel.interlog.com>, fis...@interlog.com says...
>
>stu...@onramp.net (Stuart Hall) wrote:
>>
>> In article <4lgqvj$r...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, li...@aries.scs.uiuc.edu
>> (Hong-Chang Liang) wrote:
>>
>> ] On the container for the medicated food the instructions state
>> ]that I should feed the fish EXCLUSIVELY the medicated food for 7-10 days.
>>
>> I'd imagine that they tell you to do that because of several reasons.
>> First, you don't want your sick fish to have a choice of foods . . . what
>> if he doesn't like the TetraMedica? He'll just eat the non-medicated
>> food. Second, they might have gauged the dosage to work if it's the only
>> food given. Remember that that stuff is basically TetraMin with some
>> medicine in it. And that's the best way to give meds for internal
problems,
>> since you don't have to worry about achieving a therapeutic concentration
>> in the water that may or may not cross the gill membranes.
>> S
>> Stuart
>>
>> --
>> Stuart Hall
>> (stu...@onramp.net)
>> (sh03...@express.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu)
>
>
>Is it not likely that you have a case of "Malawi bloat" and that
>you should be treating with metronidazole (avail as Hex-A-Mit from
>Aquarium Pharm) to reduce internal flagelette incidence.
How can you deduce that from what limited information is provided here? I
thought I caught the original post and there was no further info provided.
>A good diet
>for your fish would be: High Vegitable Content Food (Wardley Spirulina Plus
> Frozen Brine shrimp
> Freeze Dried Ocean Plankton(Murex)
>..Just My $.02 worth
More like .002, if that. That diet would kill some of my exclusively
herbivorous specimens. How can you recommend a diet with no knowledge of the
species involved? Geaz, this place is getting really polluted with trash
advice. Watch what you read folks.
Orly
or...@ti.com
David Gunter
<much snipped>
>More like .002, if that. That diet would kill some of my exclusively
>herbivorous specimens. How can you recommend a diet with no knowledge of the
>species involved? Geaz, this place is getting really polluted with trash
>advice. Watch what you read folks.
>
>Orly
>or...@ti.com
>
If I recall this thread correctly, the fish in question were mbuna, in
which case the "suggested" diet is fine (mix of veggies and
crustacians). Are there any truly "exclusively" vegitarian fish?, in 30+
years of fish keeping, I have never come across a fish that would refuse
daphnia or similar food.
Dave
--
David Gunter Email da...@cshouse.demon.co.uk
..Due to financial constraints, the light at the end of the tunnel will be
turned off until further notice ..