API GENERAL CURE AND METROPLEX

[TaiVo]

Hi everyone please help! Are API general cure and metroplex safe to mix with food to feed the fish in the DT? Will the medication affect corals and invert? I’m planning to mix them with food to feed the fish but I wonder if they will have harm my corals. And can I use both of them at the same time to mix with the food?

 

[SaltyT]

Either can be feed but don’t use both at the same time as they both contain metronidazole. Use Seachem Focus to bind the medication to the food to make it safer to use in a reef tank. I would add some carbon to your filtration too.

What condition are you trying to treat?

 

[Idoc]

yes, you can mix them with food and your corals should be fine.

Also, skip the Metro and just use the General Cure. The general cure has Metrodonizole already in it plus Praziquantel. Best to mix the GC plus food with Focus to bind it to the food. Feed 2x per day for 14-21 days.

 

[TaiVo]

yes, you can mix them with food and your corals should be fine.

Also, skip the Metro and just use the General Cure. The general cure has Metrodonizole already in it plus Praziquantel. Best to mix the GC plus food with Focus to bind it to the food. Feed 2x per day for 14-21 days.

Thank you! What’s the ratio of GC and food? Also is GC safe for corals if I dose in the water ? I’m also from ohio so go Buckeyes!!!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

The issue with medicated food is that it really should be fed at a rate based on the fish’s body mass. Mixing it into the food and then feeding an unknown amount to the fish is risky. Luckily, prazi is relatively non toxic, and metro is used at high doses, so the risk is a bit limited. I’m finishing up a paper that I’ll post here that helps estimate a better dose, but it isn’t quite ready.
Jay

I grew up in Ann Arbor, so go blue!

 

[Idoc]

Thank you! What’s the ratio of GC and food? Also is GC safe for corals if I dose in the water ? I’m also from ohio so go Buckeyes!!!

1 scoop GC, 1 scoop Focus, 1 TBSP food is the general consensus for now.

You should be fine dosing directly into the water with corals. But dosing in the water won't effect the fish internally. GO BUCKS!!

 

[Idoc]

The issue with medicated food is that it really should be fed at a rate based on the fish’s body mass. Mixing it into the food and then feeding an unknown amount to the fish is risky. Luckily, prazi is relatively non toxic, and metro is used at high doses, so the risk is a bit limited. I’m finishing up a paper that I’ll post here that helps estimate a better dose, but it isn’t quite ready.
Jay

I grew up in Ann Arbor, so go blue!

I look forward to that paper!! It only makes sense to dose by weight... we do it for humans!

I was force feeding a clown with GC and food (through a catheter) who refused to eat and was thinning out terribly. After the second dose, she died suddenly. I was very careful inserting and know their anatomy pretty well, so I don't think i caused internal damage. I really think it might have been an overdose since she did seem to perk up a bit after the first dose/feeding. I was concerned with that when i was preparing the mixture for feeding.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

That could be, but another issue with starving fish (and I may have the details wrong) is that they utilize the liver for energy. When food then becomes available to them (through force-feeding for example) the liver shuts down and they die.

Jay

 

[ReefKeeperElite]

1 scoop GC, 1 scoop Focus, 1 TBSP food is the general consensus for now.

You should be fine dosing directly into the water with corals. But dosing in the water won't effect the fish internally. GO BUCKS!!

This is what I've been doing, plus adding a little tank water, then a few drops of selcon and garlic guard. I let the mixture soak for an hour or so, then drain the liquid and rinse with tank water before serving. I'm treating hole in the head for my 6 banded angel. Does this procedure sound correct to you?

 

[Idoc]

Sounds great EXCEPT for rinsing/draining it prior to feeding. That's good practice when feeding regularly, but I would think that maybe the rinsing might be removing the bound medication.

 

[ReefKeeperElite]

Okay thanks. My thought process is that some of the juice remaining in the mixture after draining it would still have GC in it, which I would not want in the water column. I guess maybe drain off as much of the juice as possible, and skip the rinse.

 

[Dorado]

Would the general cure soaked food have an effect on cleaner shrimp or hermits if eaten?

 

[s0mthinG]

But dosing in the water won't effect the fish internally. GO BUCKS!!

That's news to me, are you speaking internally in terms of the digestive system or internally as in anything that is not the outside /scles of the fish?
If general anatomy means anything relating to fish putting it in the water would ensure that it is taken up by the fish's gills and into the bloodstream in a similar way to how our lungs would absorb an aerosolized compound like nicotine from cigarettes/vaporizera or medications used in inhalers.

Dosing the water is a guaranteed way to ensure all receive the same amount of medication, or even any at all if the fish is unwilling to eat or is being outcompeted by its coinhabitants.

 

[s0mthinG]

Would the general cure soaked food have an effect on cleaner shrimp or hermits if eaten?

I had a cleaner shrimp eat some of my metro+focus food while I was treating intestinal parasites in my clownfish and he was perfectly fine

 

[s0mthinG]

Okay thanks. My thought process is that some of the juice remaining in the mixture after draining it would still have GC in it, which I would not want in the water column. I guess maybe drain off as much of the juice as possible, and skip the rinse.

Here's how I did it and when I did some research found that this was the common way people took care of this.

1. Thaw the food
2. Rinse and drain is much of the water out of the thawed food as you can
3. In a separate container (the one the food will be stored in, you can store the thawed + medicated food for ~1wk while feeding) add the desired amount of medication and a few ml of either tank or RO water (only enough to mostly disolve the meds and make a mush)
4. then add the rinsed food to the medicine mixture and then sure even coating (some sources say to try to grind/blend this mixture into a mush or pulp, I however did not and only coated the outside of the mysis I used)
5. Once the mixture is coated, add the desired amount of focus to bind the mixture to the food and mix again like in step 4.

Keep that mixer refrigerated for as long as you need it ensuring to mix fresh food roughly once a week/as you run out.

This worked for me and cured internal parasites in my two clownfish in around 2 weeks.

 

[s0mthinG]

Also can't HitH be treated purely externally as the 'holes' are open lesions and exposed directly to the water?

 

[Idoc]

That's news to me, are you speaking internally in terms of the digestive system or internally as in anything that is not the outside /scles of the fish?
If general anatomy means anything relating to fish putting it in the water would ensure that it is taken up by the fish's gills and into the bloodstream in a similar way to how our lungs would absorb an aerosolized compound like nicotine from cigarettes/vaporizera or medications used in inhalers.

Dosing the water is a guaranteed way to ensure all receive the same amount of medication, or even any at all if the fish is unwilling to eat or is being outcompeted by its coinhabitants.

I believe the thought process on this has changed more recently and it is suspected that dosing the water column will still help some with internal issues. It does only make sense that some meds in the water column would be absorbed into the blood stream through the gills. But I don't think it's known how much of a concentration is absorbed...or how much would need to be added to the water column to obtain the correct absorption. Jay Hemdal has discussed some of this in some of his posts.